Core values as a management control in the construction of “sustainable development”
Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management
ISSN: 1176-6093
Article publication date: 15 June 2015
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine a management control constructed by senior managers, a core value focused on sustainability, as it travels through time and space. The criticality of sustainable development suggests the need to understand the effects that core values have on organisational actions.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study methodology carried out at a multinational organisation is used. This analysis was informed by an actor-network theory which allowed placing the organisation’s sustainability focused core value at the centre of this research.
Findings
It was found that management control, in the form of a sustainability-focused core value, took on an active role in the case organisation. This enabled the opening of space and time that allowed actors to step forward and take action in relation to sustainable development. It is shown how the core value mobilised individual actors at specific points in time but did not enrol enough collective support to continue its travel. The resulting activities, though, provided a construction of sustainable development within the organisation more in line with traditional profit-seeking objectives rather than in relation to sustainability objectives, such as inter- and intra-generational equity.
Research limitations/implications
These findings suggest possibilities for future research that examines the active role that management controls may take within sustainable development.
Originality/value
This paper shows the active role a management control, a sustainability focused core value, took within an organisation. This builds on the research that examines management control in relation to sustainability issues and sustainable development as well as the literature that examines core values.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper has benefited from the helpful comments on earlier versions made by John Burns, Habib Mahama, Kohji Yoshikawa, Casey Rowe, Takaharu Kawai, participants at the 8th International Management Control Research Conference, participants at MONFORMA 2010, participants at the 4th New Zealand Management Accounting Conference, participants at the 2013 Management Accounting Section Research and Case Conference, and seminar participants at the Department of Operations Management, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Accounting, University of Exeter Business School, and Department of Accounting, Doshisha University. We would especially like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive and insightful comments that have allowed us to improve the paper.
Citation
Jollands, S., Akroyd, C. and Sawabe, N. (2015), "Core values as a management control in the construction of “sustainable development”", Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 127-152. https://doi.org/10.1108/QRAM-04-2015-0040
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited