As observed by Hopwood (1984, p.185), “the consequences of accounting do not necessarily have a close and automatic relationship with the aims in the name of which it is introduced.” The finding of this current study, and as discussed in Section 4, was of a divergence between the NPM normative mode and the operational mode in the use of accounting technologies and processes at the school site. The ‘tension’ between the normative mode intent of NPM and the operational mode consequences of NPM resulted from, as expressed by Meyer (1998, p.13), an operational reality that the NPM reforms had less to do with substantive efficiency and effectiveness, and was more about rationalising modernity. That is, in the normative mode, the import of private sector accounting and business technologies was as an instrument of change trying to realise economic efficiency and accountability gains, however, in the operational mode, the same technologies were put in place by public sector (school) managers as devices to legitimate their activities, and not as mechanisms for action or transformation (Lapsley & Pallot, 2000, p.215). Institutional theory, which focuses on the conformity patterns of organisational behaviour, provides a useful theoretical language that is used to inform the findings of this current study in section 6. In the UK, studies of education (for example; Edwards, Ezzamel, Robson & Taylor, 1995; Edwards, Ezzamel, McLean & Robson, 2000) have explored the operational consequences of NPM reforms by deploying an institutional perspective to reveal the use of accounting practices (e.g., budgeting) as legitimating devices.
2.2 Institutional Theory
The element of institutional theory (for example: DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; Meyer & Rowan, 1977; Powell & DiMaggio, 1991; Scott, 1995) that has been most highlighted is the tendency of organisations to continually strive to strengthen their ‘legitimacy’ within their appropriate environments (Mizruchi & Fein, 1999). Legitimacy was achieved if organisations operated within the bounds and norms of their respective institutional environments. Notably, organisations were prone to construct rhetorical ‘stories’ about their actions that corresponded to socially prescribed expectations about what the organisation should do. Such rhetorical stories did not necessarily have any connection to what the organisation actually did, but rather were used as forms of symbolic reassurance to appease external expectations and often because they are rewarded for so doing through increased legitimacy, resources and survival capabilities (Meyer & Rowan, 1977).
Accounting can become implicated in the attainment of organisational legitimacy. As defined by Scott and Meyer (1983, p.149), the institutional environment within which the organisation operates is “characterized by the elaboration of rules and requirements to which individual organizations must conform if they are to receive support and legitimacy….” Investments in rational organisational structures, and technical management and accounting procedures can be used to demonstrate the organisation’s acceptance of the legitimacy of economic and technical bases for action. Within this institutional environment, accounting can provide a basis for enhancing organisational legitimacy. As described by Meyer and Scott (1983, p.235): … accounting structures are myths … (which) describe the organisation as bounded and unified, as rational in technology, as well-controlled and as attaining clear purposes. The myths are important: they help to hold the organisation together with their justifications … they legitimate the organisation with the controlling external environment.
Accordingly, accounting and the practices of ‘best management’ then become symbols of the organisation’s commitment to external values such as the NPM demands of improved ‘efficiency’, ‘effectiveness’ and ‘accountability’, both as an aim and as a particular strategy of rational governance and management.
The response of schools to the adoption of NPFM technologies, as espoused in the NPM normative mode, can be depicted as two interrelated ways: first as acceptance of the requirements as rationalised and impersonal prescriptions accounting represents impersonal rules applied by the organisation in the rational pursuit of its aims and objectives, or second decoupling the core organisational activities from its legitimating activities accounting provides a façade, which enables the organisation to maintain standardised, legitimating, formal structures while their activities vary in response to practical considerations.
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