Knowledge that Transforms

This paper mobilises a governmentality framing drawing on Miller and Rose (1990) and Rose and Miller (1992) to examine how fluctuating rationalities and programmes of government shaped the construction of accountability over several decades in the relationship between Dutch development NGOs and their governmental funder. It unveils a dynamic, mutually constitutive interrelationship between an assortment of NGO accountability technologies and the shifting rationalities and programmes that underpinned their emergence and adoption. We show how a rationale idealising improved NGO accountability through quality improvement underwent constant modification in a context where programmes seeking to facilitate this ideal were congenitally failing and continually altered. Within these efforts to shape the conduct of NGOs we call attention to the constitutive role of NGO ‘counter-conduct’ – conduct by NGOs motivated by a desire to be governed differently (Foucault, 2007). We uncover what Foucault (2007) refers to as the “correlation between conduct and counter-conduct” (p. 196) in the process through which accountability technologies were mutually moulded in the interactions between NGOs and their governmental funder; a correlation frequently overlooked in analyses of governmentality. We unearth five interrelated forms of NGO counter-conduct - associating self-governance with good governance; concentrating engagement at the programmatic level; pre-emption; ‘working around’ core programmatic aims; and aligning the ‘rules of competition’ with existing expertise. We illustrate how this counter-conduct was initially, albeit not ultimately, constitutive of governmentality as it stimulated shifts towards programmatic aims of cost consciousness, increased professionalisation, and enhanced NGO cooperation. Within this process, the creation of competition for funding among NGOs emerged as an objective of accountability thereby offering a counterpoint to prior research which frequently perceives competition for funding as an explanation for increased attention to NGO accountability.

Since the Global Financial Crisis, corporate tax minimization strategies have come under increasing public scrutiny. While the legitimacy of ‘aggressive’ practices has been challenged, corporate tax minimization largely remains unquestioned and manifests in corporate tax strategies. To appreciate how the institutionalized practice of tax minimization is maintained, despite threats to its legitimacy, this paper examines the influence of field dynamics on the enactment of corporate tax strategies. To map the field, we interviewed a cross section of actors involved in influencing the enactment of corporate taxation in Australia, including external advisors, CFOs, tax regulators and policy makers, unions, civil society groups and academics. By adopting Bourdieu's work as a lens, we find that a lack of practical means for implementing a moral view on tax prevents a radical departure from corporate tax minimization strategies. Changing the status quo failed due to critics lacking to propose a practical alternative to the law, which remained the sole guide for tax minimization practices. Despite the presence of heavy critiques, an analysis of the interdependence between the power structure of the field, actors' capitals and their habitus reveal a reinforcement of the view that tax minimization is the only viable strategy. These insights advance field-level studies in accounting by extending the scope of actors included, further demonstrating the influence of marginal actors on field-wide perceptions of legitimacy and potential routes for institutional change.

Based on a micro-level study of microfinance, this paper explores how basic accounting technologies and interpersonal accountability are used to make lending to poor village women profitable and low risk. We argue that “microaccountability,” our term for the structuring and formalization of convivial relationships into a capillary system of accountability, must be recognized as a central tool of social governance under neoliberalism. Our field research in Sri Lanka allows us to analyse how microaccountability is employed by for-profit banks to create from poor villagers a legion of bankable individual entrepreneurs, trained to invigilate each other's savings and credit behaviours. Using the theoretical lens of biopolitics, we show how microaccountability enables the extension of the finance industry into untapped sectors of the global population.

Using data from an in-depth case study of a manufacturing firm, this paper examines management accountants' efforts to position themselves as business partners. We regard this as an identity project that is influenced not only by operational managers (as the main addressees of business partnering), but also by other organizational actors with whom management accountants (indirectly) interact. Drawing upon Goffman, our study demonstrates how backstage and frontstage interactions with various actors allow management accountants to develop ideational and experimental storyable items, which help them render a vague aspirational identity meaningful. We emphasize the interplay between frontstage and backstage performances and highlight both achievements and experiences of fragility in their identity work. Our paper illuminates not only the micro-dynamics of accountants' identity work; it also shows how the identity project of a particular occupational group is embedded in broader organizational concerns with 'value creation', from which it draws part of its inspiration.

This study explores the decision-facilitating role of performance measurement systems (PMSs) in firms attempting to translate competence ambidexterity (i.e., the simultaneous pursuit of exploration and exploitation) into innovation ambidexterity outcomes (i.e., the achievement of both radical and incremental innovations). Drawing on paradox and organisational conflict literature, this study emphasises the role of cognitive conflict, generated by PMSs, in shaping the relationships between competence ambidexterity and innovation ambidexterity. Based on survey data from a sample of 90 Irish firms, our findings indicate that competence ambidexterity is associated with (a) the choice to have a balanced set of performance measures, and (b) the use of PMSs for frequent and intensive debate between top managers. Furthermore, the study reveals that these choices are interdependent, as they function as complements in generating cognitive conflict, which in turn drives the realisation of innovation ambidexterity outcomes. The results also show that cognitive conflict is not directly associated with the development of competence ambidexterity, but is instead generated through the conjoint action of a balanced PMS design and the use of PMSs for intensive debate. Overall, this study demonstrates the interdependent nature of choices concerning the design and use of PMSs, and the significant role of PMSs as generators of cognitive conflict in firms attempting to achieve ambidexterity.