Participation, accounting and learning how to implement a new vision

To realize a senior management’s new vision, the participation of lower managers and workers is often of great importance: lower managers and workers have to develop knowledge and learn how to implement a new vision. However, the expected positive effects of participation are often unrealistic and the academic literature is not clear about which forms of participation are effective. The normative accounting literature provides tools to match a senior management’s vision and accounting information. This paper explores how accounting information can be used as a toolto facilitate participation that is effective in the development of knowledge and in helping lower managers and workers to learn how to implement senior management’s new vision. On the basis of an interventionist study, this paper proposes three specific forms of participation: formal participation, informal hierarchical participation and participation through the “organizational community”. The differences between these forms of participation concern the relationships among the organization’s members, the range of people involved and the (accounting and fine-grained) information that is exchanged. The differences between the proposed forms of participation is in the information that is exchanged and this has consequences for the development of the knowledge of the organization’s members and for their learninghow they can contribute to the realization of the new vision.