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Article
Publication date: 10 April 2024

Fredrik Svärdsten and Kristina Tamm Hallström

The aim of this paper is to contribute to knowledge about the diversity of credibility arrangements in new audit spaces “in the margins” of auditing and the implications of such…

871

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to contribute to knowledge about the diversity of credibility arrangements in new audit spaces “in the margins” of auditing and the implications of such arrangements.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on an in-depth qualitative study of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) rights certification run by the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Rights (RFSL) during its first decade of operation. We have interviewed employees and studied documents at the certification units within the RFSL. We have also interviewed certified organizations.

Findings

We highlight two features that explain the unusual credibility arrangements in this audit practice: the role of beneficiaries in the organizational arrangements chosen and the role of responsibility as an organizing value with consequences for responsibility allocation in this certification. These features make it possible for the RFSL to act as a credible auditor even though it deviates from common arrangements for credible audits.

Originality/value

The RFSL certification is different in several ways. First, the RFSL acts as both a trainer and an auditor. Second, the trainers/auditors at the RFSL have no accreditation to guarantee their credibility. Third, the RFSL decides for itself what standards should apply for the certification and adapts these standards to the operation being audited. Therefore, this case provides a good opportunity to study alternative credibility arrangements in the margins of auditing as well as their justifications.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 37 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 29 April 2021

Linda Höglund, Mikael Holmgren Caicedo, Maria Mårtensson and Fredrik Svärdsten

The objective of this paper is to generate further knowledge about strategic management accounting (SMA) in the public sector context. The authors attempt to do this through a…

5107

Abstract

Purpose

The objective of this paper is to generate further knowledge about strategic management accounting (SMA) in the public sector context. The authors attempt to do this through a study of SMA work in a public sector agency (PSA), the Swedish Transport Administration (STA). The paper elaborates on the formation of the agency's strategies and the challenges the agency's SMA work had to deal with, and focuses its analysis on the interplay between SMA and the characteristics of the public sector as well as how it is constitutive of strategy.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical material was gathered between 2013 and 2015 and consists of documents that include the STA's appropriation, mandate, strategic and operational plans, and balanced scorecard, as well as interviews with 35 civil servants at various levels of the STA.

Findings

The study finds that, depending on the performances of PSAs in their specific environment and the influences from the environment's constituents, SMA may function as an instrument that makes or breaks strategies. The characteristics of the public sector context may therefore affect SMA, and by extension, strategy, in several ways. First, the present case shows that the inherent reduction that the focus of SMA techniques entails, and their inability to deal with the complexity of a PSA's context, places them at constant risk of becoming strategically irrelevant in the eyes of knowledgeable local managers in a PSA. Second, interventions from the government may override a PSA's SMA and in effect make a PSA's strategic focus ambiguous. Third, outside monitoring performed by such actors as the National Audit Office and the mass media may influence a PSA's SMA work both directly and indirectly when the agency and the government are responsive to the agenda set by such scrutiny.

Originality/value

The paper broadens the scope of earlier SMA research in the public sector by including the specific characteristics of the public sector in the analysis and how accounting techniques may come to compete for strategic placement as they are propelled from within and from without the organization.

Details

Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, vol. 33 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1096-3367

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 1 March 2011

Anders Grönlund, Fredrik Svärdsten and Peter Öhman

This paper aims to develop a classification scheme of different types of value for money (VFM) audits with different degrees of compliance audit, and to classify the performance…

3518

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to develop a classification scheme of different types of value for money (VFM) audits with different degrees of compliance audit, and to classify the performance audits carried out by the Swedish National Audit Office (SNAO) during its first six years as an independent state audit organization reporting to parliament.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical data were gathered from all of the 150 audit reports published by the SNAO from its establishment in 2003 to the end of 2008. Seminars were arranged to discuss the classifications for validation.

Findings

The focus on traditional VFM audits (the “Three Es”) is unusual. Most audits carried out by the SNAO combine different types of extended VFM audits with compliance audit. On the one hand, they audit how the government and/or central agencies fulfil their mandates (from good to bad). On the other, they audit how the government and/or central agencies adhere to legislation, rules and policies (right or wrong). In some cases, the SNAO equates compliance audit with performance audit.

Practical implications

The authors have verbalised and visualised performance audit activities of interest not only to state auditors, but also to external stakeholders. One practical implication is that the Swedish national audit committee has conducted an evaluation of the SNAO that is partly based on the national report of this study, and has proposed a stronger focus on the Three Es.

Originality/value

The study addresses a new approach in terms of a classification scheme for performance audits, consisting of eight types of VFM audits and three degrees of compliance audit, and creating 24 possible combinations.

Details

International Journal of Public Sector Management, vol. 24 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3558

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 18 November 2024

Anton Borell

Prior studies have treated colonisation as a process whereby traditional values in public sector settings are replaced by economic ones, driven by the extensive use and visibility…

159

Abstract

Purpose

Prior studies have treated colonisation as a process whereby traditional values in public sector settings are replaced by economic ones, driven by the extensive use and visibility of accounting instruments. This paper challenges this conceptualisation by proposing that colonisation can also be integrative, rather than merely a replacing process.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employs a qualitative research approach, utilising interviews, observations and documents obtained in a Swedish municipality. The primary focus is on the introduction of economic, market-oriented reforms in a compulsory school setting, a site traditionally guided by welfare values.

Findings

The paper demonstrates that a range of situations has emerged wherein actors attempted to integrate market-oriented and welfare values through various accounting techniques. It also shows how this integration led to colonising outcomes, stemming from an underlying premise of aligning welfare values with a market-like agenda.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to existing research by exploring the complexities and nuances of colonisation and the role of accounting in the interplay between economic and traditional values in public sector settings. It particularly adds to recent studies by outlining a specific form of integrative colonisation, which focusses on a calculative and technical approach to reconciling seemingly disparate values.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 37 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 15 February 2022

Tamara Volodina, Giuseppe Grossi and Veronika Vakulenko

The purpose of this paper is to explore how internal auditors’ (IAs) roles have changed because of the diffusion of neoliberal ideologies in the Ukrainian public sector.

3385

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how internal auditors’ (IAs) roles have changed because of the diffusion of neoliberal ideologies in the Ukrainian public sector.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative methodological approach was applied. Data were collected from 29 semi-structured interviews with public sector auditors in Ukraine’s central government; secondary data analysis was also performed.

Findings

IAs’ role in Ukraine’s central government has changed significantly, with reforms attempting to move to performance auditing. Consequently, Ukrainian central government IAs appeared in the multi-expectation situation, due to the division of the role senders into two different areas. On one hand, IAs are expected to perform new roles set by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, while their traditional role as “watchdogs” is still expected by managers (heads of institutions). Diverging expectations resulted in the role conflict that impedes the change in IAs’ role and performance auditing introduction in the Ukrainian central government. Moreover, we identify factors that motivate IAs to prioritise managers’ expectations, while trying to cope with the existing role conflict in Ukraine’s central government.

Originality/value

This study makes a threefold contribution by enriching the understanding of auditors’ roles, role conflicts that public sector auditors may experience and factors that influence how auditors cope with such conflicts, through the lenses of role theory; exploring the change in roles with the emergence of performance auditing; and shedding light on public sector auditing in the less explored context of a post-Soviet country.

Details

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, vol. 19 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1832-5912

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 22 November 2022

Olga Golubeva

This article investigates whether accounting, a tool that affects the actions of both organisations and society, can contribute to further developing the concept of…

2823

Abstract

Purpose

This article investigates whether accounting, a tool that affects the actions of both organisations and society, can contribute to further developing the concept of sustainability. Exploiting real-time accounts of management speeches, termed “managerial talk” in the context of this paper, the study is among the first to include technology within a sustainability framework.

Design/methodology/approach

A data structure with first-order and second-order categories was created using a methodology elaborated by Van Maanen (1979) and Gioia et al. (2012). The empirical data was collected during 20 presentations delivered by senior managers from companies, the financial industry, the Swedish government and non-profit organisations to the Swedish Society of Financial Analysts between November 2016 and February 2020.

Findings

The study develops an inductive model that emerges as a result of the data analysis process. It emphasises that technology can be both an enabler for, and an interference with, sustainability according to the application of steering mechanisms. The latter include governance and regulations, analysis and evaluation tools, and disclosure practice.

Research limitations/implications

Acknowledging the role of technology in sustainable development can potentially assist in the implementation of sustainability and, arguably, in fostering an alignment between the three pillars of sustainability.

Originality/value

Interrelationships between sustainability, technology and accounting comprise a relatively unexplored research setting that has seldom been at the centre of academic studies.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 35 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

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