Management Accounting Change as a Learning Process: An Empirical Analysis.

This study provides an interpretation of management accounting change based on the model of problem management proposed by Kolb (1983) and the theory of experiential learning (Kolb, 1976, 1984). It is based on a fourteen year longitudinal case study and this time scale has facilitated the exploration of two novel aspects of management accounting change. First, it becomes apparent that the costing information change which occurred was not a discrete event but more of a process of experience and learning conducted through what amounted to several iterations of trial and error that extended over several years. Experiencing and using new information are activities which, in themselves, generate conditions for further information change. Thus, the events and experiences which predate a change in practice are important factors in understanding how and why the change happened. Second, the actors involved were not passive bystanders of change. They actively participated in it and specifically developed an organisational mechanism to sensitise themselves to the process of organisational learning which drove the changes in the organisation’s costing system.