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‘It's a Very Foreign Discipline’: the Genesis of Expenses Control in a Mutual Life Insurance Company
Author(s) -
Knights David,
Willmott Hugh
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
british journal of management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.407
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1467-8551
pISSN - 1045-3172
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8551.1993.tb00157.x
Subject(s) - paternalism , element (criminal law) , argument (complex analysis) , variety (cybernetics) , life insurance , control (management) , deregulation , management control system , accounting , point (geometry) , business , economics , financial services , market economy , management , finance , actuarial science , law , political science , biochemistry , chemistry , geometry , mathematics , artificial intelligence , computer science
SUMMARY This paper is drawn from an intensive case study of Pensco ‐ a mutual life insurance company in the South of England. The original objective of the research was to examine corporate strategy as an aspect of management control. As the research proceeded, it became clear that a new system of budgeting and expenses control was a crucial element of the transformation of the company from its 'sleepy’ paternalistic traditions into an aggressive, competitive financial services company. The paper contextualizes the development of budgeting and expenses control in Pensco within changes in the British economy. These are associated with the rise of the New Right, transformations in the financial services sector relating to deregulation and the establishment of a new regulatory framework. The argument of the paper is that budgeting and accounting control in this company has a complex genealogy revolving around a number of conditions coinciding at a particular point in time. Our case study material also reveals a variety of tensions, contradictions and resistances to the new management regime that placed, considerable obstacles in the way of an effective implementation of the new accounting and management controls