Introduction

Tauringana, Ven and Mangena, Musa (2012) Introduction. In, Accounting in Africa. (Research in Accounting in Emerging Economies, 12A) Bingley, GB. Emerald Publishing, xi-xix. (doi:10.1108/S1479-3563(2012)000012A004).

Abstract

The focus of the first two papers in this volume is controls. Egbe, Tsamenyi and Sa’id investigate the operations of formal and informal controls in a multinational subsidiary in Nigeria using a case study approach. This involved semi-structured interviews, observation, document analyses and a focus group discussion. The paper concludes that formal internal controls such as budgets, performance evaluation and rewards and staff recruitment operate alongside informal internal controls including beliefs systems, values and existing norms. In particular the study reports that forms of informal controls such as trust were found to be important in the organisation where superiors in certain instances assigned responsibilities to members of their teams not on the basis of their abilities or skills but because the member could be trusted. Egbe, Tsamenyi and Sa’id conclude that such informal controls could have a controlling effect and influence the formal organisational controls. The findings have significant implications for understanding the design of management controls in LDCs in general, and Africa in particular

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Contributors

Author: Ven Tauringana

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