Refine
Document Type
- Journal article (10)
- Conference proceeding (5)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (15)
Institute
- ESB Business School (15)
Publisher
Veränderungen der Rolle von Controllern in Großkonzernen - Ergebnisse einer empirischen Erhebung
(2021)
Die anhaltende Diskussion über die Rolle von Management Accountants (MA) führt häufig dazu, dass die Rolle des Business Partners (BP) als die Rolle der Wahl angesehen wird. Dennoch scheinen viele Wissenschaftler und Praktiker davon auszugehen, dass diese Rolle den Managern und MA klar ist, dass sie für sie sinnvoll ist und alle Manager und MA ihr zustimmen und sie umsetzen. Unstimmigkeiten zwischen der tatsächlichen Rolle, der wahrgenommenen und der erwarteten Rolle könnten zu Identitäts- und Rollenkonflikten führen. Dieser Beitrag basiert auf einer quantitativen empirischen Studie in einem großen deutschen High-Tech-Unternehmen im Jahr 2019, dessen Top-Management sich für die Einführung der BP-Rolle entschied.
So-called cloud-based management information systems are a fairly new phenomenon in management accounting in recent years. Quite a few companies (and especially their business managers and management accountants) do not always work via the cloud, but with hybrid solutions or on-premise solutions of ERP software such as SAP or Oracle, but often still with "manual" solutions such as Microsoft Excel.
Managerial accountants spend a large part of their working time on more operational activities in cost accounting, reporting, and operational planning and budgeting. In all these areas, there has been increasing discussion in recent years, both in theory and practice, about using more digital technologies. For reporting, this means not only an intensified discussion of technologies such as RPA and AI but also more intensive changes to existing reporting systems. In particular, management information systems (MIS), which are maintained by managerial accountants and used by managers for corporate management, should be mentioned here. Based on an empirical survey in a large German company, this article discusses the requirements and assessments of users when switching from a regular MIS to a cloud-based system.
An empirical study on management accountants’ roles and role perceptions: a German perspective
(2022)
The ongoing discussion on roles of management accountants (MAs) leads often to perceive the business partner (BP) role as the role of choice. Yet, many scholars and practitioners seem to assume that this role is clear to managers and MAs, that it makes sense for them and that all managers and MAs agree on it and implement it. Inconsistencies between actual roles, perceived, and expected roles might cause identity and role conflicts. However, we lack evidence of whether managers and MAs perceive, expect and act in the BP role and if tensions and conflicts might exist. This paper is based on a quantitative empirical study of a large German high-tech firm in 2019 whose top management decided to implement the BP role. We found several areas of tension in this role discussion and contribute to the literature on MAs’ roles with a more nuanced view of the interaction between managers and MAs regarding MAs’ roles. The study shows that there are mainly differences in business managers’ expectations of MAs to the role of the BP, which the MAs do not know exactly how to fulfill.
Purpose
Job advertisements are important means of communicating role expectations for management accountants to the labor market. They provide information about which roles are sought and expected. However, which roles are communicated in job advertisements is unknown so far.
Design/methodology/approach
With a text-mining approach on a large sample of 889 job ads, the authors extract information on roles, type of firm and hierarchical position of the management accountant sought.
Findings
The results indicate an apparent mix of different role types with a strong focus on a classic watchdog role. However, the business partner role is more often sought for leadership positions or in family businesses and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME).
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation is the lack of an agreed-upon measurement instrument for roles in job offers. The study results imply that corporate practice is not as theory-driven as is postulated and communicated in the management accounting community. This indicates the existence of a research-practice gap and tensions between different actors in the management accounting field.
Practical implications
The results challenge the current role discussion of professional organizations for management accountants as business partners.
Originality/value
The authors contribute the first study, which explicitly analyzes the communication of roles in job offers for management accountants. It indicates a discrepancy between scholarly discussion on roles and management accountants' work from an employer's perspective.
Stellenausschreibungen sind ein wichtiges Mittel, um Rollen von Controllern auf dem Arbeitsmarkt zu kommunizieren. Stellenanzeigen öffnen ein Fenster zu dem, was Firmen als Rollen für ihre Controller wahrnehmen. Welche Rollen Stellenanzeigen kommunizieren, ist bisher nicht bekannt. Unter Verwendung einer großen Stichprobe von 889 Stellenanzeigen und eines Text-Mining-Ansatzes zeigen wir, dass es offenbar eine Mischung verschiedener Rollentypen mit einem starken Fokus auf einen eher klassischen Rollentyp gibt, die Watchdog-Rolle. Personen mit Business-Partner-Eigenschaften werden dagegen häufiger für Führungspositionen oder in Familienunternehmen und kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen (KMU) gesucht. Die Ergebnisse stellen die derzeitige Rollen-diskussion für Controller als Business Partner in der Praxis und in einigen Bereichen der Wissenschaft in Frage.
Job advertisements are important means of communicating role expectations for management accountants to the labor market. They provide information about which roles of management accountants are sought by companies or which roles are expected. However, which roles are communicated in job advertisements is unknown so far. Using a large sample of 889 job ads and a text-mining approach, we show an apparent mix of different role types with a strong focus on a rather classic role: the watchdog role. However, individuals with business partner characteristics are more often sought for leadership positions or in family businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The results challenge the current role discussion for management accountants as business partners in practice and some academic fields.
This article highlights three major outcomes from global employability surveys about the topic of gender diversity. Students and graduates of two master programs at ESB Business School of Reutlingen University in Germany were asked about their study programs, their expected and their realized career paths, and their individual well-being. This article highlights selected gender differences that were discovered in the analysis and underlines results on specific gender issues. The three major outcomes are: firstly, men and women work in different industries, functions, and leadership positions; secondly, there is a potential for unfulfilled expectations of young managers regarding their achievement of certain positions and the realization of their private goals; thirdly, by looking at the graduates’ career paths in combination with their well-being, a low level of satisfaction with work-life balance and high levels of stress could be identified. The results give valuable insights into the conceptual world of students at the beginning of their career and as future managers. Looking at gender differences and gender issues leads to interesting findings which can be used for further research and discussions at ESB Business School. By contrasting the outcomes of the alumni survey with outcomes of the student survey, significant differences between the awareness of students and the reality of the graduates concerning gender diversity issues were discovered. The disclosed gap between students’ expectations and the real-life situations of the alumni indicates further areas for discussion. One major question is how students can cope with these challenges and issues of gender diversity management in future management positions as (female) managers while taking corporate social responsibility into consideration.
Die Digitalisierung und Nachhaltigkeit werden die Erwartungen und Anforderungen an die Controller dauerhaft und umfassend verändern. Die Lehre hat für den Rollenwandel eine hohe Relevanz. Eine auf die veränderten Anforderungen abgestimmte Ausbildung bietet den Unternehmen die Möglichkeit, Controller mit diesen veränderte Rollenprofilen für ihre Organisation zu gewinnen. Für die Absolventen mit dem Berufswunsch Controlling sichert das veränderte Rollenprofil ihre langfristige Arbeitsmarktfähigkeit. Für den Rollenwandel selbst kann diese als Treiber verstanden werden.
Trotz der Bedeutung der Lehre für den Rollenwandel gibt es dazu bislang wenige Forschungsergebnisse zur konkreten Abbildung der Rollen in der Lehre. Es stellt sich daher die Frage, wie Hochschulen in ihren Studiengängen die Rollen grundsätzlich abbilden und mit welcher Intensität sowie Kombinationen die Rollen gelehrt werden. Diese Forschungsfrage wird anhand einer Analyse von controllingspezifischen Masterstudiengängen und deren Modulhandbücher evaluiert und diskutiert.
Im Ergebnis stellt sich der Rollenwandel in der Controllinglehre sehr heterogen dar. Es dominiert die Vermittlung der klassische Controllerrolle gefolgt von der Business Partner Rolle. Lehrinhalte bezogen auf die Rollen des digitalen Controllers oder Risikocontrollers sind schwach ausgeprägt. Für die Übernahme einer Controllerrolle im Nachhaltigkeitsmanagement existiert kaum ein Lehrangebot. Diese Ergebnisse sollen zum Diskurs über den Rollenwandel und die Gestaltung der Lehre im Controlling beitragen.