Aysha Fleming, Sue Ogilvy, Anthony P. O’Grady, Izaac Green, Cara Stitzlein and Claire Horner
This paper aims to accelerate the development of natural capital accounting via an early report of farm accountants responses to prototype natural capital accounts. The authors…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to accelerate the development of natural capital accounting via an early report of farm accountants responses to prototype natural capital accounts. The authors test an approach to co-development with this important group who are both preparers and users of natural capital accounts but are not presently included in the research or development of natural capital accounting.
Design/methodology/approach
Seven practicing farm accountants and three accountants with an interest in this area were interviewed to gather responses to prototype farm natural capital accounts and make changes to improve the clarity, relevance and usefulness of the accounts. The paper calls for more work in participatory co-development to speed up the development and implementation of natural capital accounting.
Findings
The authors found that all participants were supportive of the concept of natural capital accounting and the consideration of agricultural ecosystems as assets of a farm business. Most participants could interpret the accounts and saw them as useful and important to improve sustainability outcomes. Participants highlighted the need for 1) the development of reliable, consistent valuation methods that resist manipulation; 2) natural capital accounting to be affordable and provide value to users; and 3) farmers to be supported to apply and report the methods for different objectives and contexts.
Research limitations/implications
Since agriculture is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions and changes to natural capital in the economy, information included in natural capital accounts of farm businesses is important to inform policy as well as farm management decisions. This research reveals strategies for policy makers to accelerate the supply of this information to enable market and other incentives to address urgent issues related to sustainability. Results of this study are from a limited sample of well-informed individuals and are thus preliminary. However, they highlight the need (and opportunity) to further co-design natural capital accounts in agriculture with farm accountants.
Practical implications
Farm accountants are important stakeholders in the development and implementation of natural capital accounting processes and systems, yet they are currently excluded from the science and standard-setting processes underpinning natural capital accounting. Co-development represents a fundamental shift in how the science around natural capital accounting is done and is an important step towards creating a more transdisciplinary approach to working with users. The authors show how users can be involved in developing natural capital accounting methods, standards and reports.
Social implications
Natural capital accounting is a promising method to help reverse sustainability problems, if it is co-developed with stakeholders to be useful and useable.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to report on farm accountants’ perceptions of natural capital accounts in agriculture and to present a case study of co-developing natural capital accounts with farm accountants.
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In early 2017 I was watching YouTube, and being bounced around by its algorithmic recommendations. One suggestion appearing down the side bar column of jpegs was MARROW, from…
Abstract
In early 2017 I was watching YouTube, and being bounced around by its algorithmic recommendations. One suggestion appearing down the side bar column of jpegs was MARROW, from Anohni’s 2016 album Hopelessness. It figures a black background and foregrounds an ageing, smiling, bejewelled woman lip-syncing to the song. She is the American artist Lorraine O’Grady. Watching it felt odd, as if something was `out of place’.
Anohni speaks through her, using ventriloquist tactics to displace her own body and O’Grady’s voice. This interested me. It was the first time I had been presented with the body of an ageing woman without knowing what she looked like in youth (unlike Madonna or Aretha Franklin for example). And it was the first time I had seen lip syncing done in such an eerie fashion. The tactic is used on other music videos for tracks taken from the album where ageing women and women of colour are centre stage.
Using the idea of a place that it is ‘out of time’, in that the music videos are set in a blank space and the lip- syncing upsets the idea of a single sutured speaking author, the chapter explores the idea of `queer temporality’ by using Judith Halberstam’s 2005 work. It suggests that the music videos are potentially transgressive in their presentation of a non-normative and fractured bodies. It uses work from ageing studies (Baars, 2012) and trans-ageing (Moglen, 2008) to suggest the transgressive potential of Anonhi’s music videos in how they position transgendered voices and ageing bodies.
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Winnie O’Grady and Chris Akroyd
Budgets are commonly viewed as a central component of management control systems (MCS). The beyond budgeting literature argues that managers can develop other controls to replace…
Abstract
Purpose
Budgets are commonly viewed as a central component of management control systems (MCS). The beyond budgeting literature argues that managers can develop other controls to replace budgets. The purpose of this paper is to examine the MCS package of an organisation which has never in its history had a traditional budget.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors carry out an ethnomethodology informed case study at Mainfreight, a large multinational logistics company headquartered in New Zealand. Data were collected from interviews with managers and accountants, internal company documents, published corporate histories, a company presentation, the corporate Web site and site visits.
Findings
The authors found that Mainfreight’s MCS package was explicitly designed based on cultural and administrative systems which supported the planning, cybernetic and reward systems managers used to monitor key drivers of short-and long-term performance with a focus on profitability.
Research limitations/implications
The implication of the finding is that a more holistic view of the MCS package is necessary to understand how control is achieved within organisations that have moved beyond budgeting.
Practical implications
The authors show that organisations can operate without traditional budgets and still maintain a high level of control by developing appropriate cultural and administrative control systems that are internally consistent with their planning, cybernetic and reward systems.
Originality/value
The scarcity of organisations that have never had budgets limits opportunities to investigate an MCS package intended to function without budgets. This unique case setting reveals the design of an integrated non-budgeting MCS package.
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Marc Wouters, Susana Morales, Sven Grollmuss and Michael Scheer
The paper provides an overview of research published in the innovation and operations management (IOM) literature on 15 methods for cost management in new product development, and…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper provides an overview of research published in the innovation and operations management (IOM) literature on 15 methods for cost management in new product development, and it provides a comparison to an earlier review of the management accounting (MA) literature (Wouters & Morales, 2014).
Methodology/approach
This structured literature search covers papers published in 23 journals in IOM in the period 1990–2014.
Findings
The search yielded a sample of 208 unique papers with 275 results (one paper could refer to multiple cost management methods). The top 3 methods are modular design, component commonality, and product platforms, with 115 results (42%) together. In the MA literature, these three methods accounted for 29%, but target costing was the most researched cost management method by far (26%). Simulation is the most frequently used research method in the IOM literature, whereas this was averagely used in the MA literature; qualitative studies were the most frequently used research method in the MA literature, whereas this was averagely used in the IOM literature. We found a lot of papers presenting practical approaches or decision models as a further development of a particular cost management method, which is a clear difference from the MA literature.
Research limitations/implications
This review focused on the same cost management methods, and future research could also consider other cost management methods which are likely to be more important in the IOM literature compared to the MA literature. Future research could also investigate innovative cost management practices in more detail through longitudinal case studies.
Originality/value
This review of research on methods for cost management published outside the MA literature provides an overview for MA researchers. It highlights key differences between both literatures in their research of the same cost management methods.
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Margaret Fry and Anthony Dombkins
Clinical leadership, researcher capacity and a culture of clinical inquiry are needed in the clinical workforce. The purpose of this paper is to report on a program which was used…
Abstract
Purpose
Clinical leadership, researcher capacity and a culture of clinical inquiry are needed in the clinical workforce. The purpose of this paper is to report on a program which was used to develop and support clinicians to explore practice, implement innovation, translate evidence and build researcher capacity.
Design/methodology/approach
This pragmatic paper presents a case study of a nursing and midwifery clinician-researcher development program. The multi-site, multi-modal program focused on education, mentoring and support, communication networks, and clinician-university partnerships strategies to build workforce capacity and leadership.
Findings
Over 2,000 staff have been involved in the program representing a range of health disciplines. The study day program has been delivered to 500 participants with master classes having over 1,500 attendees. The research mentor program has demonstrated that participants increased their confidence for research leadership roles and are pursuing research and quality assurance projects. Communication strategies improved the visibility of nursing and midwifery.
Research limitations/implications
This case study was conducted in one health district, which may not have relevance to other geographical areas. The small numbers involved in the research mentor program need to be considered when reviewing the findings.
Practical implications
The program has been a catalyst for developing a research culture, clinical leadership and research networks that strengthen workforce capacity. Building researcher skills in the workforce will better support quality healthcare and the examination of everyday practice.
Social implications
Building a culture of healthcare that is based on inquiry and evidence-based practice will lead to more appropriate and consistent healthcare delivery. Consumers have the right to expect health clinicians will challenge everyday practice and have the skills and capability to translate or generate best evidence to underpin professional and service delivery.
Originality/value
This paper provides strategies for building workforce researcher capacity and capability. The program provides opportunity for building research networks and role modeling the value and importance of research to practice and quality improvement.
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Maiju Kyytsönen, Marco Tomietto, Moona Huhtakangas and Outi Kanste
The purpose of this study is to review research on hospital-based shared governance (SG), focussing on its core elements.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to review research on hospital-based shared governance (SG), focussing on its core elements.
Design/methodology/approach
A scoping review was conducted by searching the Medline (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCO), Medic, ABI/INFORM Collection (ProQuest) and SveMed+ databases using SG and related concepts in hospital settings as search terms (May 1998–February 2019). Only original research articles examining SG were included. The reference lists of the selected articles were reviewed. Data were extracted from the selected articles by charting and then subjected to a thematic analysis.
Findings
The review included 13 original research articles that examined SG in hospital settings. The studied organizations had implemented SG in different ways, and many struggled to obtain satisfactory results. SG was executed within individual professions or multiple professions and was typically implemented at both unit- and organization-levels. The thematic analysis revealed six core elements of SG as follows: professionalism, shared decision-making, evidence-based practice, continuous quality improvement, collaboration and empowerment.
Practical implications
An SG framework for hospital settings was developed based on the core elements of SG, the participants and the organizational levels involved. Hospitals considering SG should prepare for a time-consuming process that requires belief in the core elements of SG. The SG framework can be used as a tool to implement and strengthen SG in organizations.
Originality/value
The review resumes the tradition of systematically reviewing SG literature, which had not been done in the 21st century. General tendencies of the research scene and research gaps are pointed out.
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Andrew Weyman, Thomas Klassen and Heike Schröder
We discuss workforce management, related to those aged 50+ , in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Korea. With international competitiveness becoming increasingly crucial…
Abstract
We discuss workforce management, related to those aged 50+ , in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Korea. With international competitiveness becoming increasingly crucial, retaining the ‘right’ mix of employees to achieve strategic organisational goals is likely to determine organisational success. However, we argue that workforce management is not only influenced by organisational-level strategy but also by national institutional and sectoral policies. Decisions on whether and how to retain older workers are therefore (co-)determined by institutional incentives and barriers to doing so.
We find that British and Korean governments have legislated in favour of extended working lives and, hence, the retention of ageing workforces. In the United Kingdom, pension eligibility ages are being increased and in Korea mandatory retirement age has been raised to age 60. While changes to the UK pension systems leave individuals with the (financial) risks associated with extended working lives, the Korean government tries to protect individuals from financial hardship by enabling them to remain longer in their primary career. However, whether and how government regulation plays out depends on how organisations react to it. The Korean discussion, in fact, shows that there might be leeway: organisations might continue to externalise their employees early framed as honourable, or voluntary, early retirement, which might not be in the interest of the individual but very much in the interest of the organisation. It therefore appears as if the retention of ageing staff is not (yet) considered to be of strategic importance by many organisations in these countries.
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Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).