ORGANIZATIONAL-CHANGE AND ACCOUNTING - UNDERSTANDING THE BUDGETING SYSTEM IN ITS ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

This paper utilizes Foucault's framework of power/knowledge relations, but-tressed by work on the sociology of translation (Callon 1986; Lat our 1987), to examine the extent to which the budgeting system is impl icated in a process of organizational change. The analysis is based on a field study in which a change initiative was developed by top polic y-makers (the Centre) in a U.K. university against a background of red uction in funding by the state. The budgeting system is perceived to h ave relevance in this context at two levels: (i) as the vehicle throug h which reallocation of resources is effected, and (ii) as a means tha t provides actors with technical knowledge which can be utilized in th e context of power relations. The analysis demonstrates that the Centr e failed to deploy the budgeting system as a disciplinary regime in th e sense of making it possible for the proposed resource reallocations to be implemented. The analysis also shows how the groups opposed to t he proposed change: (i) through their technical knowledge successfully deployed arguments from within the accounting discipline to render th e Centre's calculations 'incorrect' or at best debatable; (ii) combine d these technical accounting arguments with arguments from outside the accounting discipline to cast strong doubts on the ethical and profes sional underpinnings of the Centre's proposals; and (iii) evolved, and promoted, a 'more viable' strategy to cope with the reduction in fund ing at the Centre's university.