2.2 Representation, interpretation and communities of practice continued The preceding discussion brings us to a critical concept introduced earlier: the community of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998; Bowker and Star, 1999). Wenger emphasises that such communities are not the preserve of what are commonly conceived as knowledge workers. Wenger's central example is of a department of staff processing medical insurance claims, somewhat in contrast to the autonomous knowledge workers defined by Peter Drucker. In fact, as the term reflects,
1.3 Scope of this unit ICT technical developments are announced on almost a monthly basis, so this unit cannot provide an up-to-the-minute snapshot of knowledge management technologies. While we describe many examples of relevant technologies, it is important not to let these particular examples constrain how you think about the possibilities; they are simply examples of commercial products and point to emerging technologies in research laboratories. Our emphasis, therefore, is on providing conceptual framewo
References 2.5 ‘Events, dear boy, events’ A further influence on accounting is, to borrow Macmillan, events. (Macmillan was the Prime Minister of the UK (1957–1963) who famously observed that the greatest obstacle to political achievement was ‘Events, dear boy, events’.)Countries' systems are overtaken by events of one kind or another that bring accounting consequences. Not least of these is war. Napoleon's desire to conquer Europe had the side effect of exporting his Roman law paradigm and the commercial code within it, to hal 1.8 Conclusion This section has demonstrated that regulation evolves in response to a number of factors. Some of the more significant ones, such as economic development, ‘borrowed’ legislation, colonisation and imperialism and economic domination, have been discussed here. The consequence of this is that accounting regulation has evolved differently in various countries. The reasons for the diversity in accounting regulations will be considered in more detail in Author(s): 1.3 Managing the national economy The earliest regulation in Europe was not motivated by stewardship concerns, but was aimed at small businesses whose owners did not take the trouble to measure the success of their business. Consequently they went into liquidation, often, as is the case with small business networks, taking other businesses down with them. The 1673 Savary Ordonnance in France, which is regarded as the first national accounting rule created in the world and was subsequently taken up into the French Comme 1.1 Reporting international financial information This unit is not concerned with how accounting information is captured or stored, nor how it is used internally within an international group, although those are certainly significant issues, but rather with how public financial statements are prepared, audited and used. Essentially, we are dealing with how reports on a company's financial situation are compiled for external purposes and how that compilation is constrained and shaped. Reporting rules are not exactly the same in any two countr Learning outcomes By the end of this unit you will be able to: identify factors that have influenced the development of financial reporting; provide examples of how those factors have effected change in particular countries; list a number of variables that affect the development of accounting rules in different jurisdictions; explain the contingent model of accounting change; apply the theories of accounting development to new situations 5 Conclusion The argument underpinning this unit has stressed the dangers of seeing implementation as somehow separate from the policy process, or as just one stage within it. Instead it has been emphasised that it is vital to place implementation centrally within that process – involving negotiation, learning and adaptation. Others too have come to regard this as central to the policy process. In the first edition of their book on implementation, Pressman and Wildavsky emphasise the disjunction between 4 The public policy-action relationship: activities Having read this unit you now have the opportunity to reflect on the public policy-action relationship in more detail. There are two activities and two self assessment questions (SAQs) for you to complete. 1.3 The perils of partnership: policy as an adaptive system Here the focus is on an organic way of understanding the relationship between policy and action. From this perspective, government, public service organisations, contractors, staff and, more recently, the public themselves are viewed not as cogs in a machine but as mutually interacting elements of an adaptive policy system. As in other organic entities – populations, species, even the human body itself – change takes place around an equilibrium point at which the entity is in balan 5.5 Relationships in your organisation In this section I have introduced you to case studies and reading that should have helped you understand how market orientation affects an organisation's performance. I have also asked you to look at your own organisation and make judgements regarding its performance. Near the beginning of this session I asked you to consider some questions from Drucker (1992). I have added a few more questions to his list and ask you now to try to answer these questions for your organisation. You probably do 5.4 Activity 8 The M & S case study illustrates the importance of managing relationships. Having read it, try to answer the following questions. On which value discipline has the company chosen to f 4.5 Is M&S market led? Allow half an hour. Read Case study 1 and then use the evidence there to answer the following questions. Do you think that M&S is market led? Which value dis Introduction This unit is divided into two sections: ‘Understanding market orientation’ and ‘Managing a market-led organisation’. In Section 1 ‘Understanding market orientation’ sets out different approaches to marketing. I argue that marketing should not be the property of just the marketing department but an organisation-wide philosophy that centres on satisfying customers. The way in which marketing ideas can be applied to non-profit organisations is also discussed. In Section 2 ‘Ma 7 Summary You should now have a clearer idea of the context in which accounting is set. You should also be aware that accounting is the recording and processing of data into information, of the characteristics of ‘good’ information, and of the relationship between accounting and organisational objectives. Now, you should complete the following self-assessed question. 5.5.2 Reaching a final decision Having seen all the candidates, you can now start to pull together your notes and impressions and make a final decision. It is probably worth allowing a little time to gather your thoughts and/or discuss initial observations with colleagues or the interview panel after every interview so that your memory is not confused. The person specification should again play a major role in your final decision. Your questions should have been geared to elicit the necessary information from each applicant 4.5 Person specification Once the job and organisational analyses and the job description have been completed (see Figure 1), the next stage is to write a specification of the kind of person needed to fill the job you have just described. It is important to be as precise as possible about the skills, knowledge, qualifications and at 1.1 Hofstede's five Cultural Dimensions A series of perspectives that we might use to achieve a different insight into business was introduced by Morgan (1986) in his book entitled Images of an Organization. One of these was the business as a culture, a type of micro-society where people work and ‘live’ together on a daily basis, with certain rules and understandings about what is acceptable and what is not. The idea of a business having a culture was developed from the work of Hofstede on national cultures (1980). His r 2.2.1 Craft manufacturing Craft manufacturing describes the process by which skilled craftspeople produce goods in low volume, with a high degree of variety, to meet the requirements of their individual customers. Over the centuries, skills have been transmitted from masters to apprentices and journeymen, and controlled by guilds. Craftspeople usually worked at home or in small workshops. Such a system worked well for small-scale local production, with low levels of competition. Some industries, such as furniture manu
Activity 1 A focus for reading
Activity 8
Activity 7
