L IMITATIONS AND SUMMARY OF THE RESULTS

Going back to the purpose of the study presented in the introductory chapter, the aim was to provide a critical re-examination of interactive and diagnostic controls. In doing so, we have entered the field with a critical research agenda, with the purpose of re-examining these well-established theoretical concepts. The empirical part of the study consisted of 10 interviews in one case company. The results were analyzed and interpreted using previous literature as a prism that guided the interpretation.

The theoretical conclusions that can be drawn from these empirical findings are naturally subject to limitations concerning the method of data collection in only one specific empirical context. This empirical excursion provides only one description of a single organizational reality, in a specific time frame. Furthermore, as the interviewees represent mostly higher level of management (division and corporate level), we only have a limited view towards lower levels of the organization.

Furthermore, the limitations include having only a restricted access to interviewees. In addition, due to the researcher’s position as an outsider the access to the daily reality in this organization was restricted into a few visits to the field. We would also like to warn against making any generalizations in a statistical sense. As in all case studies, the generalization of the results must be taken as a theoretical generalization (Lukka

& Kasanen 1995), and approached with caution. In addition, we acknowledge that due to the critical orientation of the study, we may exaggerate in the interpretation of events. This study should therefore be seen as inviting further investigation into the

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new form and role of interactive and diagnostic controls, rather than providing arguments on a definitive note.

With the aforementioned limitations in mind, we feel, however, that the empirical findings do allow for some theorizing concerning the concepts of interactive and diagnostic controls. The study at hand can be seen as broadening and enriching our theoretical understanding in two ways. First, it brings the widely used concepts of interactive and diagnostic controls under a new light, illustrating a new kind of interactive use of controls and questioning the role of diagnostic controls as viable management tools. Secondly, the study widens our understanding of the role of the controller in organizationally anchored situations of interactive management control, by showing how controllers assume the role of mobilizers and sensemakers.

The first research question stated in the beginning of this study related to the way interactive controls are realized in today’s companies. The empirical findings of this study place the organizations of our time in a context characterized by transparency in accounting numbers and data overload. In contemporary organizations, equipped with deep probing accounting systems, the performance numbers become public information, exceeding the boundaries of the traditional finance and accounting function. Accounting knowledge has spread beyond the accounting and controlling function. Many actors have access to financial and non-financial quantitative information. No longer has the controller the exclusive right to look into “raw”

performance data. It seems that the notion of interactive control as we traditionally know it doesn’t fully fit the contemporary organizations characterised by these both extensive and intensive IT systems, and accounting numbers’ transparency. In fact, the ‘old’ interactiveness seems to be embedded into a new kind of context. It is being and replaced by the concept of interactive transparency, we suggest.

The traditional interactiveness in which the controller had the exclusive right to process fundamental accounting information and used these monopolized measures in an interactive manner, poking towards the operations on an individual basis, seems to be somewhat outdated. Instead, the controller now operates in a new situation characterized by the public, easily accessible and transparent accounting numbers.

Working in the centre of a net of publicly shared accounting information, the

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controller – with the use of interactive measures – is negotiating and creating meaning around these widely available numbers. Therefore, interactive controls become the medium for creating meaning around numbers and for mobilizing the organization for swift action. As modern IT systems enable companies to collect large volumes of accounting data, the production of meaning around the numbers gets emphasized.

This builds a good foundation for action.

Turning to the second research question on the role of diagnostic controls, this study suggests that as organizations move towards interactive transparency the role of diagnostic controls inevitably is prone to diminish. Instead of being effective tools for management by exception, the information produced is now seen as frustrating, as it remains distanced and uncoupled form the everyday reality. Producing at worst, only

‘dead’ information, they often add to the controllers’ workload as well as to the already exhausting volume of accounting data overwhelming the organization.

Therefore, this study is suggestive of a transition from the traditional interactive-diagnostic classification towards interactive transparency, in which interactive-diagnostic controls may gradually become obsolete.

Concerning the implications of the modern use of interactive controls on the controller’s role, which was the third research question of this study, the key results stress the need of understanding the role of the controller from the point of view of achieving organizational action. Clearly, interactive transparency places new demands for the business controller. The controller’s abilities in making sense of the accounting data and constructing meaning around the numbers rise in importance. He becomes responsible for selectively directing the organization’s attention to some areas of performance and pushing the organization towards reaching a shared interpretation and meaning around the numbers. This serves the ultimate goal of achieving action.

Thus, pressing the findings in a nutshell, the study is contributing to our theoretical understanding in two ways. Challenging the previously dominant categorization into diagnostic and interactive controls, the study is suggesting a more contemporary view into the use of accounting controls within an interactive transparency, where diagnostic controls can finally become obsolete. Secondly, the study widens our

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understanding of controller’s role, coupling it with previously undeveloped ideas of the controller working as a mobilizer and as a meaning creator.