Accounting information and managerial work
Despite calls to link management accounting more closely to management (Jonsson, 1998),
much is still to be learned about the role of accounting information in managerial work.
This lack of progress stems partly from a failure to incorporate in research efforts the findings
regarding the nature of managerial work, as well as inadequate attention devoted to
the detailed practices through which accounting information is actually used by managers
in their work. In this paper I draw on prior research to develop a series of propositions
focused on three primary insights into how and why managers use accounting information
in their work. First, managers primarily use accounting information to develop knowledge
of their work environment rather than as an input into specific decision-making scenarios.
In this role, accounting information can help managers to develop knowledge to prepare
for unknown future decisions and activities. Second, as accounting information is just
one part of the wider information set that managers use to perform their work, it is imperative
to consider its strengths and weaknesses not in isolation but relative to other sources
of information at a manager’s disposal. Third, as managers interact with information and
other managers utilising primarily verbal forms of communication, it is through talk rather
than through written reports that accounting information becomes implicated in managerial
work. These insights have important implications for how managers use accounting
information, and, in particular, require reconsideration of the types accounting information
that managers find, or could find, helpful. The paper also considers how existing experimental
and field-based methods could fruitfully be adapted to focus on the detailed activities
through which managers engage with accounting information.