Abstract

VICENTE, Célia Silva; MAJOR, Maria João; PINTO, José Castro  and  SARDINHA, João. Study of the role of management accountants in Portugal. Rev. Portuguesa e Brasileira de Gestão [online]. 2009, vol.8, n.3, pp.66-79. ISSN 1645-4464.

Drawing on a investigation conducted in the UK by professors Scapens, Ezzamel and Burns in collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in the 1990’s this study aims to research the role that Management Control has been assuming in firms throughout the last years, and furthermore to analyse the nature and reasons of changes in the role of management accountants. The research question posed by researchers is “What is the role of management accountants in Portuguese firms in the 21st century”. A questionnaire was sent to managers of 142 firms and several statistical techniques were used to analyse results. Our findings were compared with the outcomes obtained in the UK. Similarly to the UK investigation we concluded that the actual role of management accountants is different from the role they played in the past. Before management accountants were regarded as controllers of firms’ financial performance. However, today they are focused in integrating different sources of information (financial and non-financial information) and are increasingly involved in firms’ business strategy.

Keywords : Role of Management Accountants; Organizational Change; Management Accounting and Control.

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