Paper, people and performance : management accountants' perceptions of value creation

Abstract

The role of the management accountant has seen a definitive change in the last 60 years from a "paper" world that emphasises the counting and accounting, to that of a "people" world of managing both teams and processes, all the while being committed to the sustained performance of the organisation and communicating that performance. This paper explores the perspectives and experiences of management accountants on how they navigate through the ambiguities of value creation and stakeholder expectations. The problem addressed by this study is based on the theory that ascribes the function of value creation to the role of the management accountant, but to understand what that amounts to for each individual and how that is realised in different positions and different industries, is still undetermined. What does it mean to create value? What is considered as value? How is value captured and communicated? These questions served as the motivation for conducting this study to gain insight into how value and value creation is understood and applied by management accountants in the workplace and how the different stakeholder expectations are managed through this process. The existing literature on these topics was reviewed and followed by an empirical study who engaged with the management accountants directly. A qualitative research design was followed to collect the data from the 30 participants through the use of a questionnaire. The findings from the empirical study provided invaluable insight into how the concept of value creation currently translates from theory to practice and what elements play a role in stimulating an environment that allows for the active pursuit of value creation. Along with the findings, recommendations for further research on the subject were provided. Although the research was only limited to a certain population of management accountants, it is the hope of the researcher that this study would provide the opportunity for more to be done in developing tools and frameworks to better equip the management accountant within their role, to ultimately be able to actively pursue value creation in any setting.