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This thesis aims to empirically investigate the use of management controls in relation to sustainable development within an established manufacturing organisation in Thailand. Situated within the conflicts between formal motivators (e.g., performance measurement and reward systems) which call for economic rationalism and an informally cognitive responsibility for socio-ecological awareness and commitment (Ball and Milne, 2005; Milne, 1996), the existence of formal and informal management controls to support the sustainable development belief and their interplays are examined. An inductive research approach with Laughlin's (1991) organisational change framework is drawn upon in the analysis of a single case study. The empirical evidence is collected through semi-structured interviews, non-participant observations and document analysis to investigate the organisation's sustainability discourse. This study makes important contributions to the extant social and environmental accounting literature, especially concerning management controls. Little research directs towards how organisations integrate their management controls with the sustainable development concept (Lueg and Radlach, 2016) due to its subjective and disputable nature (Ball and Milne, 2005; Gray, 2010; Milne, 1996). This research goes further to unveil the change journey in quantifiable and religious-based management controls within a Thai manufacturing organisation that encountered complex sustainability challenges. Furthermore, the sustainability concept has been integrated into corporate strategies, organisational culture and key capabilities for value-added activities and innovation. The internal and external disturbances were managed with proper caution and safeguards. The observed formal and informal management controls worked interdependently in line with the organisation's core values (i.e., interpretive schemes - Laughlin, 1991). These control tools are shown to be built on "measure what can be managed" or achievable-based outcomes with support from multiple specialist work groups.

This thesis explored the dynamics of cost accounting systems (CAS). It focused on particular situations in which CAS can become institutionalised, embodying settled patterns of action and thought common to an organisation (Burns & Scapens, 2000). In such context, it is argued that the greater the degree of institutionalisation of CAS, the more difficult they are to change, and vice versa. This thesis has investigated the conditions and processes through which CAS can change and/or persist (i.e., remain relatively unchanged) through time. Exploring when, how and why institutional change and/or resistance may occur in CAS, is the specific motivation of this thesis. The following investigates CAS at a large oil refining organisation operating in Libya (RefCo). RefCo was undertaken as an interpretive case study, involving data collected through interviews, archives, internal company documentation and general (formal and informal) observations. The CAS in RefCo was subject to two change initiatives in a relatively short space of time. The first source of change was a requirement of its parent company to shift from a traditional production-orientation to a more commercial-orientation. With minimal resistance, the highly institutionalised CAS of RefCo evolved to become much more geared towards commercial decision-making. The second source of change originated in the recommendations of an external consulting organisation, who recommended that RefCo changed its CAS to take on more ‘best-practice’ principles, but also as part of a wider initiative of implementing Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs). However, this particular change initiative faced significant resistance. Analysis of the case was informed by institutional theory using, in particular, the concepts of deinstitutionalisation (Oliver, 1992), institutionalisation (Burns & Scapens, 2000), and politics and power mobilisation (Hardy, 1996). In contrast to the more conventional view that institutionalised practices (e.g., CAS in RefCo.) are difficult to change, this thesis has shown how such practices can be destabilised and changed through the configuration of a complex and dynamic process of costing system change. It suggests an institutional interdependence that underpins the interrelation between various components of the organisational system, and exemplifies an intertwining between CAS and operation control. While CAS change processes were shaped by ongoing changes in operation control, the outcomes of the former provided an institutional basis from which to make sense of the operational activities (Scapens, 1994). This interdependence helps sustain day-to-day organisational life in RefCo and contributes to our understanding of both change (processes) and resistance in relation to institutionalised practices. Moreover, we observed that a great deal of such change and/or resistance could be understood and explained in terms of politics and power mobilisation.