Strategic change, leadership and accounting: A triptych of organizational reform
| Published date | 01 March 2020 |
| Author | Chris Carter,Crawford Spence,Alan McKinlay |
| Date | 01 March 2020 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12550 |
SYMPOSIUM ARTICLE
Strategic change, leadership and accounting:
A triptych of organizational reform
Chris Carter
1
| Crawford Spence
2
| Alan McKinlay
3
1
Business School, University of Edinburgh,
Edinburgh, UK
2
Business School, King’s College London,
London, UK
3
Strategy, Organizations and Society,
Newcastle University Business School,
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Correspondence
Chris Carter, Business School, University of
Edinburgh, 29 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh
EH8 9JS, UK.
Email: chris.carter@ed.ac.uk
Strategic change in public sector organizations has been well docu-
mented. This article suggests that public management research
would benefit from a greater appreciation of how calculative prac-
tices are deeply imbricated with, and constitutive of, organizational
life. In turn, the article argues that the field of interdisciplinary
accounting has much to learn from public administration, especially
in terms of leadership. The overarching argument is that under-
standing strategic change in public organizations can be enhanced
by bringing together insights from the academic fields of public
administration and interdisciplinary accounting. In this respect,
organizational reform can be understood as a triptych, involving
strategic change, leadership and accounting practices. We illustrate
this thesis through a case study of strategic change in the world’s
largest public service broadcaster—the British Broadcasting Corpo-
ration (BBC). It is shown how, during the tenure of one organiza-
tional leader—John Birt—accounting became pivotal to his
leadership.
1|INTRODUCTION
This article seeks to analyse the interplay between leadership, strategic change and accounting. Specifically, our arti-
cle focuses on the implementation of a strategic change initiative implemented in the BBC during the 1990s—‘Pro-
ducer Choice’. Producer Choice is of particular interest because it is a case of public sector reform where a new
accounting system was front and centre to the change process. A quarter of a century after its implementation, it is
generally agreed that Producer Choice had far-reaching effects on the organization of the BBC: in terms of power
relationships, accountability and the process of making television programmes. The effects were felt far beyond the
BBC, with Producer Choice being an important contributor to changing practices across the British broadcasting sec-
tor more generally. Although both the Public Administration (PA) and Interdisciplinary Accounting (IA) literatures cast
light on the role played by new accounting (Hopwood 1990; Burns and Scapens 2001; Lukka 2007) and performance
management systems (Hood 1995; Ferlie 1996; Brunsson and Sahlin-Andersson 2000; Bevan and Hood 2006; Bos-
well and Rodrigues 2016) in bringing about change within the public sector, our assertion is that there is much to be
gained from combining the literatures together. In broad terms, PA can learn from IA something of the myriad and
DOI: 10.1111/padm.12550
62 © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/padm Public Administration. 2020;98:62–91.
complex functions that accounting serves in inhibiting and facilitating strategic change; in turn, IA has a tendency to
neglect the key role that managerial leadership plays in change initiatives, which is much more developed within PA
literature.
Our study into a major accounting-led organizational change in the BBC in the 1990s is one that resonated with
a broader and well-documented period of transformation in the British public sector (Pollitt 1990, 1996; Ashburner
et al. 1996). The changes to the BBC shared a strong resonance with marketization in the NHS (Currie 1999) and reg-
ulatory mechanisms in privatized utilities (Mueller and Carter 2007). We concur with Hood’s (2006) reminder that
‘the UK offers a ‘compelling laboratory case for students of public management in general and of target systems in
particular’(p. 516). In turn, the BBC, as one of the UK’s best-known institutions, is of broader relevance for three
principal reasons: as an icon; as a template; and as a test case for wider public sector reform.
The BBC is an icon and has been characterized as one of Britain’s super brands (Mulgan 2015). Part of this status
rests in the significant role it has played in defining and shaping ‘British culture’(Born 2011). Beyond the UK, it is
regarded as one of the leading public service broadcasters in the world and is a source of considerable ‘soft power’
for Britain overseas (Keohane and Nye 1998; Nye 2002, 2010).
1
For instance, Kofi Annan, former Secretary General
of the United Nations, characterized the BBC World Service as ‘perhaps Britain’s greatest gift to the world in the
Twentieth Century’(BBC Trust 2016). The BBC’s iconic status and global reach
2
mean that it also acts as a template.
As with the Westminster model for the civil service, the BBC was used as an exemplar by many Commonwealth
countries for the design of their public service broadcasting services (Wilkinson 1972; O’Brien 1977; Potter 2012).
3
This is reflected in the lead role the BBC played in the formation and development of the Commonwealth Broadcast-
ing Alliances (Juneau 1998), which, ‘In 2014, the membership of the CBA unanimously voted for the organization to
become known as the Public Media Alliance, and to allow full and equal membership of PSBs from any country in the
world’(Public Media Alliance website).
Finally, in the 1990s the BBC was emblematic of wider processes of public sector reform that were taking place
at the time. This can be illustrated through an inspection of the career trajectory of John Birt, the Director-General
4
of the BBC during the period covered in the article. Birt was later to play a pivotal role in generating ideas for public
service reform: shortly after leaving the BBC, in 2001, he joined Tony Blair's Downing Street retinue as a ‘blue skies
thinker’and played a central role in the formulation of many policy initiatives (Mandelson 2010). Following Alastair
Campbell’s
5
resignation, Birt was referred to as ‘Blair’s most influential advisor’(Sylvester 2005). In the summer of
2003, for instance, John Birt and Peter Mandelson were tasked with producing a report on ‘how to sharpen up the
whole Number 10 operation’(Seldon et al. 2007, p. 223). In 2005, Birt was centrally involved in developing Blair’s
domestic policy agenda. Many of the reforms that were introduced by the Blair governments were shaped, in part,
by Birt. Specific examples include the development of the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) and five-year
plans for government departments. In this vein, Seldon et al. (2007, p. 328) report that ‘The strategy team also spent
considerable time examining the optimal structure for the centre of British government, exploiting Birt’s experience
of re-engineering the BBC.’
A former senior cabinet minister recalled Birt sitting in meetings, ‘staring, just looking, saying nothing. He was
very influential with Tony [Blair].’That Birt was to have such an influence on public policy after leaving Broadcasting
1
The existence of a high-quality public service broadcaster that has an international reach is regarded as a source of ‘soft power’. For
instance, in contrast Lam (2007) argues that one of Japan’s difficulties in establishing ‘soft power’has been the lack of a BBC-style
broadcaster.
2
Mulgan (2015) identifies the BBC’s‘extraordinary global reach’. The expansion of news coverage over the last three decades makes
the BBC the largest international broadcaster (Potter 2009). In this light, Mills (2016) reports that the BBC’s global audience is
308 million people and ‘one in 16 adults around the world access BBC news’(Mills 2016, p. 1).
3
The BBC was used as a model for public service broadcasting in the British zone of West Germany in the aftermath of the Second
World War. Hugh Carleton Greene was sent to Hamburg to establish the service; in the 1960s, he served as Director-General of the
BBC (Tracey 1983).
4
During his period as Director-General, John Birt’s philosophy of management became known as ‘Birtism’.
5
Alistair Campbell served as Tony Blair’s Director of Communication between 1994 and 2004.
CARTER ET AL.63
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