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This paper explores how a country's constitutionally imposed democracy in an academic performance evaluation system was designed and practiced. Building upon agonistic democracy and deliberative democracy perspectives, a qualitative inductive case study in a Vietnamese public university involved 52 interviews, direct observations, and the analysis of archival documents. The findings revealed three dimensions of democracy in the university's performance evaluation system, namely, democratic context, democratic discourse, and democratic outcomes. The university enforced democracy in its performance evaluation system for academics in line with the country's constitutional obligation. In such an explicit democratic context, there happened democratic discourse (debating academics' performance in public forums) and implicit discourse (informal social interactions). The outcome of this democracy at the practice level resulted from temporary consensus supported by shared cultural values within the country's socio‐political context with an understanding that it will change as with any change in the macro or micro contexts. These findings contribute to the literature by providing insights into how individuals pursue democracy in an accounting tool legally built to promote democracy through their multiple voices and collective wisdom. Thus, democratizing accounting technologies and processes, such as an academic performance evaluation system, can effectively promote democracy in multi‐cultural workplaces across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how power exercised at the individual level within existing power relations in a university influences its enabling and coercive budgeting forms. A qualitative case study in a Sri Lankan university involved interviews and document analysis. Findings demonstrate the dominance of coercive controls over enabling controls in the university due to the power and influence of dominant individuals stemming from ongoing struggles among those pursuing diverse interests and strategic actions. We contribute to the literature by demonstrating how power is mobilised by actors and its impact on the variations of the enabling and coercive budgetary forms and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the limited empirical enquiries into the role of accounting in affecting medical professionals' financial accountability perceptions and related outcomes and performance. It examines the associations among formal and informal feedback processes, managers' financial accountability, work attitudes, and performance. Results of our survey to a sample of 115 senior medical managers in an Italian hospital reveal that the association between performance feedback sources and managerial performance depends on managers' felt accountability and commitment. Further, we find that commitment bridges the link between accountability and managerial performance. Our findings provide two useful insights for healthcare management. First, healthcare managers should improve the technical features of the formal performance feedback practices to update medical managers on their goals in a timely and useful manner. Second, healthcare managers should encourage unplanned, spontaneous, and voluntary social interactions to enhance the positive effects of informal feedback. To sum up, our research adds to the limited knowledge of the accountability and performance literature using data from the actual setting and subjects of concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how accounting systems are disseminated in different ways as organisations seek to use accounting information to manage social services across organisational boundaries. Drawing upon qualitative field research within a New Zealand community‐care provider and using the literature on bounded management and accounting visibility, our findings reveal that the government's increasing screening and monitoring of social support services create an extra burden on carers and families. We reflect on how internal accounting practices only capture the visible costs endured by government‐funded programmes, ignoring a significant part of disability care costs incurred by family members and other carers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine how employees learn from a performance measurement system. Employing the social construction of reality theory, we analyse how actors constructed knowledge in their specific setting. Qualitative research within a local government entity involved interviews, observation of meetings and examination of archival records. We find that the process of individual learning from a performance measurement system is based around aligning varying episodic experiences of individuals at differing levels. The outcome of these findings is that learning by individuals is a socio‐technical process in which the use of performance measures is embedded in everyday thinking of the social world examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite considerable progress in understanding the adoption and practice of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) as a performance management tool in government organisations, how a well‐designed BSC can become a sustainable organisational practice remains under explored and of central importance. Through a qualitative field study carried out within a government agency (Alpha), this paper demonstrates that Alpha's senior management implemented a BSC framework because they believed it would benefit the agency to realise its broader organisational and socio‐economic goals, namely sustainable organisational efficiency and social status. We conclude that an organisation's performance management systems can travel across internal organisational boundaries over time and could be assimilated by organisational actors to become a sustained internal control mechanism in a complex socio‐political setting. This paper traces the implementation and adaptation of the balanced scorecard (BSC) by a government agency (Alpha) from its introduction by the company's first CEO through to recent times. It offers an understanding of how the BSC has changed over time in improving organisational system efficiency and effectiveness. This study will add to the body of knowledge for the public sector by providing an example of successful BSC adoption and the functionality and sustainability of the model in public sector entities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of accounting in the strategy re‐creation of a university. Drawing on Donald MacKenzie's theoretical notion of performative engines, our field study of an Australian university reveals how accounting, through various calculative practices, fuelled change and steered people into strategic action, leading to the formation of a new strategic plan. We contribute to the existing accounting and higher education literature on university strategising by illustrating how accounting, when convincing and accepted by decision‐makers, can function as an engine for the transformation and financialisation of universities' strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine business continuity in the context of fraud and accounting for an organisation as a going concern. The issues addressed are timely and focus on two points. First, fraudulent activities in business are increasing worldwide with related costs reaching trillions of US dollars. Second, the conventional accounting concept of a going concern that typically signifies business continuity is arguably formed on a static view of business. As such, this view does not help mitigate opportunities for fraudulent statements of account.We contribute to the accounting literature by emphasising the dynamic nature of business and in doing so extend the discussion on Type 1 and Type 2 going concern errors. In that context we provide evidence of a possible Type 3 going concern error in an organisation's financial reporting. Drawing on an international fraud case involving an Indian company, Satyam, we illustrate the adaptive behaviour of resilient business organisations. The findings of our study show that even in the face of fraud dynamic, adaptive organisations can achieve business continuity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper complements prior studies on the public accounts committees (PACs) by considering the notions of 'agency' and 'structure' of institutional theory in tandem in understanding the changes in structures and activities of the PAC of a less-developed democratic country - Bangladesh. While prior studies examined 'external' institutional pressures on the development and operation of the PAC in various settings, the role of internal and external institutional agents in this context has not been their primary focus. Our empirical evidence from a qualitative field study indicates that over the past two decades, Bangladesh's PAC underwent significant changes to its internal governance structures and administrative processes. While these changes were indirectly driven by pressures from international donor agencies, PAC members and the national audit office played a key role as institutional agents in initiating and institutionalising the changes in PAC governance and operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study on the rise and use of balanced scorecard (BSC) performance measurement system in government departments in Australia. The study used a mail-out questionnaire survey to gather empirical data on the use of BSC implementation, participants' profiles and BSC systems benefits. Moreover, the government's managing or working for outcomes framework plays an important role to shape the performance measurement practices among public sector agencies.

This article reports on a study of the operation of management control systems in a large nationalized jute mill of Bangladesh. The study seeks to describe how 'control' operated in practice and to explain why the systems of control worked in these ways. Investigations revealed a number of significant factors. First, the organization operated in both competitive and regulated environments; it had little authority over its operational activities and, head office and the sponsoring ministry were prominent in organizational planning and control. Second, the accounting system in the mill was mainly a response to external legitimacy (e.g. stewardship and tax matters). Third, although budgeting was perceived as part of the formal structure of control, it was not a dominant mode of control in the organization; the budgeting system was created to comply with head office and state requirements. Fourthly, the mill managers used a variety of social/informal control and mechanisms to cope with the complexity and uncertainty around the mill's operations. This study reinforces the conclusions of other research claiming that the wider social, economic, political and institutional contexts govern the ways management control operates in an organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]