5.4 Abu Dhabi Police

MANAGEMENT CHANGE IN GOVERNMENT: CRITICAL FACTORS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ACCOUNTING CHANGE IN A PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANISATION HAMAD AHMED ALDARMAKI A thesis submitted to the Manchester Metropolitan University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Business and Management Studies, Manchester Metropolitan University – Cheshire 1 2013 Declaration I, Hamad Ahmed Al Darmaki, hereby declare that no portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. 2 Copyright Statement Copyright of the text of this thesis rests with the author. Copies (by any process) either in full, or extracts, may be made only in accordance with instructions given by the author and lodged in the Manchester Metropolitan University. Details may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. Further copies (by any process) of copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the permission (in writing) of the author. The ownership of any intellectual property rights which may be described in this thesis is vested in the Manchester Metropolitan University, subject to any prior agreement to the contrary, and may not be made available for use by third parties without the written permission of the University, which will prescribe the terms and conditions of any such agreement. Further information on the conditions under which disclosures and exploitation may take place is available from the Department of Business and Management Studies, Manchester Metropolitan University - Cheshire. 3 Acknowledgements My first and greatest thanks are to Allah for his mercy and help in making it possible for this research to be completed. Then, I am indebted to my professional supervisor, Dr. Mostafa Jazayeri-Dezfuli, who has provided immense support since I applied to the university in 2007 and he accepted to guide me in my research journey. He provided unlimited encouragement in all aspects of my PhD study, offering valuable and constructive advice which added significant value to this thesis. Also, he facilitated and reduced the difficulties that I faced in my research by enhancing my skills and introducing me to the main authors in the field of study. Moreover, I am very proud that my thesis focuses on the United Arab Emirates, which is my country and supports the diffusion of knowledge and sponsored my study through the Ministry of Interior – Abu Dhabi Police. Also, special thanks are due to Abu Dhabi Police General Headquarters and its managers, advisors and staff for facilitating the data collection, including interview and documentary analysis. Furthermore, I would like to thank Abu Dhabi Executive Council, starting with H.H. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of Armed Forces, and the ADEC staff for their welcoming and facilitating the interview process with some of their high level staff, a factor which enabled the successful implementation of the theoretical framework in this thesis. Also, special thanks to Lt. General H.H. Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, for his great support and his valuable vision to improve educational and operational aspects of the Ministry of Interior in order to provide excellence in services to the community in the United Arab Emirates. Special thanks to Major General Nasser Al Nuaimi, General Secretary of the Office of the H.H Minister of Interior for his great support in implementing the H.H. Minister of Interior vision regarding enhancement of the Ministry of Interior with higher educational employees’. Also, he has directly supported my research by assisting in the challenges that I had faced in my thesis. 4 Finally, I would like to offer thanks to my father Ahmed Saeed Al Darmaki and my mother for their continuous support and patience. Also, I would like to thank my brothers, Mohammed and Saeed, my sisters and all my relatives for their support and good wishes towards my completion of this thesis. Table of Contents 5 List of Figures Chapter 2 Figure Research Fish 24 2.1 Figure The Balanced Scorecard 62 2.2 Figure European Foundation for Quality Management 63 2.3 Chapter 3 Figure The process of institutionalization 71 3.1 Figure Institutional relational dynamics 79 3.2 Figure The Hopper and Major framework 83 3.3 Chapter 4 Figure 4.1 Worldviews in accounting research 90 Chapter 5 Figure UAE growth performance 118 5.1 Figure UAE growth per sector 118 5.2 Figure UAE public finances 119 5.3 Figure UAE interest rate and inflation 119 5.4 Figure Economic, political, and financial system risks of 120 5.5 UAE Figure EFQM 9 criteria model 130 5.6 Chapter 7 Figure The research developed framework 215 7.1 6 List of Tables Chapter 2 Table 2.1 Summary of NPM stages 38 Summary of characteristics of management Table 2.2 54 accounting change Table 2.3 Comparison between EFQM and BSC 64 Chapter 4 Table 4.1 Philosophical Approaches 93 Differences between qualitative and quantitative Table 4.2 97 approaches Table 4.3 Summary of the research methods 109 Table 4.4 Profiles of interviewees 110 Chapter 5 Table 5.1 Sector-wise list of EFQM organisations 122 Table 5.2 Overall economic growth rate of Abu Dhabi 126 Different names of Abu Dhabi police in the last 55 Table 5.3 132 years Chapter 6 Table 6.1 Interviewee profiles 141 Table 6.2 Documents description 188 Table 6.3 Summary of key critical factors 210 Chapter 7 Table 7.1 Summary of the economic and political level 240 Table 7.2 Summary of the Organisational Field level 241 Table 7.3 Summary of the Organisational level 242 7 Abstract The field of research related to management accounting change is in need of more investigation, especially regarding the introduction and implementation of accounting systems in both the private and public sectors. Also, there are different factors that influence the introduction and implementation of those systems by facilitating or impeding such change. This research attempts to respond to the call from the literature that there is a need for further investigation in order to enhance the understanding of why such organisations become subject to management accounting change and how organisations respond to this accounting change, especially in the public sector. Moreover, this research focuses on exploring the critical factors that are located in the three institutional levels mentioned in the Dillard model (2004): the economic and political level, organisational field level and organisational level. In addition, the research investigates the relationships between these levels, including relationships between the factors, by means of a case study that focuses on Abu Dhabi Police who witnessed the national strategic change, including accounting change, led by the Abu Dhabi Government in 2007. This research uses a qualitative methodology and implements both interview and document analysis methods in order to enrich the level of understanding of the accounting change in the Abu Dhabi Police organisation. The findings present evidence regarding the critical factors at each level and the effects of those factors on the accounting change in a public sector organisation. The economic and political level comprised power, structure, leadership, culture, change agency, resources and accounting systems. Also, the critical factor explored at organisational field level was partnership culture. Moreover, at organisational level there were ten critical factors considered for investigation in the present study: power, structure, leadership, communication, accounting systems, training, internal 8 policy, resources, politics and culture. In addition, the research explains the nature of the relationship and the types of influences between Abu Dhabi Executive Council and Abu Dhabi Police. On the basis of these results, the in-depth understanding of these factors and their impact offers a contribution to the successful introduction and implementation of management accounting systems in the public sector, especially in the Middle East and the United Arab Emirates. Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Introduction The importance of management accounting change has increased over the past two decades and this field of study has become a significant aspect of management change literature. A number of studies have been conducted in the past regarding the significance of accounting change (Burns and Vaivio, 2001; Jahamani, 2003; Waweru et al., 2004; Alawattage et al., 2005; Hassan, 2005; Chrusciel and Field, 2006; Hopper et al., 2007), but certain areas still require exploration in order to enhance basic and advanced understanding of the surrounding organisational environment (Hopwood, 1987; Hopper et al., 2007). The literature concerning management accounting change has focused on several aspects of the topic to enhance in-depth understanding. In fact, the literature illustrates how organisational performance can be increased by introducing and implementing management accounting change, as well as its impacts on public sector organisations (Hopwood, 1987; Hopper et al., 2007). Some literatures have focused on clarifying the definition and nature of management accounting change in order to differentiate it from other change management subjects (Hopwood, 1987; Scapens and Roberts, 1993; Hopper et al., 2007), while other literatures introduced 9 the implementation of accounting systems to make the subject more institutionalized (Zucker, 1987; Scapens and Roberts, 1993; Modell; 2001; Dillard et al., 2004). Also, a number of authors investigated the factors that facilitate accounting change in both private and public sector organisations (Ezzamel et al., 1997; Burns and Vaivio, 2001; Carnall, 2003; Dillard et al., 2004; Hopper and Major, 2007). This study primarily aims to investigate and examine the critical factors that have a significant influence on the successful implementation of management accounting change in public sector organisations, especially in the Middle East.

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