1This paper contributes to the role of management accountants and how their rolediffers from popular culture stereotype of being boring and dull. It outlinesthe external business partner role that management accountants can provide anddo provide in the popular culture setting of soccer in France. The link betweensoccer and popular culture in France can show how the stereotype can be changedand how they can impact in future views of the profession.
2This paper contributes to how Performance Measurement Systems(PMS) can be usedin conditions of “institutional complexity” where competing demands and logicsare determining overall performance. This locus is undoubtedly presents inmodern day football which is examined more specifically in a Swedish footballorganization context. It explores the trade-off between excellence in sport whichcould be associated with buying the best soccer players and financial stability. Is the problem/puzzle worth solving?1The problem is critical because most basic accounting skills are being replacedby new ERP systems. The profession of management accounting could fall in theladder in public perception as their so call perceived bookkeeping tasks can becompleted by enterprise systems. The paper examines how the stereotype is welloff the mark and how really management accountants engage in a wide range ofactivities beyond bookkeeping and other menial tasks most importantly being engagingwith external “business partners”. 2 Theproblem is worth solving because most organisation face for example budgeting constraintswhere competing logics are found.
In this example you have competing businesslogic, governance logic and professional logic. The paper examines a soccerorganisation but realistically it can be applied to any organisation across theboard. This makes the puzzle of how comprises are designed and on what basis itis made very applicable for every organisation. Does it addup? Claims and Evidence supporting thoseclaims1The claims are supported by the evidence which clearly indicate FCB managementaccountants engaged in roles as internal/external business partners.
Theevidence showed that they engaged in internal business partners roles indeciding on players’ salaries and bonuses and even presenting the minimumplayers bonus amounts to the president of the club for discussion. They also played an external role by engagingwith the requests of the DNCG (Direction National du Contrôle de Gestion) whoset specific accounting and finance rules for French football. DNCG haveopposite views regarding the funding and financing with the club in questionwhere the management accountants “strive for greater entrepreneurial freedomfor the club’s financial backer”. This came to light especially when bothparties argued about the possible worse case scenario that the DNCG hadrequested. Their views varied between whether the worst-case scenario meantrelegation from the division or just avoiding which could result in the clubfinancially dependent president would have to commit 20 million per year tokeep the club afloat versus just avoiding that expense. Overall the evidence does add up, butit only focused on two management accountants while trying to judge the roll ofmanagement in different organisations which does seem quite a stretch.
The lackof different organisations and countries could further compare the role ofbusiness partners and how it might change in different countries depending onfactors like culture and industry complexity etc. 2All the claims are gathered and supported through the interviewees with FClub. Thethree critical performance metrics for top management at FClub where: 1 LeagueTable (Sports Related) 2 Financial Result (business related) 3 the amount ofequity in the balance sheet (business related). The evidence clearly adds upwith shows that PMS is a metric for management to review at each meeting integratingperformance measure and “accounting talk” Researchdesign1Involved examining a professional soccer club in France Ligue 2 for a yearlongperiod starting in February 2012.
The club was like a public limited companywith a wealthy business as their majority shareholder and whom the club werecompletely financially dependent. This ownership style places the potential forconflict with the regulatory body over financial stability and self-sufficiencyfor the club in the future. The research design mainly focused on the two-manaccountants at the club. Firstly, it used observation of the activities andinteractions with stakeholders and conducted five formal interviews ranging from45 minutes to 2 hours and 15 minutes with the man accountants. Also, theyconducted three interviews with the football governing body including the chiefman accountant of the FFF, a finance director and third with a senior auditorof the DNCG. The research design provided a solidgrounding but in my own opinion the practices in FBC should have been comparedto another professional soccer team in France that did not solely rely onfunding by the director. This could potentially affect the role a management couldhave within the club and the different relationship with the DNCG. 2 Thisincludes creating different hypothetical situations in which FClub might finditself.
The five possible outcomes varied depending on league position,financial stability and threat of relegation. The author summarised all situationsinto extensive table all dealing with different headings under distance from performance measure, relationship between the institutionallogics and compromising behaviour.An example of this is situation five where the club is placed 4th or5th in the league. FClub is close to its performance measure but thesports and business logics are conflicting with the sports logic beingprioritized. This is partly due to the external pressures from fans where emotionsare running high with the possibility of winning the league. Conclusions:1 Thepaper provides meaningful contributions on previous literature and extendsfurther to show through empowerment with the necessary legitimacy thatmanagement accountants role can be extended externally.
It discusses thecritical competences of management accountants to challenge the institutionaldomination of the regulatory body. These conclusions are meaningful to industryleaders in general and other agencies who recognise through emancipating roles,that the profession skills can be extended externally against regulatory bodies.This results in the profession reputation of the management accountant beingenhanced and allows organisations to really utilise the external decision-makingcapabilities. This difference encourages managers to gently spur its managementaccountants to deliver superior performance without any additional costs.
2 Theconclusions are specifically meaningful to the field of football clubs but alsomore broadly to most organisations who face institutional complexity across theboard. The conclusions expand institutional logics literature where the author findingsput forward the idea of that the relationship between logics are situationspecific. This was highlighted with the different league positions, where the sportsand business logics where either adverse or appropriate.
Additionally, the author deals with the idea ofthe zone of indifference where with non-linearity in achievement benefitshelped to explain the compromises reached in certain situations. These findingswere displayed where large gains or losses were anticipated where highlyemotional decisions were made as a result. The authors also conclude that furtherresearch needs to examine specific decision-making situations for institutionallogics and the role of emotions related to accounting. These where their mainfindings and they are encouraging future research into the area.
Comparison or synthesisSimilarities:- Both papersexamine football clubs and their day to day operations. Both clubs had toconform with governing bodies with the French club being DNCG and the SwedishFootball Association. Each governing body was trying to safeguard the financialstability of the clubs. – The prevalenttheme common in each paper is the relationship between logics and situation-specificevents. This is clearly seen in the Swedish club as mentioned before but also theFrench club where final league position is proportionate to the amount oftelevision revenue the club receives.
– The pair ofresearch papers both encourage and need further research to build on theirfindings. E.G.
how management accountants impact prevailing culture with theirday to day decisions. Differences:- The criticaldifference is the ownership structure where the French club was privately ownedby a wealthy investor while the Swedish club is control remains with itsmembers to safeguard against potential investors. This affected the culture inthe clubs where the Swedish club business related PMS amounted for two out ofthe three measures showing the importance of financial stability. Meanwhile theFrench club were against DNCG measures and thrived for more financial andentrepreneurial independence to get promoted and to flex the owners financialmuscle. – Janin focuses onthe role of management accountants while the other paper focuses on PMS and howcompromises come about. Both have different research focuses within the similarindustry.
