Hoque, Zahirul and Hopper, Trevor (1994) Rationality, accounting and politics: a case study of management control in a Bangladeshi jute mill. Management Accounting Research, 5 (1). pp. 5-30. ISSN 1044-5005

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Abstract

This paper reports on a study of the operation of management control systems in a large nationalized jute mill of Bangladesh. The study was guided by a wish to understand how control’ operated at the level of practice and to explain why the systems of control worked in the ways they appeared to do. Investigations revealed a number of significant factors: first, the organization operated in competitive and regulated environments; it had little authority over its operational activities, and head office and the sponsoring ministry were prominent in organizational planning and control; secondly, the accounting system in the mill was mainly a response to external legitimacy (e.g., stewardship and tax matters); thirdly, although budgeting was perceived as part of the formal structure of controls, it was not a dominant mode of control in the organization; the budgeting system was created to comply with head office and State requirements; fourthly, the mill managers used a variety of social/informal control mechanisms to cope with the complexity and uncertainty around the mill investigated. This study reinforces the conclusions of other research claiming that the wider social, economic, political and institutional contexts govern the ways management control operates in the organization.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	University of Sussex Business School > Accounting and Finance
SWORD Depositor:	Mx Elements Account
Depositing User:	Mx Elements Account
Date Deposited:	07 Jan 2022 14:48
Last Modified:	07 Jan 2022 14:48
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/103691

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