A Philosophy of Management Accounting A Pragmatic Constructivist Approach

The book introduces pragmatic constructivism as a paradigm for understanding actors’ construction of functioning practice and for developing methods and concepts for managing and observing that practice. The book explores, understands and theorises organisational practices as constructed through the activities of all organisational actors. Actors always act under presumptions of a specific actor-world-relation which they continuously construct, adjust and reconstruct in light of new experiences, contexts and communication. The outcome of the actor-world-relation is a reality construction. The reality construction may function successfully or it may be hampered by fictitious and illusionary elements, due to missing or faulty actor-world relations. The thesis is that four dimensions of reality – facts, possibilities, values and communication – must be integrated in the actor-world-relation if the construct is to form a successful basis for effective, functioning actions. Drawing on pragmatic constructivism, the book provides concepts and ideas for studies regarding actors and their use of management accounting models in their construction of organized reality. It concentrates on researching and conceptualizing what creates functioning reality construction. It develops concept and methods for understanding, analysing and managing the actors’ reality constructions. It is intended for people who do research on or work actively with developing management accounting.

1.Introduction Hanne Nørreklit, Falconer Mitchell and Morten Raffnsøe-Møller Part I. Paradigm of Pragmatic Constructivism 2.Actor-reality construction Lennart Nørreklit 3. Epistemology Lennart Nørreklit Part II. Decision Making and Performance Management 4. Reflective planning and decision-making Hanne Nørreklit, Falconer Mitchell and Lars Braad Nielsen 5. New product development project managers as actors: the view point of management accounting and control Teemu Laine, Tuomas Korhonen, Petri Suomala and Emmi Tervala 6. The validity of financial statement measurement Falconer Mitchell, Hanne Nørreklit and Lennart Nørreklit 7. Orcheastring strategic co-authorship Gudrun Baldvinsdottir and Christian Heidarson 8.Actor-based performance management Mihaela Trenca and Hanne Nørreklit 9.Discovering and understanding performance measurement in a context of ambiguity Lino Cinquini, Cristina Campanale, Daniela Pianezzi and Andrea Tenucci Part III. Research Approaches and Reality Constructions 10. Languages games of management accounting – constructing illusions or realities Nikolaj Kure, Hanne Nørreklit and Morten Raffnsøe-Møller 11. Actor reality construction, strong structuration theory and organised crime Lisa Jack 12. A comparison of pragmatic constructivism and actor-network theory Morten Jakobsen 13. A pragmatic constructivist perspective on sensemaking in management control Will Seal and Ruth Mattimoe 14.A Pragmatic Constructivist Approach to Studying Difference and Change in Management Accounting Practice Falconer Mitchell

Hanne Nørreklit is a Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark.