The global management accounting principles (GMAP) and the relationship between organizational design elements

Purpose This study aims to investigate the relationship between organizational design elements (i.e. quality of management accounting skills and performance management system, PMS), management accounting practice (MAP) sophistication and organizational competitiveness using the Global Management Accounting Principles (GMAP) framework. Design/methodology/approach Survey data was obtained through a structured questionnaire from 131 Nigerian firms. Measures of the quality of management accounting skills, robustness of PMS structure, MAP sophistication and organizational competitiveness were derived from the GMAP framework. Structural equation modelling was applied to explore the complexity of relationship among variables. Findings While the quality of management accounting skills was found to have a positive but insignificant impact on MAP sophistication, the impact of PMS structure on MAP sophistication was positive and significant. MAP sophistication has a positive impact on organizational competitiveness, but the magnitude of its contribution appears to depend on the quality of management accounting skills and the robustness of PMS structure. The inability of MAP sophistication to exert much influence on organizational competitiveness is attributable to the low contribution of management accounting skills. The result supports the proposition that performance is optimized when all organizational design elements are concurrently improved. Practical implications The study shows that organizations need to critically look into the quality of skills possessed by personnel in the accounting function, as all organizational design elements must be given equal importance to achieve the best results. Originality/value The study contributes to knowledge by investigating the quality of management accounting skills and the robustness of PMS as organizational design elements affecting MAP and organizational competitiveness using the GMAP framework. The study operationalizes some elements of the GMAP framework by developing measurements that can be used by future studies.