155-184. Towards a more comprehensive understanding of the roles of management accountants, Exploring management accountants role conflicts and ambiguities and how they cope with them, Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management. The results of this review are of high practical relevance for daily interactions in companies. According to Jrvinen (2009), the identity of MAs in organizations is associated with their image and perceived role change. 213-255. This is very helpful, thank you and may you be increased, Basic Managerial Accounting Formulas & Equations for Accountants. 5, pp. Along their self-declared aims and interests, the vast majority of the journals (19) are accounting journals. It is concerned with the presentation of data to predict inconsistencies in finances that help managers make important decisions. Notwithstanding the influences of contingency factors, it is remarkable that papers concerning identity emphasize that MAs present in their statements a very coherent and homogeneous discourse about their occupation, values and general orientation (Ahrens and Chapman, 2000; Goretzki and Messner, 2019; Morales, 2019). (2013) describe in their case study that for the reconstruction of identity, the link with an institutional environment is necessary. concerning the impacts on interaction styles of MAs or their orientation toward the challenge of transforming data to knowledge (Bhimani and Willcocks, 2014). 73-105. To identify relevant literature, we conducted a keyword search within seven databases (EBSCO, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Springer Link, Web of Science and Wiley Online Library). Ashforth, B.E. 4. Conclusion A management accountant's responsibilities can be a variety of things, depending on the company you work for, the . 99-142. 228-244. Nonetheless, these consequences have to be considered carefully, as an increased focus on cost reductions in critical financial situations also implies the risk of negative views on MAs (Endenich, 2014). *Hartmann, F.G.H. 2, pp. Our literature sample displays that business orientation requires changes in competencies, and thus MAs sometimes perceive all the requested competencies as incompatible. Managerial accounting (also known as cost accounting or management accounting) is a branch of accounting that is concerned with the identification, measurement, analysis, and interpretation of accounting information so that it can be used to help managers make informed operational decisions. 16 No. *Goretzki, L., Strauss, E. and Weber, J. Thus, members of professional groups may identify stronger with their workgroup than with similar professional groups. This might result in a nested identity, meaning that MAs identify more with their colleagues onsite than with their profession in the organization (Granlund and Lukka, 1998; Horton and de Araujo Wanderley, 2018; Vaivio, 2004). (2013), Role Theory: Expectations, Identities, and Behaviors, Academic Press, New York, NY. While identity describes how professionals define themselves, image illustrates how professionals suppose that other people define them. 63 No. 11 No. Furthermore, the concept can be defined at an individual, collective or relational level. 299-321. 1-40. Section 3 explains the methodology, followed by characteristics of the reviewed articles in Section 4. (2008), Enterprise resource planning and a contest to limit the role of management accountants: a strong structuration perspective, Accounting Forum, Vol. Management accounting research on farms: what is known and what needs knowing? Identity is linked with image and perceived role changes; furthermore, the image of MAs within the organization influences their identification with the organization and profession. Brewer, M.B. *Lambert, C. and Pezet, E. (2011), The making of the management accountant becoming the producer of truthful knowledge, accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 38, pp. *Goretzki, L. and Messner, M. (2019), Backstage and frontstage interactions in management accountants' identity work, Accounting Organizations and Society, Vol. However, they clearly state that the current competence profiles of MAs do not comply with the latest requirements concerning business analytics competencies. and Scapens, R.W. More importantly, making a decision without all relevant information can become a large gamble that can bear fruits or burn the entire tree to the ground. Article. 33 Nos 7/8, pp. and Burke, P.J. Particularly in change situations, identities of MAs are to be continuously reformed (Ahrens and Chapman, 2000; Alvesson and Willmott, 2002; Giddens, 1991; Jrvinen, 2009). Social competencies are gaining significance, as MAs depend on functioning networks to communicate their information and to convey their ideas. Likewise, Heinzelmann (2018) found that the identities of MAs can be devaluated because of relying too strongly on a new IT system, thus limiting their professional judgment, the choice of tools for analyses and their business insight. MAs), European division of a large US multinational, 2 firms from the construction and property development sector, 33 interviews with 25 store managers, system analysts, and accountants, 1 leading UK-based department store retailer, 77 different organization with at least 50 employees from different sectors, Theory of organizational knowledge creation and learning, 6 Finnish companies in different industries, 43 managers and MAs from different countries, 1 German manufacturing firm, present in 34 countries, 117 independent and 162 dependent organizations, mainly in manufacturing industry, Professional associations and educational institutions, occupy different positions in various countries which results in low or high recognition as a profession, influence identity and statements of MAs, are essential for identity reconstruction, support the diffusion of the business partner which has developed as a legitimate template for MAs, improve purposively the status of professionals in order to distance modern MAs from bean counters, influence MAs orientation and daily work, are less discussed but can hinder change of MAs, may not work with the business partner model, may raise conflicts between management support on the one hand and compliance and control orientation on the other hand, is changing positively (from a historical viewpoint), focuses on the bean counter stereotype as a dominant representation of MAs, is influenced by negative descriptions of the bean counter image, of the business partner appears attractive, influences the image of MAs within organizations, and stereotypes influence identity, role change and self-concept, is low when MAs are compared to other professionals, influences MAs identification with the organization and the profession, Company size determines the scope of MAs profession, Other factors such as capital market orientation, ownership, industries, organizational level of MA function, contextual uncertainty and the use of the budgetary system, do not preclude very homogeneous discourse of MAs about their occupation, values and general orientation, Financial distress of organizations can increase importance of MAs, are actively developed and implemented by MAs, effect changes in MAs roles, identities and interactions styles, can lead to devaluation of MAs if relied on too intensively, between MAs and managers are especially decisive, would benefit from a mutual understanding of business partnering but is impaired by different attributed meanings, influence values and interactions, thus identity or role, make MAs identify stronger with their workgroups than with occupational group, are represented by diverse foci, interests, and time dimensions, as manifestation of the involvement-independence dilemma, caused by conflicting, ambiguous, over- and underloaded expectations of managers, despite or as a result of the idea of business partnering, getting more important (especially social competencies), of MAs are influenced by technological progress, of MAs reflect skill gaps (e.g., business analytics), that are requested are perceived as incompatible by MAs, manifests itself in business partnering, may conflict with current and day-to-day identity, is threatened by perceived low-prestige activities. *Endenich, C., Trapp, R. and Brandau, M. (2017), Management accounting networks in corporate processes a cross-national study, Journal of Accounting and Organizational Change, Vol. Management Accounting: Magazine for Chartered Management Accountants: 1: 1: Management Accounting Research: 3: A: 4,044: 3: 2: 1: 1: 7: Pacific Accounting Review: 1: 1: 1: This value is used bymanagerial accountants to determine the price points for various products. The existence of such external images influences how a group of professionals is regarded within the organization (Jrvinen, 2009; Morales and Lambert, 2013). 7 No. 29 No. Not much research has been accomplished on the challenge that MAs as business partners expand their profession, which may be regarded as threatening by management and other departments (Burns et al., 2014; Lambert and Sponem, 2012; Rieg, 2018). 5, pp. All these different approaches are not necessarily incompatible. 310-322. and Tangney, J.P. (Eds), Handbook of Self and Identity, Guilford Press, New York, NY, pp. Greater involvement of MAs requires a common perspective of MAs and managers, but the business partner model still lacks this common understanding (Byrne and Pierce, 2007; Lambert and Sponem, 2012; Karlsson et al., 2019b). *Burns, J. and Baldvinsdottir, G.H. 2, pp. and Sheep, M.L. The authors would like to thank Johannes Thaller for his assistance during the literature search and Nadine Bachmann for proofreading our manuscript. Hogg, M.A. (2004), Changing dimensions of accountants role and skill requirements in organisations: findings from the corporate sector in Bahrain, International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation, Vol. However, the functions of these two forms of accounting are quite different: management accounting is focused on monitoring and analyzing the effect of management decisions, financial accounting is focused on short-term, external reporting. Oyserman, D., Elmore, K. and Smith, G. (2012), Self, self-concept, and identity, in Leary, M.R. Big data and new data analysis techniques are available with consequences for reporting, analysis and decision-making which will modify how MAs work. In line with that importance, the call for more effort to enhance knowledge on strategic management accounting has increased over the years. Help. This course had been around for some time and there are now some much more topical and useful free courses to try. (Institute of Management Control and Consulting, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria and Department of Management Accounting and Finance, Business School. *Newman, M., Smart, C. and Vertinsky, I. 19 No. Learn More. *Cooper, R. (1996), Look out, management accountants, Management Accounting: Magazine for Chartered Management Accountants, Vol. (2003) and Massaro et al. (Eds), Handbook of Identity Theory and Research, Springer, New York, NY, pp. 439-458. Section 5 provides a profound discussion of the findings of our literature review. (1979), An integrative theory of intergroup conflict, in Austin, W.G. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. 6. and Bremser, W.G. This paper systematically reviews the literature on the changing role of MAs from an identity perspective, based on a conclusive sample of 64 articles. Within the vast majority of the studies, no theory (34) was explicitly mentioned, which could be an indicator for the missing theoretical substantiation of the research field. 12 No. We also analyzed the sample publications in relation to how far a theoretical background or theory explained the findings. and Gardner, W. (1996), Who is this We? According to Burger (2008) " Accounting is the language of business. Ahrens and Chapman (2000) were the first to explicitly mention the identity of MAs, followed by Jrvinen (2009). Jenkins, R. (2014), Social Identity, Routledge. The subjects of decentralization and nested identities need more research to illustrate under which conditions MAs might identify more with their workgroups than with similar professional groups within the organization. Ashforth, B.E. (2009), The image of accountants: from bean counters to extreme accountants, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Vol. Wolf, T., Kuttner, M., Feldbauer-Durstmller, B. and Mitter, C. (2020), "What we know about management accountants changing identities and roles a systematic literature review", Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, Vol. 4, pp. (2011), The effects of uncertainty on the roles of controllers and budgets: an exploratory study, Accounting and Business Research, Vol. and Lawrence, B.S. As identity basically encompasses ones response to the question Who are you? this you can be singular or plural and therefore identity can refer to the self-definitions of individuals or groups (Ashforth et al., 2008; Vignoles et al., 2011). In countries with a low degree of professionalization, the education is dominated by a very diverging academic education at universities or by private institutions with more practice-oriented training. As most of the analyses concentrate on larger companies, more studies could focus on small and middle-sized companies to comply with the variety of organizations. Further studies (Granlund and Malmi, 2002; Jrvenp, 2007; Scapens and Jazayeri, 2003) claim that a new IT system can only offer an opportunity for change but is not solely decisive for a role or identity change. (2013) or discuss the tensions between existing and idealized identities as presented by Morales and Lambert (2013). The identity of professionals depends on their situation vis--vis other occupations, and professionals consequently strive for the most prestigious occupation. 1, pp. Management accounting helpswith these functionsin the following ways: 1. A broad and commonly used definition of management accounting is stated by the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) (2008, p. 1), arguing that management accounting: [] involves partnering in management decision making, devising planning and performance management systems, and providing expertise in financial reporting and control to assist management in the formulation and implementation of an organizations strategy.