Housekeeping? Yes, but which house? Meaning and accounting context — A case study

Scand. J. Mgmt, Vol. 13,No. l,pp. 19-38, 1997 © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 0956-5221/97 $17.00 + 0.00

Pergamon S0956-5221 (96)00027-9

H O U S E K E E P I N G ? YES, BUT W H I C H HOUSE? M E A N I N G A N D ACCOUNTING

CONTEXT

-- A CASE STUDY

ROLF SOLLI and STEN JONSSON

University of Gothenburg, Sweden (First received August 1994; accepted in revised form January 1996) A b s t r a c t - - This paper attempts to show how a large number of meanings connected with the same administrative unit can be attached to accounting figures at different organizational levels. The analysis starts from a conversation during a management group meeting, where accounting rules for charging internal rents were on the agenda. A concrete case is used to test and give meaning to a proposed rule. The exchange in terms of a current recipe for decentralized cost cutting is then interpreted, and finally it is shown how a sale-leaseback deal gives a third meaning to the proposed rule. Each of these levels of interpretation, which largely correspond to levels of organization, requires different data sets to describe the specific context and its related discourse. Which discursive and non-discursive arguments apply will differ between levels. To be competent and trusted means to be able to distinguish between discourses and to perform to expectations in the intended context. Certain asymmetries in communication between levels should be expected. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Key words: Meaning, trust, interpretation, local government.

INTRODUCTION Why do we "account" to each other? A competent person must be able to account for what has happened. It is part of the definition of competence. You should always know what you are doing and why. If you are competent, then you are responsible for the consequences of your actions. If you cannot account for your whereabouts at the time of the crime, you will be suspected of being a vagabond. Everyday life is built around giving accounts (Garfinkel, 1967). The network of social life is constituted and maintained by story-telling and "accounts" (explanations) of things that seemed to have no meaning before. Once we are given an account which bridges the gap between what we already take for granted and what until now has seemed odd, we can extend the area of normality by another inch. Inside the constituting network of the social, we can use the technical for effective communication in coded messages. Management accounting is such a technical code used by responsible, competent persons who manage resources and personnel, over which they are granted jurisdiction by others. The technical has its own rules of communication. By applying them properly, membership in the class of responsible managers can be maintained (Munro, 1994). The image we have in mind when we think about "accounting" is that of a dyad. A principal and an agent, where the principal has the power to discharge or sanction and the agent has the information to account for the ups and downs of the past period. But the two are not alone ! The principal represents the rules of the game and cannot apply sanctions at will. There are other 19

20

R. SOLLI and S. JONSSON

agents, and any laxity will be noted by other agents and the rules of the game will be undermined. The principal may in turn have a principal, and if the chain of justifiable cause is broken by improper accounting, then the whole social texture is in jeopardy. Here we are talking not only about giving correct numbers, but also about giving admissible "accounts" for deviations from expected outcomes. Knowing what is an admissible account for deviations from budget is a requirement for membership of the class of responsible managers. Working to demonstrate such membership is part of the manager's duties. Keeping things clean, as it were, so as not to pollute the discourse of responsible managers by "accounts" that are inadmissible, means dealing with the gap between budget and the actual outcomes by numbers. If it can be demonstrated that the deviation was caused by events outside the organization which in turn caused the events inside (uncontrollable cost), then the "account" is clean. It is assumed that the manager's time (at work) belongs to the organization, and should the manager claim that the deviation was due to his taking time off to care for his sick wife, it is inadmissible. Even if he were to break down in tears and say that he could not concentrate on his job because of worry over his sick wife, it would still constitute an inadmissible account for the deviation. The boss might perhaps let it pass on condition that it never happens again (as an exception), but the boss would then have difficulty in explaining that deviation to his or her superiors. A subordinate provides "accounts" that must be valid all the way up. Hiring somebody to care for the wife would make it possible to talk about her illness in term of costs, but not costs to the organization (Munro, 1994). Accounting is usually portrayed as a technical, formalized, number-based way of describing the consequences of action. But accounting is also social in terms of giving accounts for deviations, and of knowing what are admissible accounts for members of the class of responsible managers. The social aspects of organization are usually seen in terms of what managers do to keep the organization together. Even if sociologists challenge the classical top-down hierarchical social order of organizations, they often point to the informal organization as the vehicle for the production and reproduction of social order. Giddens (1984) indicates routines as the constituents of social order, but routines are also there to keep things apart: not to mix company time with personal time, company money with private money and admissible accounts with inadmissible. This job of separation goes on all the time and part of the work of membership is to maintain a clear distinction between what is "inside" and what is "outside". Munro (1994) illustrates how membership is provisional (has to be reconfirmed in action) and partial (fractured into many parts). This requires attention to the rules of the game by members: "The activities whereby members produce and manage settings of organized everyday affairs are identical with members' procedures for making those settings 'account-able'" (Garfinkel, 1967, p. 1). Scott (1995) adds "cultures and social structures" as carriers of institutions. But cultures are expressly defined in terms of experience in adapting to environment while holding the organization together (Schein, 1985), i.e. as having both an inside and an outside aspect. Turning for a moment to the meaning of accounts, it is clear that the everyday affairs of organizational members relate to their work activities. The "natural" thing to do in organizing is to bring people together in teams or larger units which have a common understanding of purpose and complementary or compatible skills. The decentralization of "responsibility" to such units will enhance learning and the development of specific "routines". This is a desirable development in an organization aiming at customer orientation rather than standardization of products. The resulting organic (Burns and Stalker, 1961) organization has a good capacity to adapt to environmental demands provided that it has strong integrative mechanisms (Lawrence and Lorsch, 1967). To the extent that the teams develop and use special knowledge they will constitute

MEANING AND ACCOUNTING CONTEXT

21

communities of knowing (Boland et al., 1996; Barnes, 1983). Adaptation and innovation may be a result of dynamic interaction between such communities. An integrative mechanism could work through this interaction by fostering new configurations of knowledge in relation to problems, generating new meanings, communicative routines and new knowledge. Barnes (1983) calls this process a change in the tensions of the knowledge net. Communication between teams is complicated. If teams develop special expertise they may also become intolerant towards information or advice from other groups. It is also likely that the same data will be interpreted differently by different communities of knowing, due to the different experiential basis for the interpretation. Bruner (1990) maintains that there are two modes of cognition, the paradigmatic and the narrative. The paradigmatic mode starts from definitions, models and deductive logic and provides a rational analysis inside a problem frame. Data become meaningful by being processed through a model. To relate to the earlier part of this paper it is a technology that is applied to the data. The narrative mode builds on our capacity to make sense of our experience by narrativizing them, telling a story, putting them into a "script" as it were. The narrative gets its meaning from the internal configuration. The narrative is good and worth remembering if it is exciting, plausible and persuasive. Paradigmatic information is acceptable if it is logical, non-contradictory and consistent. Narrative is social, and it is through narrative that we build and maintain culture and praxis. The unique experience is first made sense of by narrativization, which in turn facilitates communication and enhances reflection through dialogue (Kolb, 1984). These aspects of accounting and accountability will also be invoked when organizational members contemplate the consequences of proposed rules of accounting. This will affect lhe discourse on the rules and their anchoring in organizational practice.

THE PROBLEM Two dichotomies have been illustrated which are essential to understanding how accounts become meaningful in organizations. The first was that accounting is socially constituted but is often portrayed as technical in character. The other is that meaning can be achieved in a paradigmatic or narrative mode. The problem with the first of these is that the distinction between the technical discourse of accounting (and the calling for accounts) and the social discourse of organizing is used in the everyday constitution of responsibility, and thus of accountability. The technical and the social are at least to some extent mutually constitutive. Members demonstrate their competence by being able to distinguish between discursive and non-discursive statements. The problem with the second is that if the meaning (of accounts) is constituted in relation to the practices of a team (community of knowing), then there is a communication problem between different communities of knowing, because the same data are likely to carry different meanings in the eyes of teams with different bases of experience. It may even be difficult to discover communication difficulties, because misunderstanding is compounded by miscommunication. The reason for this is that members refer to different contexts in interpreting data and situations. This can be expected to be particularly noticeable when changes in the rules of the game (those that define what is to be considered "technical") are being discussed. The purpose of this article is to provide insight into the way accounts (text) and "accounts" (context) interact to generate meanings that vary, depending on the context in which the text is

22

R. SOLLI and S. JONSSON

situated. In demonstrating the importance of the context for interpretation, the authors hope to make a contribution to the current debate on ethnomethodology (cf. Watson and Seiler, 1992; Silverman, 1993).

METHOD Meaning is negotiated interactively in conversion. Conversation is a cooperating game (Grice, 1989), in which the participants have opportunities to repair misunderstandings and to use implications to generate and regenerate meaning. The properties of conversation as a process of social interaction between competent persons in their field of competence, has not been properly appreciated since the focus of interest has turned on the form and structure of utterances, and everyday conversations have been made the subject of analysis. Conversation analysis should aim "to discover how participants use the tools, rules, and machinery of conversation to accomplish their purposes, and to expose and test their mutual understanding." (Moerman, 1992, p. 33). When a dimension of professional competence is added, the researcher will need the help of participants in understanding intentions and attributions. The professional aspect implies that the parties participating in the conversation are not alone. Others are present in the form of expectations that constitute role and competence. There are also outside sources of norms, for example, the city council demanding action on cost cutting. The interpretation of what goes on in conversations is more demanding, the denser the presence of such professional and situational structures. The researcher needs contextual information for interpretation. Once the text of conversation has been registered, the interpretive work is a search for the way patterns are elaborated in action by people who, as practical ethnographers, build up knowledge in discourse. Some analysts tend to substitute their own interpretations for those of the participants, attributing ironic interpretations such as "false consciousness" to the latter. The authors do not condemn this approach. Goffman is an example of how metaphors based on constructed but plausible examples can provide a useful basis for theorizing. The authors approach is non-ironic, and the aim is to enlarge the text with an "ethnography", and to demonstrate how context can be used to gain insight. The case that has been chosen as a "text" is a change in the rules for internal rents in one of the 21 district administrations in the City of Gothenburg. Over the evaluation period repeated interviews have been held with all the district administration heads. The changes in accounting and management control systems, and the development of the financial situation have been mapped. Interviews have been carried out with all 11 members of the top management team of the chosen district administration on the way the management team functions, and how relations have developed over time. This included every member giving a role portrait of the all other members in the team. Finally a top management team meeting was videotaped. These meetings are held every second Thursday to decide on policy issues of common interest to the different services included in the district. The recorded meeting, held in May 1993, lasted for about 4 hours. A video camera was set up in the room in which the meeting was held and the participants operated the camera themselves. The whole meeting was transcribed by members of the Department of Linguistics. The tape was edited to produce a copy in which six "critical incidents", lasting 3-5 minutes during the meeting, were put together. This edited tape was then shown to all participants individually about 4 months after the meeting for comments and interpretations of the incidents. These "self-confrontation" interviews were audio-taped and transcribed.

MEANING AND ACCOUNTING CONTEXT

23

Both the present authors have regularly conducted studies of budgetary processes, planning and organizational reform in the city administration over the last 15-20 years, and are thus relatively well acquainted with the context.

THE FIELD SITE In 1990 the city of Gothenburg implemented a decentralization scheme, which meant that some of the old functional departments (social, school, culture and leisure) were replaced by 21 districts with an elected district council coordinating integrated district administrations. A number of grand objectives guided the reform such as improved democracy, efficiency, service and integration. Before implementation started the city contracted the university to carry out 5-year evaluation programme. The problem was that the city's finances deteriorated during the period. This was due to the onset of the depression with rapidly rising rates of unemployment. The double effect of falling tax revenues and rapidly increasing costs for social benefits, undermined the city's finances. Added to this was a change in the system of state contributions to municipalities which was very unfavourable to big cities -- especially to Gothenburg, which also managed its own health care system; this is normally a county obligation. The districts were therefore burdened with strict budget limits throughout the period, and had to cut costs and lay off people. After initial problems the districts managed to reduce expenditure significantly, and in some cases diligence has generated a surplus to be used for development. The city has laid off about 8000 people over the last 3-year period, out of a workforce of about 60,000 in 1990 (a large proportion of these were part-time). The district concerned is an inner city district with the largest population of all the districts. One of its characteristics is the large proportion of very old people (>80 years). Another is that it has a special unit to deal with problems due to drugs and prostitution. The number of employees is about 1700 and the organization is structured into four sub-districts with a manager and a district office providing the usual service functions (personal, accounting, information and a secretariat for the council). This district was chosen for closer study because it had an impressive leader and had achieved good economic results (the best pertormance when it came to economizing). Most of the top management team have been based in the district for a long time. During the earlier period of functional organization, the social welfare department had a district organization. Almost half the current management team has its roots in that organization, where they held managerial positions and participated in the top management. They have worked together before and have experience of a similar group work for purposes of comparison. When the new district organization was set up, a new process for developing the governance structure was initiated, since others beside the social welfare department were involved. The district head, "A", arrived from out of town in the summer of 1989, and he started to discuss organization with the sub-district managers from the social department and some of the school headmasters. The design phase was prolonged for various reasons, and in the spring of 1990 a provisional management group (a consultation group) of 20-25 people was set up. The purpose was to exchange information. The consultation group managed to agree on the new organization even though it meant that some of the members lost their managerial positions. The principle was a geographical one with five sub-districts (later reduced to four when one of the five managers retired), each responsible for child care, schools, family and care of the elderly. Two functional areas were left, high school and the drugs and prostitution agency. The managers of

24

R. SOLLI and S. JONSSON

these seven (six) areas were members of the top management team. Besides the top manager, the functional staff heads (personnel, controller, head of the secretariat) and the information officer belonged to the team. At the time of the study the team had 11 members, and they were rather proud of what they had achieved in terms of budget cuts and the maintenance of a reasonable service quality under adverse conditions. A sends out the agenda by fax the day before the meeting. It usually has some 15 items. Most of these are dealt with in a minute or two, while four to five items are discussed thoroughly in order to reach agreement on matters of principle. A, who is the dynamic engine of the team sees the main purpose of the team as being to build up a common approach to the work, to integrate rules of conduct, ideas and views. One of the members, "H", a sub-district manager, said that she sees the top management team as • .. the group where I live, as it were. Where I can air my problems, get decisions, push through decisions on certain issues. It is also where I can exhibit my anxieties, gather strength, get the courage to unload on others what I'm unable to handle on my own, find partners, raise issues, put ideas forward, be put in place. Even if this statement sounds a little poetic, we feel that it reflects the opinion of most members about the atmosphere in the group. The members come from different functional areas (although social services predominate), they have long experience as functional managers and have experience from other management groups. In the interviews three types of explanation were found for the fact that the group functions well. The constellation of people, "the chemistry works", "the climate is good" -- these are the kind of statements that show that people are getting along. The roles of the member will be considered in more detail below. Secondly it was found that the Leader, A, impresses three themes on the group as regards behaviour; everything should be done in a hurry, you must know what you are doing (being competent is extremely important), you should have some fun even if the going is tough (take a break in a meeting and go to see a lunch show). The third reason given why this is a better group than those experienced earlier, has to do with the organizational structure. One of the sub-district managers gave the clue " . . . it is easier to listen to others when you are involved in many activities y o u r s e l f . . . " . The sub-districts are charged with integrating earlier functional areas. There are, of course, limits to this, but the fact that functional experts had to cope with areas that they were not very familiar with, was a beneficial learning experience. When the organizational structure provided three other managers with similar activities, the rate of learning was improved because it meant there were colleagues able to recognize the problems and to respond. In the previous management groups, functional specialists reported to the leader, and nobody else had any reason to care, much less to interfere. There were of course differences of opinion on the conduct of meetings and other formal aspects. Some complained that others talked too much and interrupted when people where speaking. The counter complaint was that some people were too formal ("Mister Chairman"). But these were only superficial matters, reflecting personality differences rather than the functioning of the group.

Roles It would be gathered from the interviews that the members had assumed fairly distinct roles in the group. The interviews generated descriptions of each member's role, and the descriptions were rather similar. This can be taken as an indication that the group functions well and roles are

MEANING AND ACCOUNTING CONTEXT

25

well established. Members behave according to the expectations of others, and work can focus on the task at hand rather than on sorting out what people mean and who is supposed to be doing what. The roles can be grouped in different categories. The Leader, A, who is liked, dynamic and unchallenged. The Activists, three of the sub-district managers and one of the staff officers. The Peripherals, who are not very active participants except in their own area of competence. The rest of the staff members belong to this group, as does one of the sub-district managers. The Distanced, who do not say much at meetings except on issues in their own areas. They have a strong sense of territory and make a point of not interfering in the responsibilities of the others (so that the others may take note, and learn not to interfere in "mine"). The Opposition consists of one person, who contributes by "talking straight" and is the one to bring people down to earth again when they get emotional or "fussy". It is the Leader who drives the group, and the Activists who provide a stream of input and response to initiatives. The Activists were affectionately called the four sisters by the others. The Peripherals are professionals who treasure their professionalism. The Distanced can sometimes be critical about formal aspects of proceedings as well as fuzziness in decisions, but usually do not air their criticism. The Opposition provides opposition and alternative views. He also hates idle talk at meetings.

THE"TEXT" The analysis starts from a sequence early in the videotaped meeting. The item on the agenda was "Rents to charge when letting premises". The district has a lot of different premises, from gyms to conference rooms, which are not used all the time for municipal activities. What rent should be charged when these premises are let? An officer had investigated this question and produced a memo which was presented to the group. The presenter was interrupted several times by questions and discussion. A critical issue that turned the discussion on to the question of internal rents (although the original question concerned charges when letting to outsiders like the pensioners club, etc.) was: Who gets the revenue? And it was raised by one of the Peripherals who did not participate in the following sequence. Somebody mentioned that a certain school rented the gym from another school and would have to pay the rent from their operating budget, while the receiving school did not include rent in its budget. Sheer profit and no costs to the school receiving the money!

The meeting with the top management group of the district The videotaped sequence lasted 2 minutes 40 seconds. The summary followed a lengthy presentation of a memo on proposed changes in the ground rules for charging rents. Cast: A = the Leader B = the Controller G = the Opposition C, D, I = Activists X = persons unidentified by the transcriber @ = not made by the transcriber [n text]n indicates that people are talking at the same time and what they say.

26

R. SOLLI and S. JONSSON

( . . . ) indicates w o r d s that cannot be heard. C o n v e r s a t i o n has b e e n translated into E n g l i s h (some loss o f authenticity unavoidable). A:

We will, [1 we could] 1 start from how we basically treat "premises", sort of, and there the rule is that rents, base rents, are decoupled from budget responsibility.., e h h h . . , and if we then t a k e . . , ehhh this case with the school then, we do in fact pay f u l l . . , e h h h . . , base rent, sort of independently of how i t . . . e h h h . . , adds up in the Burred school or the Guldheden school. It is then reasonable that we pay full base rent, that is the rent for the gym of the Gustavi school as well, huh. You can argue that one should, sort of, start from that which is t h e . . , e h h h . . , base premises for the activity. Then we could charge internal prices for the rest which are transactions. In that w a y . . , that would be a way to • . .

B:

[1 yes]l

@ There is silence for a long while• G: C: I: D: A:

D: A: B: I: A: I: G: A:

I:

e h h h . . . I"m not sure that I understand, b u t . . , no, me neither. no [2 take it]2 once more. [2 years]2 (@ "yes" said in English) W e l l . . . e h h h . . , the basic rent for premises is outside budget responsibility. That means that for the Guldheden school we pay full rent for premises so to say for the gymnastics activities as well. If we then take the Gustavi school, you could say like t h i s . . , e h h . . , they would pay f o r . . , e h h . . , the gym and that would come out of the operating budget. m = and that [3 would be]3 inside[] budget responsibility. [3 m]3 m and then we would use a different budget principle for the Gustavi school than we have of the rest of the school a c t i v i t i e s . . , t h a t . . , and that is not reasonable. no, no, that's not why ( . . . ) I agree about that but I am of the opinion. Therefore I am of the opinion that [4 in this type of cases]41 believe that it is reasonable to argue [5 on this issue]5 t h a t . . , e h h . . , we do not use intemal charges, while we should do it in the rest of the cases, where this does not apply• [4 yes, it is]4

x:

[5(...)]5

X: G: A: I: G: I:

yes I [6 think that]6 [6 Shall we]6 [7 is]7 [7 (...)]7 [8 (...)]8 [8 (but what the hell)]8 1 think that it can be a bit unfair ( . . . ) huh = = yes there are many other examples like this then where you find yourself [9 puzzled]9. I've been thinking of lots. I could think o f . . . in my office there would be the same effect. When we want to have a meeting at the office there is no room big enough for [10 take]10 us all. Will I then have to pay every time I want to be somewhere for a m e e t i n g . . , or doesn't one have to [11 others] 11 as it were huh. What I mean is that it will be [12 exactly]12 the same stuff and there will be an [13 awful]13

(..3 X:

[9 (...)]

X: X: X: X: A: I: A: D:

[11 [12 [13 yes [14 D! [15

[10 (...)]10 mhm]l 1 mm]12 mm]13 [14 we will take] 14 (@ "yes" said in English) or is it]14 maybe, so hard to drive it home, I don't know. ehhh] 15

MEANING AND ACCOUNTING CONTEXT

27

I: [ 15 yes] 15 that is exactly what I think. D: I also think we should have a special rate for senior citizens.

ANALYSIS The analysis of this exchange and its contexts will be carried out in a bottom-up fashion, reflecting the way the contexts were uncovered. First the conversation itself as a context is noted. What is actually said here? The focus of attention in examining the video recording is the long confused pause at the beginning. (This was originally the reason why this particular sequence was chosen for analysis.) It was then realized that the reasons for the confusion were outside this actual sequence in the conversation. The discussion preceding the sequence and the minutes specifying the decisions taken have to be considered in order to understand what was going on. There is a wider context. Then it can be seen that the participants obviously interpret the same sequence in different ways. This can be confirmed by re-playing the sequence to the participants and hearing their explanations of what was going on. Finally, one of the participants provides a further clue by referring to the history of the cost-cutting approach adopted by this group. It see ms as though the controller claims that this item on the agenda is unproblematic because it fits with the earlier cost-cutting decisions taken by the group. There is a recipe which makes sense of the exchange. When examining the evidence supporting this "recipe" context, frequent references were found to the increased cost of premises caused by the new "market-based" rents which the district had to pay for premises within the area of responsibility. There had been a sale-lease-back deal (including schools and other buildings) a couple of years ago, which had been justified by the effect it had on the balance sheet of the city. A financial model of equity maintenance during economic crises provided a wider context, which was not part of the conversation, but which could be detected from questions about the background to the cost-cutting situation. The analysis is presented by proceeding step-wise from inside the conversation out towards the bond market.

WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? ANALYSIS, STEP 1 The main reason that this 2 minute 40 second extract was chosen from a meeting lasting 4 hours, was the long pause at the beginning when the video seemed to freeze. This was followed by an outburst of demands for clarification, with the Opposition being the one to break the silence. There is then a much clearer summary, focusing the problem illustrated by the Gustavi school which pays from its operating budget for the use of the Guldheden school -- the cost for which was not included in its budget responsibility in the first place. The proposed principle is that there should be no internal rent charges for planned regular use of premises, but for occasional use which is classified under transactions there should be a charge. G has something on his mind and tries to break in, but never gets to the point of articulating his problem. Instead I, one of the Activists, thinks of another example. When she has a meeting with her sub-district management team, there is no room big enough in the office and she usually holds the meetings in the neighbouring old people's home, where a nice room is available. This would involve the same kind of bureaucratic costs for charging rents. Then A, the Leader, stops the discussion of these examples giving exercise by giving the floor to D, who comments on the original memo on external rents and proposes that there should be a special rate for senior citizens.

28

R. SOLLI and S. JONSSON

In terms of group interaction, A can be said to be the dominating actor. He tries to end a diversion on internal rents, by arguing from analogy. He does not get it right, and it is in accordance with G ' s oppositional role that he breaks the confused silence. A gives it another try by relating the summary to the example in focus. Then I thinks of other examples and the paper work that these internal charges imply. A shows irritation (that the matter has not been closed due to I bringing up another "case") by saying "yes" (in English) and moving the meeting back on track with the help of D. Actor behaviour fits nicely into the roles the group members have assumed over time. (We are not told what G is puzzled about, only that he thinks there is unfairness hidden somewhere.) Further insight is gained into what was going on by examining the context of this exchange. A memo had been sent to the participants the day before, and its main points were presented at the meeting and questions were called for. Then came the innocent question from H -- "Who gets the revenue?" This question alerted the participants to the added freedom of action (in a budget straitjacket) that rent revenue would give. Then same the question of fairness and the case of the school with the Guldheden gym getting revenue from the Gustavi school without having responsibility for the cost of the gym. This point on the agenda, which was the first one, ends with a decision to submit a formal memo to the council requesting a decision on a price list for external rents. This is a rule of the game - - only the council can decide on fees and charges to outsiders. Revenues are to go to the activity centres, but if they grow excessively there will be a review of the rules. There are also a number of points in the minutes of the meeting about further developments on the internal rents issue. The task is given to B, who is to devise administrative routines and appropriate changes in the accounting system. The question of rents is broken down into 13 statements in the minutes. The original issue concerned external rents, but the crux was the definition of territory and "revenue-sharing". The group discovers several new problems in the course of solving the original one. It is not without consequences for internal relations, to act in a more businesslike way towards outsiders!

WHAT DID SHE/HE MEAN? ANALYSIS, STEP 2 The structure of the self-confrontation interviews was simple: each participant was shown the sequence separately, and the opening question was "What is going on here?". The follow-up questions on the first statement of interpretation varied, depending on the specific situation that developed in the interview. In the following exposition only those aspects of the interview that seem to add to the interpretation of the sequence are touched upon. Self-confrontation interviews on "internal rents"

B is considered first, because he gives additional perspective to the sequence. He says that the situation became a bit complicated because of the budget system and the allocation of responsibilities. The budgets are based on "rates" for schools, child care, home service, etc. (making resource allocation automatic and based on volumes). When these rates were calculated there was no time to include allocations for the cost of premises because of the complexities involved in the right to use the premises (e.g. the Leisure Department had the right to allocate gyms after 5 p.m. on weekdays to sports clubs). The district therefore decided to keep "premises" as a central cost responsibility. The issue dealt with in the above sequence provides an opportunity to take a further step towards more complete economic responsibility for the "profit-centres"/activity

MEANING AND ACCOUNTING CONTEXT

29

centres by including the cost of premises. B did not regard the sequence as complicated (R is the researcher): R: But the participants did not seem to understand. A had to repeat himself before getting any reaction. B: Well, I don't see that as indicating that people didn't understand. We were in agreement on this issue. R: Why did he have to repeat himself then? B: Well I suppose he wanted some kind of response. The fact that I brings up (the example of paying for a meeting room) is for clarification. B sees the incident as a natural continuation in the designing of financial responsibilities. The Leader, A, is also of the opinion that there were no difficulties in understanding. This was not a complicated issue. When asked why he had to repeat himself he says, " M a y b e members h a d n ' t done their homework properly". A was more prepared, he says. It is difficult to "jump on board" if y o u ' r e not. The fact that I brought up the example of a meeting room is interpreted by A as a questioning of the solution. The interviewer asks about the significance of "yes", used to bring the examplifications to an end - - does it mean that you (A) recognize the consequences of the rule, and that you realize there may be problems with it? A responds with a "maybe". A sees no problem at first. Then he says that maybe he was better prepared than the others. And then he sees I ' s queries as a "questioning" of the proposed rule. He cuts I short by saying "yes" (did he have a feeling that she would bring up more tricky cases if this discussion were to continue?). I, who brought up the rival case of the meeting room, admits that she did not understand the opening summary, and adds that it felt as though nobody really grasped what A was talking about. When he repeated it, it became much clearer. "It sometimes happens to all of us, that we don't understand." R: I:

So, how did it end, must you pay when you borrow somebody else's office or not? He meant that there shouldn't be any charge if it was done like that. He drew a parallel with the gyms, and in that case only costs which were an activity centre responsibility, would be charged to the operating budgets of the "activity centres", he said. R: So if you borrow a meeting-room you shouldn't pay for it? I: No 1 don't pay, but in principle one could.

Responsibility for "costs of premises" is located centrally in the budget model, i.e. it is not included in the responsibilities of the activity centres. I supposes that this is what complicates things now. It is an example of how the budget doesn't give you the resources to match responsibilities. I thinks that people should be responsible for the whole cost, which means paying rents as well as keeping revenues if you rent premises. She feels that the proposed mixed solution is not ideal. She would rather have the rent money in her budget, and pay when she borrows somebody else's meeting room. It is difficult to avoid the impression that I has not really understood what the decision was. She understands the principles all right and she wants to increase her responsibility area to include internal rents, provided that there is money in the budget to cover it. When asked whether the discussion meant that she would be charged for the meeting room, she answers by talking about current practices. She is a manager o f a sub-district. If she could get budget responsibility for premises in her area, she obviously sees opportunities for good business for her district, but does she really want the activity centres to have the budget allocations for internal rents? W o u l d n ' t it be better to have the budget item "premises" at the sub-district level, and to avoid internal rents between activity centres?

30

R. SOLLI and S. JONSSON

G, the Opposition, interprets the sequence as follows: G: R: G: R: G: R: G:

As usual A delivers a long harangue. Don't you understand what he says? No, not always, sometimes he speaks in a way we don't understand. And then everybody's quiet? Yes, I think so. And then several people ask for clarification? Yeah, there's something there that isn't right! Sometimes I think that it's some bloody tactic of his,just to get a decision through. R: He dominates a lot? G: Yes he does, but we let him! Among other participants who did not take part in the exchange reported above the record-keeper of the group (a Peripheral) finds the matter easy to understand when the summary is repeated. The same goes for other participants. The example of the meeting room, raised by I, was to confirm that she had understood and she gets that confirmation. As regards not understanding what is going on, the record-keeper says her greatest problem is that there is often no clear signal that a decision has been taken. It might be like the "yes" statement in this sequence -- and then you have to go back and try to interpret what the decision was. The group has talked about trying to be more clear about decisions, and there has been some improvement. As record-keeper and information officer, she cannot shrug it off like some of the others do sometimes; she likes to be well informed and keeps alert through the meetings. Various other comments were made to the authors. One participant admitted to not paying much attention; another complained about the lack of discipline at the meeting. Some gave a more detailed background about the charging rules for gyms after 5 p.m., and added further examples. One of the Peripherals complained that A comes across so strongly that it kind of quells the others, and people have to have really strong arguments if they are to say anything. In this case it was probably because A had prepared better than the others that he came to dominate in the way he did. The centre-piece of this sequence, should the proposed principle for internal rents be implemented, is the role of the concrete case of the Gustavi school which would be paying internal rents for using the gym of the Guldheden school. On the basis of this illustration a first general principle is formulated (not very clearly it seems). A second version of the general formulation is clearer. This could have been the end of the matter, because the original issue was extemal rents. But now a second candidate for concrete illustration is introduced by I. This is the case of the regular but less frequent use of premises belonging to an activity centre, and this time it is a higher organizational level (the sub-district) using the premises of an activity centre. The matter of intemal rents is much more complicated than just asking the council to confirm rates for external rents ! It has to be investigated further, and it cannot be solved here, today, round the table, since it involves budget allocations as well as principles about what is to be considered a "transaction" between responsibility centres. A cuts the discussion short and moves the meeting back to the agenda, already determined on a decision to give somebody the task to prepare a memo on principles for internal rents. What is established in the sequence is that a concrete case is to be used as touchstone in formulating the rules for intemal rents. The expressed criterion of fairness is that there should be a match between cost responsibility and budget allocation. Discussion of an alternative candidate for "test case" status, the meeting room, is cut short by a "yes", the implication being that the rule would be generally applicable but that this was not the time to bring up a lot of tricky cases.

MEANING AND ACCOUNTING CONTEXT

31

This point on the agenda resulted in a decision divided into 13 points, two of which were specified as tasks for the controller, and one as a task for the investigating officer and her work party to produce an official memo for decision in the council on standard external rents. The specific tasks for the controller were (a) to work out a simple administrative routine for charging rents, and (b) to design a memo on principles for internal rents. The protocol says that it is desirable for premises to be rented out as much as possible, and that normally the activity centre in question should keep the revenue. If such revenues become very large, adjustments about costs will be made in the budget agreements with the activity centres. It is desirable to divide the rent charge between a basic rent and a charge for costs (cleaning, etc.). There should also be a special rate for pensioners. The area of application should also be expanded to a larger part of the premises, and the current contract with the Leisure Department on the evening use of gyms should be reviewed. The management group thus decided to settle the matter of external rates, after some adjustments which provided for more differentiation (base rate plus cost, and special rate for pensioners). In addition to the original question of external rents, the management group discovered the complexities of charging internal rents and this issue was handed over to the controller, so that a memo could be produced on the basis of the concrete case illustrating the principles that are to apply. It is concluded that, on this level of interpretation, the concrete case as an illustration o f general principles is the context that gives meaning to accounting rules and statements.

THE FINANCIAL SITUATION OF THE DISTRICT. ANALYSIS, STEP 3 The financial situation of the district is excellent. The financial reporting model that the city imposes on the districts, generated the surpluses shown in Table 1. A surplus in a public sector service indicates that somebody else is paying in some way. Either there has been too little service or there has been too little resource input per output unit relative to some policydetermined standard. One might suspecf~hat the second is the case here. The focus of attention for the management group ever since the inception of the district organization has been to rationalize activities in order to save money. It has not been possible to avoid exposure to the fact that the city has had a financial crisis. The allotted cost-cutting quotas have been spread over 3 years. The order was to cut 15% over the period and the budget allocation was reduced accordingly by an annual 5%. A's philosophy is that it is better to take cost cuts quickly and be done with it, rather than prolonging the agony over a long period by taking small steps. It is against this background of reduced budgets that the accumulated surplus of about 10% of turnover has been generated.

Table 1. Financial outcomes(surplus), 1990-1993 Year

SEK million

1990 1991 1992 1993

5.2 10.8 28.8 20.7

Total

65.5

32

R. SOLLIand S. JONSSON

The practical methods for cost-cutting have ranged from closures to the reduction of personnel in child care. To support the necessary action A has taken steps to enhance "cost consciousness" and to articulate responsibility in cost control models at the lowest possible operational level. Every school, nursery school, home service district, etc. has been given specific cost responsibility. Training in the use of financial concepts and improved reporting routines have been important ingredients in the decentralization drive. The logic behind resource allocation within the district has been to apply standardized rates -- a specified amount of money per school child, nursery school infant, home service recipient, etc. This has given a certain transparency to the allocation system, and implies a direct link between performance and resource allocation. The heads to responsibility centres are able to calculate the consequences of their actions. One problem in connection with this output-based budget allocation procedure has been to achieve the correct allocation of costs for premises. There is no problem if, for example, an office is used exclusively by one activity centre. But if premises are rented out or used by several centres, then rules and prices are needed. There are several gyms, for instance, that are not used in the evenings. They are then contracted out to the city's Leisure Department, which in turn rents them out to sport clubs, folk dancing groups, etc. These evening activities generate costs, and the rates which the Leisure Department charges can be questioned. Moreover, some pensioners from the district, for example, are not allotted room for their activities because some external indoor sports club is given priority by the Department. The district has many kinds of premises at its disposal, and more could be done here. The trouble was that the first structuring of responsibility for the cost for premises did not include any rates for the different activities. These rates are not easy to calculate, nor is it easy to maintain transparency. What should be included in the output standard? What are appropriate overheads? The principle has been to the "controllable-non controllable" dichotomy as a structuring device. In the self-confrontation interviews reported above, the controller said that top management did not have the energy at the time to do the ABC analysis needed, if the costs of premises was to be included in the rates. Now the present incident was providing an opportunity to take this step. There are more savings or revenues to be gained from premises, which are a significant cost in the district's budget (Table 2). A more effective use of premises will reduce a significant cost item, and the way to achieve this is to specify rules and prices and to let activity centres apply their cost consciousness. The discovery of the possibility of charging rents intemally was initiated by the memorandum on external rents which was presented at the meeting as a matter of routine. It was not a very important item on the agenda. Then the businessmen among the participants were alerted by the innocent question from one member: "Who will get the revenue?". The need for making rules about internal rents was obvious to the members, and the starting point was fairness (a close

Table 2. Cost items in the district, 1993 Cost item

SEK million

Percentage of total

Personnel Premises Transfers Other

256.7 105.2 218.2 53.4

41 17 34 8

Total

633.5

100

MEANING AND ACCOUNTING CONTEXT

33

relative of controllable costs), as exemplified by the Gustavi school case. The decision on this point of the agenda included a policy statement about the desirability of renting out premises as much as possible, and it was up to the heads of the activity centres to judge what was a suitable charge. Consequently they need rules, and the Gustavi school case was given to the controller as a touchstone in forging the new set of rules. To him it seemed like a natural continuation of the hitherto successful practice of specifying responsibility and leaving it to the activity centres to decide about action. The meaning of the incident at this level of interpretation is generated by the successful practice (the recipe) of the district administration, namely to decentralize responsibility and to specify rules. This recipe has generated a transparency that has made it natural for the activity centre heads to exhibit businesslike behaviour. By way of a feedback loop the success of the management group in rule-making and giving support to uncomfortable action, has strengthened the belief in this self-evident approach. The recipe gives meaning to the accounting rules. Transparency, confident action, success and a stronger belief in an established recipe, gives members of the management team the pleasant feeling of being part of a well-managed organization. The first item on the meeting agenda (external rents) has been extended to include the development of a set or rules for internal rents to be discussed at future meetings. The group then moves on to the next item on the agenda.

THE ECONOMIC NORMS IN THE CITY. ANALYSIS, STEP 4 Control strategies have an interesting history in the city. The authors have studied different aspects of the financial and management control in the city over a period of 20 years (J6nsson 1982, 1990; Jrnsson and Solli, 1992, 1993a, 1993b, 1994) and we have financial data and interview descriptions going back to the 1950s. During the second half of the 1950s there was a severe crisis, mainly a pure liquidity crisis. The financial room for manoeuvres in municipalities was radically different in those days. They were not allowed to take loans without state consent. The acute crisis one summer in the late 1950s, when growth had taken off, was that there was not enough money to pay salaries. It was necessary first to persuade the government to permit it and then to get banks to provide the cash. The crisis led to a budget reform and the introduction of strict expenditure limits as the first decision of each annual budget process. Departments could no longer start from "needs", and then calculate the financial consequences. The growth in the welfare state generated needs beyond the available financial resources. The 1960s brought a golden age. Employment in the growing industries increased rapidly and tax revenues grew with the expanding economy. The housing problem become critical and state subsidies promoted gigantic housing projects. Planning these projects and their consequent infrastructure required a management approach that can be subsumed under the rubric "programme budgeting" (and financing ex-post). When the state would not finance roads, the municipality undertook to do so. When land seemed to be a limiting factor, parts of neighbouring municipalities were acquired. The city was going to double the number of its inhabitants to one million in a couple of decades. In order to coordinate all these plans centralization was necessary and the distribution of all the "good things" was an attractive task for the political leaders. Then the oil crisis came, and proved many plans to be illusory. The planning craze was replaced by a new austerity management approach, signalled by a shift in the political leadership. Some residual centralization remained in the expansion of services financed by state subsidies;

34

R. SOLLI and S. JONSSON

health care continued to expand and needed space. When the influx of new employees into the expanding industries did not come up to expectations, empty flats and deteriorating finances in the municipal housing companies made corporate financial planning necessary on the municipal level. The continuing expansion of the "soft" municipal services, with their housing needs, continued to add to the municipal assets in the shape of "premises". The state no longer had the financial power to back up its reforms. The financial situation of the city deteriorated in the squeeze between growing personnel costs, reduced transfers from the state and declining tax revenues. Two significant decisions on economic control were taken in the late 1980s. One involved a shift away from a functional organization (corresponding to the states departmental structure and the flow of state subsidies), towards a geographical organizational structure. Although several admirable objectives were linked to the intentions of the reform (Searle, 1983), the action demonstrated that cost-cutting was the game. The other decision was to make a sale-lease-back deal with a pension fund, involving a large part, primarily schools, of the city's real estate. This provided both spending money and a price for "premises". Deregulation had provided new scope for financial management. Many municipalities learnt costly lessons about loans in foreign currencies. The crisis that developed was not a liquidity crisis but a financial one. The deteriorating financial situation is best described in terms of the development of the debt--equity ratio since the beginning of the 1980s (see Fig. 1). The differences between the current crisis and the earlier ones lie in the complexities of the causes and the abstract nature of the financial indicators. Costs have increased, particularly as regards entitlements, (social cash support, and outsourced care) while revenues have declined (state subsidies, tax rules, and a reduction in the tax base due to the depression in the economy). In the good old days it was costs, revenue or cash that were the problem, and causes could be identified. Now cash can be acquired in financial markets, but at a price depending upon the financial situation. To interpret the financial situation, accounting knowledge and the advice of finance analysts is required. The crisis is constructed socially, as well as in the financial model. The organizational reform was implemented in an atmosphere of economic decline. This was obvious to everyone, not least to the management group whose discussions were videotaped. City leaders have been preoccupied by the management of the cost cuts, pleading with the state for financial relief measures, and preventing too rapid a decline in balance sheet-related indicators. 60-50 40--

%

30 -20

--

10

--

0 80

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

1

I

I

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

Year Fig. 1. Debt-equity ratio for the city, 1980-1993.

MEANING AND ACCOUNTING CONTEXT

35

There is no room for discussion of concrete cases or recipes. The thing that matters is whether financial indicators can be maintained at levels that leave the credit rating intact, while the city weathers the storm and waits for better times to improve its revenues. The context of crisis gives meaning to the management of finances. The sale-lease-back deal on the schools was a financial operation motivated by conceptual reasoning regarding financial costs. The financial model provided the frame. The increase in rents for the departments was in a sense an unintended consequence on another management level. The increased market-based cost burden could be constructed as another incentive to cutting costs. The fact that the "market" for office space in the downtown area was at its lowest ever, did not affect the discussion of the costs for premises.

DISCUSSION There are three distinct interpretations of the treatment of costs for premises in possible accounting discourses on different levels of organization. They have been generated by interpretive reasoning and it is hoped that these "interpretations will be regarded as facts in the sense of "social accomplishments" (Atkinson, 1988). At the group level the meaning of accounts (rules for accounts as well as accounts for rules) seems to be generated from the concrete case. The battle for control (to the extent that there was any) is interpreted as having been concerned about which concrete case should be the touchstone for the controller in formulating the rules. It seems safe to assume that the participants were testing "accounts" as well as accounts in their discussion of the proposed rule. At the organization level the meaning of accounts seems to be generated from the recipe. Of the empirical data presented here, the interview statement of the controller (the intended solution being a natural continuation of the approach used earlier) bears witness to this, as well as the tact that A saw this as an unproblematic issue. At the corporate level (the municipality itself uses this term) the meaning of accounts seems to be generated from the conceptual models related to financial reporting in a crisis. The main reason for discussing the relations between these three contexts for understanding accounting rules, is to speculate about their possible role in the communication between organizational levels. There seems to be reason to believe that they may cause misunderstandings and, worse still that such misunderstandings may arise without the communicating parties discovering them. It is assumed that these "generators" of meaning are instrumental in determining what the communicating parties will focus their attention on (or what they think they are talking about). The exchange of statements serves up to a point to confirm that the parties are talking "about the same thing". First, the attention-focusing characteristics of these "generators" and the types of associative links which they may offer should be considered.

Context and meaning The case is concrete and offers associative links through analogue descriptions of cases. The discussion at the meeting started to generate alternative cases and parallels. The concrete case allows the "testing" of how a principle would "work". Thinking through the consequences presupposes that the thinker has a "rich" description of the case, and that it seems possible to control the outcome of such contemplation by controlling which concrete case is used as a touchstone. Narratives (Bruner, 1990) serving as concrete cases, account for the power which narratives have in normative discourse.

36

R. SOLLI and S. JONSSON

The recipe is experiential in the sense that the behavioural pattern described by the recipe summarizes confirmed (successful) action. A recipe has a history, and the specific associative link to consider here is the question of whether the definition of the current situation is sufficiently similar to the situations in which the recipe has proved its usefulness. Active application of the practices and principles contained in the recipe presupposes historical experience of the situations in which the action, generalized into the recipe, has been undertaken. It may be that recipes can be made known through training, but in that case a conceptual basis and/or narratives will probably have to be used. The financial crisis is constituted by the lack of revenues to cover budgeted (and non-budgeted) costs. Some years ago this would not have been an alarming situation for the political leaders of the city. There was always the possibility of increasing taxes or extracting financial support from the state. When these possibilities are no longer available, attention focuses on the way the financial model works: the structure of the balance sheet and the other financial reports, and the key indicators used by credit-raters to classify the creditworthiness of the city. If these key indicators can be forced closer to the desired values, the deficit can be financed at lower cost. Cutting costs on the item "premises" means watching for the effects on the financial reports. Meaning is conceptually based and the leaders have not long been acquainted with the financial concepts which have only recently assumed a very concrete meaning, because they threaten to limit the freedom of action of the City council. The leaders are open to advice from experts who can show the beneficial effects on the financial indicators of, for example, a sale-lease-back deal on premises.

Communication between levels A good thing about communication is that it gives opportunities to check up on the impressions of your senses. If you do not quite believe your eyes, you can say to your fellow huntsman, "Do you see that moose over there?". And when he answers "For God's sake don't shoot, that's our friend Peterson !", it gives you a chance to adjust your action accordingly. What happens here is that one party focuses attention on a phenomenon, and the conversation serves to classify this and to confirm that the participants are talking about "the same thing". Appropriate action can then be considered. This classifying of the intended phenomenon seems to be a crucial function in communication, and in giving accounts. Once the situation has been defined, the repertoire of activities can be scanned and the adequate response chosen. When Simon et al. (1954) talk about the attention-directing function of accounting information, they mean that accounting information may serve as an indicator that "something" is wrong. However there is one more step, the identification of relevant cause-effect relations, before a link between accounting and control can be established. Hedberg and Jrnsson (1978) advanced the idea that "semi-confusing" information could serve to alert managers to the need to investigate the cause--effect mechanisms that were involved. Here the role of communication in focusing attention is considered (cf. Jrnsson and Solli, 1993b). What are the chances that participants from different levels will be "talking about the same thing"? At the group level the concrete case or narrative as a meaning-generator in normative discourse has been indicated. This level is likely to be able to communicate with the organizational level without structural misunderstanding, in that the "recipe", is compatible with the "concrete case". A case can be compared with the recipe, to determine whether or not it is "in line" with the recipe. It also seems that a recipe can be compared with a financial model, to see what effect it might have on the indicators. An overlap between the concrete case and a financial model seems unlikely, or would anyway be

MEANINGANDACCOUNTINGCONTEXT

37

coincidental. A communication problem appears when the top levels tries to communicate directly with the operative level. When the top level wants to convey a message to the lower levels, the "grammar" is fairly simple. If the conceptual model is complex enough it can be broken down into its sub-models and sub-concepts. However, a message in return from below is likely to be misunderstood, since the narrative used to describe the concrete case will not be conceptually based. The concrete case will be regarded as "petty detail" at the top, even if it exemplifies a general principle. The conclusion seems to be that the risks of miscommunication between top and bottom are considerable. The worrying aspect is that there seems to be a certain a s y m m e t r y in the relation, in that it is fairly easy to learn the conceptual "grammar", but time-consuming to build the experiential repertoire to appreciate the generality of the concrete case. It is also easier for the bottom to discover miscommunication with the top, than for the top to discover miscommunication with the bottom. There are many ways of signalling socially that the narrative of the concrete case is being dismissed, while the conceptually-based message, if it is grammatically correct, cannot be dismissed even if it is irrelevant to the practices of the local operative level. The recipe of the middle level can serve as a communicative link, because current praxis is contained in the recipe. It enriches the concrete historical cases which constitute experience. It is also rationally principled, in that the recipe is a solution to intentional problems - - if this recipe is applied, it will lead to improvements in relevant outcome variables. The principles of a recipe provide conceptually-based justification, and the practices of a recipe summarize concrete historical cases. Thus the recipe is a two-way meaning-generator in normative discourse. The authors have tried to use familiarity with the focal organization to show that multi-level interpretations can give new insights into communication in organizations. It is also suggested that multi-level approaches can make ethnomethodology useful along the agency/structure, micro/macro dimensions (Watson, 1992).

REFERENCES Atkinson,P. (1988) Ethnomethodology: a critical review. Annual Review of Sociology 14,441-465. Barnes,B. (1983)On the conventionalcharacter of knowledgeand cognition.In &ience Observed, eds I. D. Knorr-Cetina and M. Mulkay.Sage, London. Blimes,J. (1992) Mishearings.In Text in Context. eds G. Watson and R. M. Seiler,pp. 79-98. Sage, Newbury Park. Boland, R. J., Tenaski,R. V. and Te'eni, D. (1996) Designinginformationtechnologyto support distributedcognition. Organization Science, in press. Bruner, J. S. (1990) Acts of Meaning. Harvard UniversityPress, Cambridge,MA. Burns, T. and Stalker, G. M. (1961) The Management of Innovation. Tavistock, London. Garfinkel,H. (1967) Studies in Ethnomethodology. Prentice-Hall,EnglewoodCliffs, NJ. Giddens, A. (1984) The Construction of Society. Polity Press, Cambridge. Grice, P. (1989) Studies in Ways of Words. Harvard UniversityPress, Cambridge,MA. Harper, R. R. (1989) An ethnographic examinationof accountancy.Ph.D. thesis, Sociology Department,Universityof Manchester. Hedberg, B. and Jrnsson, S. (1978) Designingsemi-confusinginformationsystems for organizationsin changingenvironments.Accounting, Organizations and Society 3, 47M94. Jrnsson, S. (1982) Budgetarybehaviourin local government-- a case study over three years. Accounting, Organizcltion and Society 7,287-304. Jrnsson, S. (1990) Stadsdelschefernasfrrv~intningar-- Resultatav intervjuermed Grtyreborgs 21 stadsdelschefer infrr genomfrrandet av stadsdelsn~imndsreformen. (The expectations of the district managers -- results of the interviews with Gothenburg's21 district managersfacing the implementationof the district reform). KFi report 6, Universityof Gothenburg. Jrnsson, S. and Solli, R. (1992) Stadsdelschefernai Grteborg och reformen -- Erfarenheter 1990-91. Delrapport i SDUprojektet. (The district managers and the reform -- Experiences 1990-91). Progress report, Department of Business Administration,Universityof Gothenburg.

38

R. SOLLI and S. JONSSON

J6nsson, S. and Solli, R. (1993a) Organisering fiSr mobilisering -- strategisk f6r'andring i ett komplext politiskt f'alt. (Organizing for mobilization -- strategic change in a complex political field). Paper presented at the conference "Organizing and Management Control in Public Sector Organizations," Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm, 27-28 May 1993. J6nsson, S. and Solli,. R. (1993b) 'Accounting talk' in a caring setting. Management Accounting Research 4,301-320. J6nsson, S. and Solli, R. (1994) Stadsdelscheferna och reforrnen. Sammanfattning efter fyra ~. (The district managers and the reform. Summary after four years). SDU-report 94:1, University of Gothenburg. Katzenbach, J. R. and Smith, D. K. (1993) The Wisdom of Teams. Creating the High-performance Organization. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA. Kolb, D. A. (1984) Experiential Learning. Experience as The Source of Learning and Development. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Lawrence, P. R. and Lorscb, J. W. (1967) Organization and Environment. Harvard Graduate School of Business, Boston, MA. Moerman, M. (1992) Life after C.A. An Ethnographer's Autobiography. In Text in Context. Contributions to Ethnomethodology eds G. Watson and R. M. Seiler, pp. 20-34. Sage, Newbury Park. Munro, R. (1994) Calling for 'accounts': monsters, membership work and management accounting. Paper presented at the 4th Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Accounting Conference, University of Manchester, 11-13 July 1994. Schein, E. H. (1985) Organizational Culture and Leadership. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. Scott, W. R. (1995) Institutions and Organizations. Sage, Thousand Oaks. Searle, J. R. (1983) lntentionality. An Essay in the Philosophy of Mind. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Silverman, D. (1993) Interpreting Qualitative Data. Methods for Analysing Talk, Text and Interaction. Sage, London. Simon, H., Guetzkow, H., Kozonetsky, G. and Tyndall, G. (1954) Centralization vs Decentralization in Organizing the Controller's Department. The Controllership Foundation, New York. Watson, R. (1992) The understanding of language use in everyday life. In Text in Context. Contributions to Ethnomethodology, eds G. Watson and R. M. Seiler, pp. 1-19. Sage, Newbury Park. Watson, G. and Seiler, R. M. (eds) (1992) Text in Context. Contributions to Ethnomethodology. Sage, Newbury Park.