Organizational Design and Management Accounting Change

CentER Working Paper No. 2000-61

26 Pages Posted: 6 Nov 2000

See all articles by Michal Matejka

Michal Matejka

Arizona State University

Anja De Waegenaere

Tilburg University - Department of Econometrics & OR, Netspar, and CentER

Date Written: July 2000

Abstract

Changing management accounting systems requires more than appropriate implementation. It is argued that structural characteristics of an organization, centralization in particular, should also be taken into account when deciding on a change. Centralization implies higher costs of communication because the decision-maker has to obtain information from organizational participants who have incentives to influence the decision. A limit on communication reduces influence costs but at the same time it also lowers the quality of the decision. As a result of that, centralized organizations (i) will implement changes in their accounting systems less often than decentralized ones (ii) will more often implement top-down, i.e. ignore local information.

Keywords: organizational design, management accounting change, centralization, influence costs.

JEL Classification: D23, M21, M40, M46

Suggested Citation

Matejka, Michal and De Waegenaere, Anja M.B., Organizational Design and Management Accounting Change (July 2000). CentER Working Paper No. 2000-61, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=246943 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.246943

Michal Matejka (Contact Author)

Arizona State University ( email )

Tempe, AZ 85287-3706
United States
480-965-7984 (Phone)

Anja M.B. De Waegenaere

Tilburg University - Department of Econometrics & OR, Netspar, and CentER ( email )

P.O. Box 90153
Tilburg, 5000 LE
Netherlands

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