The impact of contextual changes on the role of management accounting: evidence from a government trading enterprise in Australia

This paper examines the way in which management accounting practices in a government trading enterprise in the State of New South Wales, Australia, changed in conjunction with the changes in the organisation’s goals, structure and culture. Using field study methods, data were gathered for the period from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s. The study reveals that change in the public sector environment in the late ‘80s and ‘90s stimulated significant reform efforts in the case study organisation with varying outcomes. While some of the resulting changes evolved slowly and steadily, others were implemented with some difficulty. Certain reforms failed to take root and some attempts were completely abandoned. The study reveals the immaturity of the organisation’s culture in its capacity to adopt changes, and the unsettled nature of the organisation’s structure inhibited the effective adaptation of management accounting practices. The paper concludes that different contextual factors could have different influences on the change in management accounting practices; whilst some factors stimulate change in such practices, others may have a moderating effect on the changes. Consequently, the effective adaptation and implementation of management accounting practices largely depend on the extent to which stimulating and moderating factors are mutually supportive and reinforcing.