The financial mindset in managerial work: Strategic roles of accounting

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation examines the role of accounting in managerial work. The issue is examined from the perspective of individual managers, and it explores their understandings of the strategic role of accounting in managerial work. The research is based on multiple data sets (written material, interviews, visualizations) produced by 91 experienced managers from a variety of organizations. This interpretative qualitative research project was done in several phases utilizing various theoretical frameworks and innovative methodological approaches. The dissertation report consists of an introduction and four research articles, which are all based on empirical studies. This study contributes to the methodological and theoretical development of accounting research. Besides responding to calls for accounting research on the managers’ perspective, the results describe what the manifestation and use of accounting in managerial work actually is. The results outline four elements that constitute a manager’s accounting worldview. From the perspective of an individual manager, the role of accounting is wide-ranging and it is intertwined with one’s continuing sensemaking in managerial work. In addition to the holistic view on accounting in managerial work, this research examined accounting’s roles in the strategic thinking and strategic development work that managers do. A comprehensive description of the benefits and disadvantages of accounting in managers’ strategic thinking and decision-making is theorized, illustrating accounting’s paradoxical nature. In addition, the results identify key concepts of management control for ongoing development work on business model and managerial innovations. Although sometimes unobtrusive, accounting was found to play an integral strategic role in managerial work. The results of this study suggest that a financial mindset in managerial work is characterized by a need to see one’s managerial area of responsibility and its development through accounting logic. This study suggests that since managers’ understanding of accounting in their work is strongly grounded in their experience and professional contexts, the advancement of such understanding should be based on that same experience. This research helps managers to view their professional setting from an accounting perspective and determine one’s position as an actor in the accounting realm in their organization.