The Role of Management Accountants in New Public Management

Abstract

Abstract: Prior research indicates that the role of management accountants (MAs) has changed from a passive producer of financial information – a bean counter role – to a role that includes a broader set of issues and participation in decision making processes – a business partner role. One common explanation for this development is the introduction of new management tools. During the last decades, many public organizations have implemented New Public Management‐like (NPM) management tools. This paper concerns the role of MAs, in an NPM context, and the corresponding requirements on their knowledge and skills. The empirical study is carried out in the Social Insurance Agency (SIA) in Sweden. The result shows that MAs have several roles in Central Government Agencies, but that NPM fosters a role that is more business partner‐like than counter‐like. Furthermore, the study clearly shows that MAs in such a context need a broad set of knowledge and skills. For example, knowledge of performance management, oral communication skills, ability to work in ‘mixed teams’ are considered to be more important than their knowledge of accounting.