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Management planning and control—The behavioural foundations
BOOK
197
REVIEWS
K. R. Ferris and J. L. Livingstone MANAGEMENTPLANNINGANDCONTROL-THEBEHAVIOURALFOUNDA~ONS Publishing Horizons Inc. (Columbus, Ohio, 1987) 2nd Ed. pp. 249; $15.95 (pbk). It is always good to see an old friend who returns after many years looking younger than ever. In this case, the friend concerned is Livingstone’s ‘Managerial Accounting-the behavioural foundations’ now with a new title, new chapter authors and a different cover. However, in this new text we have considerably more than a face lift-the spirit of the original still remains. The chapters are all thought provoking and scholarly and the new team of writers have done their job with considerable skill. This book, like its predecessor, is a worthy purchase and, I am sure it will find a useful place in many undergraduate and postgraduate reading lists. The book contains ten substantial readings and a very brief scene setting chapter by Kenneth Ferris. This chapter is useful in that it specifies three dominant themes. First, that management accounting is an information system with a primary purpose to generate useful information for decision makers. Second, that both organisations and individuals can be regarded as open systems which leads, third, to the dominant theme of the book that behaviour within organisations ‘at all levels-individual, group, divisional or corporate-is largely caused by or is in response to the contingent variables faced by the organisation and its employees’. Indeed, the Contingency Framework dominates the chapters and gives a book a feeling of being somewhat dated. Clearly, the Contingency Framework has been particularly influential in understanding management accounting and information systems in previous years but it is an approach which is subject to legitimate criticism on a number of counts. Unfortunately, there is very little criticism of the Contingency Framework nor, indeed, little awareness that such criticism is possible in many of the readings. The problem appears to be that many of the readings are straight literature reviews of material from the dominant orthodoxy. Both Sathe and Watson’s ‘Contingency Theories of Organisational Structure’ and Brownell’s ‘The Use of Accounting Information in Management Control’ exemplify the problem and are examples of topic areas which demand more than the authors have had space to give. Readings of special note which avoid this problem are Cameron and Borucki’s excellent ‘A Behavioral Approach to Assessing Effectiveness at the Business Unit Level’ and Otley’s ‘Accounting for Divisional Planning and Control’. This latter reading although written by an author who is clearly committed to the Contingency Approach is the one which gives the clearest specification of the weaknesses of the Approach. Finally, I am one of those traditionalists who believe that a book’s title should fairly reflect its contents. In this respect I prefer the original title which made it clear that the majority of readings were about management accounting. The new title is vague as to subject matter and clearly misdirects the book in marketing terms. BOB RYAN Southampton Uniwrsity
197
REVIEWS
K. R. Ferris and J. L. Livingstone MANAGEMENTPLANNINGANDCONTROL-THEBEHAVIOURALFOUNDA~ONS Publishing Horizons Inc. (Columbus, Ohio, 1987) 2nd Ed. pp. 249; $15.95 (pbk). It is always good to see an old friend who returns after many years looking younger than ever. In this case, the friend concerned is Livingstone’s ‘Managerial Accounting-the behavioural foundations’ now with a new title, new chapter authors and a different cover. However, in this new text we have considerably more than a face lift-the spirit of the original still remains. The chapters are all thought provoking and scholarly and the new team of writers have done their job with considerable skill. This book, like its predecessor, is a worthy purchase and, I am sure it will find a useful place in many undergraduate and postgraduate reading lists. The book contains ten substantial readings and a very brief scene setting chapter by Kenneth Ferris. This chapter is useful in that it specifies three dominant themes. First, that management accounting is an information system with a primary purpose to generate useful information for decision makers. Second, that both organisations and individuals can be regarded as open systems which leads, third, to the dominant theme of the book that behaviour within organisations ‘at all levels-individual, group, divisional or corporate-is largely caused by or is in response to the contingent variables faced by the organisation and its employees’. Indeed, the Contingency Framework dominates the chapters and gives a book a feeling of being somewhat dated. Clearly, the Contingency Framework has been particularly influential in understanding management accounting and information systems in previous years but it is an approach which is subject to legitimate criticism on a number of counts. Unfortunately, there is very little criticism of the Contingency Framework nor, indeed, little awareness that such criticism is possible in many of the readings. The problem appears to be that many of the readings are straight literature reviews of material from the dominant orthodoxy. Both Sathe and Watson’s ‘Contingency Theories of Organisational Structure’ and Brownell’s ‘The Use of Accounting Information in Management Control’ exemplify the problem and are examples of topic areas which demand more than the authors have had space to give. Readings of special note which avoid this problem are Cameron and Borucki’s excellent ‘A Behavioral Approach to Assessing Effectiveness at the Business Unit Level’ and Otley’s ‘Accounting for Divisional Planning and Control’. This latter reading although written by an author who is clearly committed to the Contingency Approach is the one which gives the clearest specification of the weaknesses of the Approach. Finally, I am one of those traditionalists who believe that a book’s title should fairly reflect its contents. In this respect I prefer the original title which made it clear that the majority of readings were about management accounting. The new title is vague as to subject matter and clearly misdirects the book in marketing terms. BOB RYAN Southampton Uniwrsity