Share:


Matching the controller role: individuals vs companies

    Ariel La Paz   Affiliation
    ; Daniela Gracia Affiliation
    ; Jonathan Vásquez   Affiliation

Abstract

Finding a good match in the C-Suite is critical for maximizing business value and capitalizing on competitive advantages. This study analyzes the roles of controllers in organizational descriptions and executives’ profiles, as they both define the position and craft the profession. This paper proposes a framework to describe and classify the existing controller types based on an extended review and description of the available literature. Then, using a clustering method based on the semisupervised k-means, we mapped a sample of 45 controllers to their dominant profile and contrasted individuals’ characteristics against the companies’ definitions of the role. This study reveals that the understanding of the types of controllers, which is usually presented as a dichotomy, may lead to mismatches between what is needed and what is performed. The clustering analysis reveals a significant mismatch between individuals and the organizations defining the role. The framework and clustering method could be used for multiple purposes, such as evaluating what type of controller an individual is or a company needs, which would improve recruitment processes to achieve better matches. The framework expands the identification of controllers from a dichotomy to a gradual classification and describes four controller profiles. This perspective further describes the role and validates the framework using data mining tools.

Keyword : managerial accounting, controller profile, controller role, recruitment and selection, professional development, clustering profile

How to Cite
La Paz, A. ., Gracia, D. ., & Vásquez, J. . (2020). Matching the controller role: individuals vs companies. Journal of Business Economics and Management, 21(5), 1411-1431. https://doi.org/10.3846/jbem.2020.13187
Published in Issue
Sep 8, 2020
Abstract Views
2437
PDF Downloads
1594
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

References

Aaltola, P. (2019). Strategic thinking and accounting: potentials and pitfalls from a managerial perspective. Journal of Management Control, 30(3), 323–351. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00187-019-00285-w

Alqurashi, T., & Wang, W. (2019). Clustering ensemble method. International Journal of Machine Learning Cybernetics, 10(6), 1227–1246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13042-018-0807-8

Anthony, R. N. (1965). Planning and control systems: A framework for analysis. Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University.

Argyris, C., & Schon, D. A. (1974). Theory in practice: Increasing professional effectiveness. Jossey-Bass.

Arora, P., & Varshney, S. (2016). Analysis of k-means and k-medoids algorithm for big data. Procedia Computer Science, 78, 507–512. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2016.02.095

Azan, W., & Bollecker, M. (2011). Management control competencies and ERP: an empirical analysis in France. Journal of Modelling in Management, 6(2), 178–199. https://doi.org/10.1108/17465661111149575

Baldvinsdottir, G., Burns, J., Nørreklit, H., & Scapens, R. W. (2009). The image of accountants: from bean counters to extreme accountants. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 22(6), 858– 882. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513570910980445

Bergmann, M., Brück, C., Knauer, T., & Schwering, A. (2020). Digitization of the budgeting process: determinants of the use of business analytics and its effect on satisfaction with the budgeting process. Journal of Management Control, 31, 25–54. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00187-019-00291-y

Bollecker, M. (2007). La recherche sur les contrôleurs de gestion: état de l’art et perspectives. Comptabilité-Contrôle-Audit, 13(1), 87–106. https://doi.org/10.3917/cca.131.0087

Burns, J., & Baldvinsdottir, G. (2005). An institutional perspective of accountants’ new roles–the interplay of contradictions and praxis. European Accounting Review, 14(4), 725–757. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638180500194171

Burns, J., Warren, L., & Oliveira, J. (2014). Business partnering: Is it all that good? Controlling Management Review, 58(2), 36–41. https://doi.org/10.1365/s12176-014-0907-6

Byrne, S., & Pierce, B. (2007). Towards a more comprehensive understanding of the roles of management accountants. European Accounting Review, 16(3), 469–498. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638180701507114

Byrne, S., & Pierce, B. (2018). Exploring management accountants’ role conflicts and ambiguities and how they cope with them. Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, 15(4), 410–436. https://doi.org/10.1108/QRAM-11-2016-0083

Chapman, C. S., & Kihn, L.-A. (2009). Information system integration, enabling control and performance. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 34(2), 151–169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2008.07.003

Colignon, R., & Covaleski, M. (1988). An examination of managerial accounting practices as a process of mutual adjustment. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 13(6), 559–579. https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(88)90031-1

Colton, S. D. (2001). The changing role of the controller. Journal of Cost Management, 15(6), 5–16.

Crampton, J. V. (1970). The changing role of the Controller. University of Missouri, Columbia.

de Loo, I., Verstegen, B., & Swagerman, D. (2011). Understanding the roles of management accountants. European Business Review, 23(3), 287–313. https://doi.org/10.1108/09555341111130263

Ester, M., Kriegel, H.-P., Sander, J., & Xu, X. (1996, August). A density-based algorithm for discovering clusters in large spatial databases with noise. In KDD-96 Proceedings (pp. 226–231). AAAI.

Ezzamel, M., & Burns, J. (2005). Professional competition, economic value added and management control strategies. Organization Studies, 26(5), 755–777. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840605054598

Flamholtz, E. G., Das, T., & Tsui, A. S. (1985). Toward an integrative framework of organizational control. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 10(1), 35–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(85)90030-3

Fourné, S. P., Guessow, D., & Schäffer, U. (2018). Controller roles: Scale development and validation. In Performance measurement and management control: The relevance of performance measurement and management control research (pp. 143–190). Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-351220180000033007

Fred, A. L., & Jain, A. K. (2005). Combining multiple clusterings using evidence accumulation. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 27(6), 835–850. https://doi.org/10.1109/tpami.2005.113

Friedman, A. L., & Lyne, S. R. (2001). The beancounter stereotype: towards a general model of stereotype generation. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 12(4), 423–451. https://doi.org/10.1006/cpac.2000.0451

Goretzki, L., Lukka, K., & Messner, M. (2018). Controllers’ use of informational tactics. Accounting and Business Research, 48(6), 700–726. https://doi.org/10.1080/00014788.2017.1407627

Goretzki, L., Strauss, E., & Weber, J. (2013). An institutional perspective on the changes in management accountants’ professional role. Management Accounting Research, 24(1), 41–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mar.2012.11.002

Graham, A., Davey-Evans, S., & Toon, I. (2012). The developing role of the financial controller: Evidence from the UK. Journal of Applied Accounting Research, 13(1), 71–88. https://doi.org/10.1108/09675421211231934

Granlund, M., & Lukka, K. (1997). From bean-counters to change agents: the Finnish management accounting culture in transition. LTA, 3, 213–255.

Guenther, T. W. (2013). Conceptualisations of ‘controlling’in German-speaking countries: analysis and comparison with Anglo-American management control frameworks. Journal of Management Control, 23(4), 269–290. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00187-012-0166-7

Hartmann, F. G. H., & Maas, V. S. (2011). The effects of uncertainty on the roles of controllers and budgets: An exploratory study. Accounting and Business Research, 41(5), 439–458. https://doi.org/10.1080/00014788.2011.597656

Henttu-Aho, T. (2016). Enabling characteristics of new budgeting practice and the role of controller. Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management, 13(1), 31–56. https://doi.org/10.1108/QRAM-09-2014-0058

Holm, S., & Thorstensson, D. (2013). The current state of controller roles: Underlying social factors and identity control (Master thesis). Uppsala, Sweden.

Hopper, T. M. (1980). Role conflicts of management accountants and their position within organisation structures. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 5(4), 401–411. https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(80)90039-2

Indjejikian, R. J., & Matějka, M. (2006). Organizational slack in decentralized firms: The role of business unit controllers. Accounting Review, 81(4), 849–872. https://doi.org/10.2308/accr.2006.81.4.849

Jablonsky, S. F., Keating, P. J., & Heian, J. B. (1993). Business advocate or corporate policeman?: Assessing your role as a financial executive. Financial Executives Research Foundation.

Janin, F. (2017). When being a partner means more: The external role of football club management accountants. Management Accounting Research, 35, 5–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mar.2016.05.002

Järvenpää, M. (2007). Making business partners: a case study on how management accounting culture was changed. European Accounting Review, 16(1), 99–142. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638180701265903

Johnson, S. C. (1967). Hierarchical clustering schemes. Psychometrika, 32(3), 241–254. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02289588

Johnston, R., Brignall, S., & Fitzgerald, L. (2002). “Good enough” performance measurement: A tradeoff between activity and action. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 53(3), 256–262. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601217

Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (1996). The balanced scorecard: translating strategy into action. Harvard Business Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/41165876

Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (2008). The execution premium: Linking strategy to operations for competitive advantage. Harvard Business Press.

Karlsson, B., Hersinger, A., & Kurkkio, M. (2019). Hybrid accountants in the age of the business partner: exploring institutional drivers in a mining company. Journal of Management Control, 30(2), 185–211. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00187-019-00280-1

La Paz, A., Vasquez, J., & Miranda, J. (2019). The CIO gap and mismatch. IT Professional, 21(2), 66–72. https://doi.org/10.1109/MITP.2018.2883089

Lambert, C., & Sponem, S. (2012). Roles, authority and involvement of the management accounting function: a multiple case-study perspective. European Accounting Review, 21(3), 565–589. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638180.2011.629415

Meijerink, N. (2016). Determinants for the role of the finance function: An empirical study of organisations in the Netherlands (MSc Business Administration). University of Twente, Amsterdam.

Merchant, K. A. (1985). Control in business organization. Financial Times/Prentice Hall.

Mirkin, B. (2016). Clustering: a data recovery approach. Chapman and Hall/CRC.

Morales, J., & Lambert, C. (2013). Dirty work and the construction of identity. An ethnographic study of management accounting practices. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 38(3), 228–244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2013.04.001

Pasch, T. (2019). Strategy and innovation: the mediating role of management accountants and management accounting systems’ use. Journal of Management Control, 30(2), 213–246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00187-019-00283-y

Quattrone, P. (2016). Management accounting goes digital: Will the move make it wiser? Management Accounting Research, 31, 118–122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mar.2016.01.003

Rieg, R. (2018). Tasks, interaction and role perception of management accountants: Evidence from Germany. Journal of Management Control, 29, 183–220. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00187-018-0266-0

Sathe, V. (1983). The controller’s role in management. Organizational Dynamics, 11(3), 31–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(83)90004-9

Seal, W. (2006). Management accounting and corporate governance: An institutional interpretation of the agency problem. Management Accounting Research, 17(4), 389–408. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mar.2006.05.001

Siegel, G., Sorensen, J. E., & Richtermeyer, S. B. (2003). Becoming a business partner. Strategic Finance, 85(4), 37.

ten Rouwelaar, H. A., Bots, J., & Vanamelsfort, M. (2008). Business unit controller involvement in management: An empirical study in the Netherlands. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1277863

ten Rouwelaar, H., Bots, J., & De Loo, I. (2018). The influence of management accountants on managerial decisions. Journal of Applied Accounting Research, 19(4), 442–464. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAAR-10-2016-0101

Verstegen, B. H., De Loo, I., Mol, P., Slagter, K., & Geerkens, H. (2007). Classifying controllers by activities: An exploratory study. Journal of Applied Management Accounting Research, 5(2), 9–32.

Vitale, G., Cupertino, S., & Riccaboni, A. (2020). Big data and management control systems change: the case of an agricultural SME. Journal of Management Control, 31, 123–152. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00187-020-00298-w

Yazdifar, H., & Tsamenyi, M. (2005). Management accounting change and the changing roles of management accountants: a comparative analysis between dependent and independent organizations. Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, 1(2), 180–198. https://doi.org/10.1108/18325910510635353

Ye, Y., Zhang, Q., & Huang, L. (2009, September 14–16). Ultimate controller, corporate government and consideration determination in the split-share structure reform. In 2009 International Conference on Management Science and Engineering – 16th Annual Conference Proceedings, ICMSE 2009 (pp. 709–716). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICMSE.2009.5318246

Zoni, L., & Merchant, K. A. (2007). Controller involvement in management: An empirical study in large Italian corporations. Journal of Accounting and Organizational Change, 3(1), 29–43. https://doi.org/10.1108/18325910710732849