KNOWLEDGE CLAIMS AND WORK RELATED JURISDICTIONAL CLAIMS: THE CASE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING PROFESSIONALS IN THE BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS OF A LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRY; SRI LANKA

Abstract

This study addresses what the management accounting (MA) professionals educated and certificated by the Chartered Institute Management Accountants (CIMA) do in business organizations operating in a Less Developed Country (LDC); Sri Lanka and the relevance of the knowledge claims disseminated by this British based global MA professional body; CIMA, when carving out and securing work related jurisdictional claims in these business organizations. In conducting this case study, as many qualitative researchers do, data was collected from multiple sources. It was found that the nature of work carried out and the relevance of the knowledge claims of the MA professionals differ based on the nature of the business organization. Within a MNE the MA professional carries out work relevant to MA. The organizational imperatives enable MA professionals to carry out the inference process and the knowledge claims disseminated by CIMA gains relevance within the MNE. Within the indigenous business organization when carrying out work relevant to MA, the MA professionals are unable to adapt the knowledge claims according to the context specific characteristics and therefore they are unable to carry out the professional act of inference which is providing treatment to the diagnosed problem independently. In the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) the work carried out is relevant to financial reporting and not MA and the MA knowledge claims do not specifically gain relevance.

Key Words: MA Profession, Knowledge Claims, Work Related Jurisdictional Claims, LDC