{"title":"The role of management accounting in human capital management: Lessons from the services sector","authors":"Cornelis T. Van der Lugt","doi":"10.4102/sajbm.v55i1.4223","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Purpose: The article examines the role of management accounting in managing human capital, a key intangible asset for services sectors. Considering new expectations regarding the role of management accountants and human resource professionals, the article explores the ability of the disciplines to collaborate in becoming more strategic.Design/methodology/approach: The article considers literature on the evolution of the two disciplines, including archetype views on the role of management accountants, and presents case study analysis of a German information technology firm and a Dutch bank. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior managers from both the companies.Findings/results: From the interviews, it appeared that management accountants play the role of business partner but stop short of acting as comprehensive integrator of human capital information. While both companies have innovated in measuring and valuing human capital, human resources and finance analytics teams tend to work on their own and accountants remain ad hoc advisors.Practical implications: Efforts to refine the business case and value human capital fail to fully mainstream, as collaboration across departments remain loose. Innovations in soft management controls leave an impression of loose coupling between subsystems rather than comprehensively planned and integrated soft management control systems.Originality/value: The study defines complementarity between two disciplines, both seeking to account for and manage intangible assets more effectively. It concludes with lessons for researchers and practitioners on the development action-to-value pathways, improving non-financial metrics and purposefully shaping soft control systems.","PeriodicalId":45649,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Business Management","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"South African Journal of Business Management","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.4102/sajbm.v55i1.4223","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"BUSINESS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Purpose: The article examines the role of management accounting in managing human capital, a key intangible asset for services sectors. Considering new expectations regarding the role of management accountants and human resource professionals, the article explores the ability of the disciplines to collaborate in becoming more strategic.Design/methodology/approach: The article considers literature on the evolution of the two disciplines, including archetype views on the role of management accountants, and presents case study analysis of a German information technology firm and a Dutch bank. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior managers from both the companies.Findings/results: From the interviews, it appeared that management accountants play the role of business partner but stop short of acting as comprehensive integrator of human capital information. While both companies have innovated in measuring and valuing human capital, human resources and finance analytics teams tend to work on their own and accountants remain ad hoc advisors.Practical implications: Efforts to refine the business case and value human capital fail to fully mainstream, as collaboration across departments remain loose. Innovations in soft management controls leave an impression of loose coupling between subsystems rather than comprehensively planned and integrated soft management control systems.Originality/value: The study defines complementarity between two disciplines, both seeking to account for and manage intangible assets more effectively. It concludes with lessons for researchers and practitioners on the development action-to-value pathways, improving non-financial metrics and purposefully shaping soft control systems.
期刊介绍:
The South African Journal of Business Management publishes articles that have real significance for management theory and practice. The content of the journal falls into two categories: managerial theory and management practice: -Management theory is devoted to reporting new methodological developments, whether analytical or philosophical. In general, papers should, in addition to developing a new theory, include some discussion of applications, either historical or potential. Both state-of-the-art surveys and papers discussing new developments are appropriate for this category. -Management practice concerns the methodology involved in applying scientific knowledge. It focusses on the problems of developing and converting management theory to practice while considering behavioural and economic realities. Papers should reflect the mutual interest of managers and management scientists in the exercise of the management function. Appropriate papers may include examples of implementations that generalise experience rather than specific incidents and facts, and principles of model development and adaptation that underline successful application of particular aspects of management theory. The relevance of the paper to the professional manager should be highlighted as far as possible.