This thesis aims to contribute to research in management accounting and control systems
(MACS) in a developing country context: that of Fiji. It seeks to gain a theoretical
understanding of how MACS reflect the social and political contexts in which they ii
operate by using a case study of Telecom Fiji Limited (a major supplier of telephone
communications in Fiji). The definition of “MACS” for the purpose of the thesis is
broad- a social constructivist perspective is adopted in which systems are used to align
employee behaviour with organisational objectives and to assist external relationships
(with the State, Commerce Commission, aid agencies and customers). The thesis draws
on institutional theory while raising questions as to how to refine and extend institutional
theory. This theory has often been associated with institutional embeddedness (stability).
The social constructivist approach helps to incorporate agency and cultural issues
normally missing in conventional applications of institutional theory to accounting
change.
Telecom Fiji Limited (TFL) was restructured under the Fiji government?s public sector
reforms. Such reforms were insisted upon by the international financial agencies of the
World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Under
the reform policy, TFL was transformed from a government department into a
corporatised organisation and was subsequently privatised. The MACS changes which
eventuated helped to change TFL management and employees? interpretive schemes.
However, employees resisted initial changes to commercial business routines and it took
some years for TFL actors to assimilate commercial practices. While the literature
dealing with MACS changes has mostly portrayed changes as occurring with little
resistance, MACS changes at TFL took several years to become institutionalised, partly
because of cultural and political factors specific to Fiji.
The study has practice implications as it shows that management accountants can act as
institutional entrepreneurs in organisations, shaping new accounting technologies in
reformed entities, and changing actors? interpretive schemes. The study has implications
for policy makers, consultants and other stakeholders in terms of promoting a need for
better understanding of the sensitivity to cultural and political circumstances in Less
Developed Countries (LDC?s) like Fiji in relation to the introduction of MACS changes.
The study has implications for other recently corporatized/ privatised and state-sector
organisations in Fiji and elsewhere. It also has implications for other researchers as
institutional theory can be refined on the basis of new empirical evidence.