Making Sense of Management with Logics: An Ethnographic Study of Accountants who Become Managers
Year: 2012
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Management in a professional service firm such as Deloitte is suspended\nbetween a range of different fundamental concerns and ways of thinking. There is a\nmarket in which client needs are to be met, competitors matched and outperformed.\nThere is the general public in which accounting firms such as Deloitte increasingly\nhave become the object of critical scrutiny in their role as guardians of the common\nrules of accountability and legislation on accounting. There is a very strong\nprofessional culture and ethics, stemming from being a part of the professional\ncommunity of a profession which creates unique ways of organizing and managing.\nAnd there is a growing concern about how to run the continually growing\naccounting-based advisory organizations (or professional service firms) in a way that\nefficiently utilizes the aggregated resources, which again creates a focus on\nmanagement as a distinct issue.\nIt is primarily the contradiction and dynamics of the latter two ‘internal’\nconcerns that the study of the dissertation is about - seen as institutional logics of\nprofessionalism and, or versus, bureaucracy. While the focus of most research into professional service firms has been on how general structural changes affect this\nunique species of organization, this study investigates how these contradictions affect\nthe way accountants live and work performing roles as managers; how do\naccountants who become managers make sense of these contradictory logics?\nThe dissertation treats this question theoretically by applying extant literature\ndealing with institutional change and logics with a special emphasis on recent\nresearch that focuses on the micro-processes which are the foundations of institutions\nand concretizes how institutional logics affect the action and sensemaking of actors.\nThe dissertation contributes to this research by applying sensemaking theory and\nsymbolic interactionism. The study is based on a 3-year ethnographic study in which\nmanagers at all levels have been interviewed and observed. Actual management\nprocesses and management training have been observed, via shadowing and\nparticipant observation. Relevant archival material has been included in the analysis.\nAll these sources have been recorded and systematized in order to create a point of\ndeparture for the analyses of the dissertation.\nThe main findings of the study point to:\nThe institutional changes described by the Professional Service Firms research\ncan be identified at the micro- or actor level in terms of ideals, systems, way\norganizing and structures which use a logic of bureaucracy and among which the\ndevelopment of a new middle-management role is a critical feature. These changes\nseem to have important consequences for the basic psychological contract between\nthe professional and the organization in professional service firms.\nThe changes, as they are found in the case, are more complex and laden with\nconflicts than otherwise described in the literature about professional service firms.\nThis is based on the way the actors ‘draw on the existing logics’ and the conditions\nthey have for doing this locally. This points to the importance of investigating the interaction of actors in order to understand how the new management practices are\ninstitutionalized/structurated.\nThe changes towards a new model of management, found in the study, are based\non the ability (and will) of the managers to navigate the contradictory logics in such a\nway that they can establish a meaningful identity as managers, and that they can\nmobilize other actors who support a new way of understanding management and that\nthey are able to create space for the conversational reflection upon their behavior as\nmanagers and management. The ability (and will) of the managers is in its turn\ndependent on local conditions and interaction enabling these steps of sensemaking.
Author: Frans Bévort
Institution: Copenhagen Business School
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2916182677