A diagramming-based approach to conduct preliminary literature review on employer branding

A diagramming-based approach to conduct preliminary literature review on employer branding

Joseph Kim-keung Ho

Independent Trainer

Hong Kong, China

Abstract: Diagramming-based literature review is a newly launched academic topic by this writer. This kind of literature review makes use of mind map, system map and cognitive map to render alternative knowledge structures on a research theme under examination. In this paper, the writer makes use of diagramming-based literature review to study employer branding. The study covers both the academic literature as well as reported employer branding activities in Hong Kong. Besides producing some literature review findings on employer branding, this study indicates the practical value of diagramming-based literature review, especially for preliminary literature review in dissertation projects, as also reported in the previous works on this topic.

Keywords: cognitive map, diagramming-based literature review, employer branding, employer branding activities in Hong Kong, literature review, mind map, system map

Introduction

In the subject of managerial intellectual learning as developed by Ho (see Managerial intellectual learning Facebook page), the practical value of diagramming has been recognized from the very beginning. More recently, investigation effort has been specifically made on diagramming-based literature review (Ho, 2016a; 2016b). This paper is again a diagramming-based literature review exercise. It is employed to review the topic of employer branding. The objectives of this study are as follows:

Objective 1: to develop the diagramming-based literature review technique in managerial intellectual learning via hands-on practice.

Objective 2: to enhance intellectual knowledge in employer branding, with some reference to the Hong Kong context.

This study is intended to generate some academic and pedagogical value on managerial intellectual learning, literature review and employer branding.

Ideas underlying employer branding

The employer branding topic originated in the 1990s (Bondarouk et al., 2013). In particular, according to Berthon et al. (2005) and Sengupta et al. (2015), the term employer branding appears to be coined by Ambler and Barrow (1996). Academic and practical interest in the employer branding topic has been fostered by (i) “growing competition within the labour market for talents by companies”, (ii) recognition of the power of branding, (iii)  recognition of the impact of employee engagement and human resource practices (Mosley, 2007; CIPD, 2007). Initially explored by the academic marketing community, then by the human resource one, employer branding is branding-based[1] human resource activities targeted at current and potential employees (Edwards, 2010). Basically, employer branding is “the process of promoting a company, or an organization, as the employer of choice to a desired target group, one which a company needs and wants to recruit and retain….and helps secure the achievement of the company’s business plan”. It can similarly be understood as “a long-term strategy of an given company, aimed at both building a unique and desirable employer identity and managing the expectations of prospective and current employees, in order to gain competitive advantage” (Bondarouk et al., 2013). Another key term in employer branding, an employer brand, is described as “the identity of a company as an employer of choice” (Mossevelde, 2014) and more specifically defined as “the package of functional, economic, and psychological benefits provided by employment, and identified with the employing company” (Barrow and Mosely, 2006: xvi). For Backhaous and Tikoo (2004), employer brands should be developed to be “consistent with the firm’s product and corporate brand”. Academics suggest that employer branding is (i) an internal marketing concept[2], (ii) a part of corporate branding and (iii) a progressive branding-based human resource development approach (Bondarouk et al., 2013; Kucherov and Zavyalova, 2012). A few academic articles on employer branding can be found in Personnel Review (Emerald), Organization Studies (Sage), Strategic HR Review (Emerald), Journal of Product & Brand Management (Emerald), Journal of Services Marketing (Emerald), Human Resource Management (Wiley) and Marketing Letters (Springer). All in all, these academic papers are sparsely scattered in a number of academic journals in marketing and human resource management fields. Nevertheless, so far, empirical research on employer branding remains limited (Edwards and Edwards, 2013). The following are the main ideas from the academic literature on employer branding, grouped into five related research themes (The key ideas are in bold):

Research theme 1: on ingredient notions of employer branding

Idea 1.1.               The branded product is “a unique and particular employment experience”, which a company carefully clarifies and manages to create value and influence for it (Edwards, 2010).

Idea 1.2.               Employer brand attributes can be divided into four groups, (i) economic attributes (e.g., salary and employment stability), (ii) psychological attributes (e.g., corporate culture and interpersonal relations), (iii) functional attributes (e.g., work content and career growth opportunities) and (iv) organizational attributes (e.g., corporate brand reputation and company’s history) (Kucherov and Zavyalova, 2012).

Idea 1.3.               A company makes claims on unique employment experience to current and potential employees (i.e., employment offering), which suggest differentiation of the company’s characteristics as an employer (Edwards, 2010).

Idea 1.4.               Aspects of an employment offering include functional, economic and psychological benefits; for an organization, employment offering can be complex to establish (Edwards, 2010). Drawing on Sartain and Schumann (2006), the elements of the employment offering to be marketed to targeted employees can be called “employer value propositions”. The relevance of these value propositions need to be introspected by companies from time to time (Sengupta et al., 2015).

Idea 1.5.               Employer attractiveness (EA) has been proposed to be an antecedent of employer brand equity; EA is defined as “the envisioned benefits that a potential employee sees in working for a specific organization (Berthon et al., 2005).

Research theme 2: on basic scope of employer branding

Idea 2.1.               Employer branding involves managing a company’ image, with corporate values and guiding principles as its key image features (Martin and Beaumont, 2003).

Idea 2.2.               Employer branding involves the organizational identity of a company; the organizational identity “can help guide employee behavior”, which, in turn, establish the organization’s identity itself (Ashforth and Mael, 1996).

Idea 2.3.               Employer branding involves efforts to promote its employment offering to current and potential employees, likely to employ extensive communication campaigns (Edwards, 2010).

Idea 2.4.               Employer branding, drawing on the notion of organizational identification[3], encourages current employees to identify with their employing companies (Edwards, 2010). Such encouragement can take the form of companies being supportive of their employees (Sluss et al., 2008).

Research theme 3: on employer branding method and strategy

Idea 3.1.               Employer branding practice is theoretically grounded on the resource-based view that “human capital brings value to the firm, and through skilful investment in human capital, firm performance can be enhanced (Backhaus and Tikoo. 2004).

Idea 3.2.               Employment offerings are recommended to be designed to align with current and potential employees’ value preferences so as to retain and attract them (Sengupta et al., 2015).

Idea 3.3.               Employers need to be aware of factors, e.g., positive company reputation and employment experience, which make them attractive to current and potential employees (Edwards, 2010). On the other hand, presentation of an overly positive employment offering can lead to unrealistic expectations in new joiners and subsequently higher intention of them to leave (Edwards, 2010).

Idea 3.4.               Employment experience offered to employees can be formulated in a more structured way in terms of the psychological contract notion[4] (Backhaus and Tikoo, 2004). For example, it has been hypothesized that companies “with a higher degree of symbolic personality characteristics will have a stronger emphasis on relational and ideological psychological contract content that make up features of the employment experience with their employment brand” (Edwards, 2010).

Idea 3.5.               It has been suggested by Sengupta et al., (2015) that “satisfied employees are the best source of employer branding”.

Idea 3.6.               The employer branding process is composed of three parts (Backhaus and Tikoo, 2004): (i) formulate value proposition, (ii) conduct external marketing, and (iii) conduct internal marketing. It has also been postulated to involve 5 steps: (i) understand your organization, (ii) create a compelling brand promise for employees, (iii) develop standards to measure the fulfillment of the brand promise, (iv) ruthlessly align all people practices to reinforce the brand promise, and (v) execute and measure (Hewitt Associates website as mentioned in Berthon et al., 2005).

Idea 3.7.               External marketing of the employer brand strives to establish the company as “an employer of choice” while internal marketing of it works at creating “a workforce that is hard for other firms to imitate” (Backhaus and Tikoo. 2004).

Idea 3.8.               It is now recognized by human resource professionals that social media is a powerful platform for promoting employer brands in terms of improved company visibility and responsiveness (Bondarouk et al., 2013).

Research theme 4: on employer branding participants

Idea 4.1.               The “target audience” of employer branding comprises current and potential employees, competitors in the labour market and labour market intermediaries, e.g., recruiting firms and the professional Human Resource community (Kucherov and Zavyalova, 2012).

Idea 4.2.               For effective employer branding, a company’s human resource and marketing functions need to collaborate together with a strategic mindset (Biswas and Suar, 2014).

Idea 4.3.               Some companies have created the job of employer brand managers whose responsibility is to “create, implement and manage the employer brand” (Edlinger, 2015). Specifically, this may require the employer brand managers to “coordinate an employeer-employee dialogue and manage the co-creation of employer brands” (Edlinger, 2015).

Research theme 5: on employer branding impacts

Idea 5.1.               Companies with employer brand enjoy more economic benefits than companies without employer brand in terms of lower staff turnover rate and higher human resource investment rate (Kucherov and Zavyalova, 2012). Similarly, benefits of having a strong employer brand can be reduced HR costs, improved labour relations, higher employee retention and loyalty, improved quality of job applicants, and lower salary to employees in comparison to other companies with a weaker employer brand (Bondarouk et al., 2013; Kucherov and Zavyalova, 2012).

Idea 5.2.               Employer branding produces two main assets, i.e., brand associations[5] and brand loyalty (Backhaus and Tikoo, 2004). The former increases a company’s attractiveness to potential employees while the latter boosts employee productivity (Backhaus and Tikoo, 2004). Likewise, for Aaker (1991), employer branding comprises 3 components: (i) employer brand equity, (ii) brand loyalty and employee engagement and (iii) talents attraction and retention.

The five research themes were identified in this literature review process. These themes and their associated ideas together portray the general intellectual landscape on the subject of employer branding in terms of overall research priority and specific notions drawn from other management disciplines. Thus, they underline the intellectual interests of academics who have participated in employer branding research. Additional information on employer branding can be found in the Literature on employer branding Facebook page (re: the Bibliography). The next section will take a look at employer branding activities in Hong Kong, where this writer is located. Such information sheds more light on the practical interests on employer branding in the Hong Kong business community. After that, a diagramming-based literature review on employer branding is conducted, using this literature review findings.

Employer branding activities in Hong Kong

Via Google search and the South China Morning Post website search, five main observations on employer branding activities in Hong Kong are made. They are:

Observation 1 (on employer branding surveys): survey on top employer brands in Hong Kong: Some surveys on attractive employer brands in Hong Kong have been made, including (i) one on tertiary education students (Staff writer of marketing-interactive.com, 2015), (ii) a survey on best employers in Hong Kong reported by Wong (2007), (iii) an employer branding survey with senior executives in Asia (including Hong Kong)  by Heidrick & Struggles (Yang, 2015) and (iv) the Randstad Award survey, covering 25 countries, including Hong Kong (Randstad.com.hk, 2016).

Observation 2 (on employer branding awards): Employer branding award-granting: Awards on employer branding have been granted annually by the Employer Branding Institute, some to companies in Hong Kong, e.g., Asia’s Best Employer Brand Award (2015) to Pfizer Hong Kong (Pfizer.com.hk, 2015), 6^th Asia Best Employer Brand Award (2015) to Hutchison Telecom Hong Kong Holdings (hthkh.com, 2015) and the “Best Employer Branding” award at the Hong Kong Awards 2008 (nws.com.hk, 2008).

Observation 3 (on employer branding conferences and seminars): Conferences and seminars on employer branding: Examples include (i) Conference on “Attracting the best leaders: executive recruitment & employer branding” 2013, organized by HR Magazine (dataworld.com.hk, 2013), (ii) the HR Summit & Expo Hong Kong 2017 (hrsummit.com, 2016) and HR roundtables on employer branding, organized by ChapmanCG (ChapmanCG, 2015) and (iii) speeches on employment branding at the 2008 Annual Conference of the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management (Li, 2008).

Observation 4 (on recruiting staff involved in corporate employer branding): Recruitment of staff for employer branding: Examples of job vacancies in Hong Kong involved in employer branding can be found in Linkedin.com (jobs/employer-brand-jobs) and recruit.net (Employer Branding Jobs in Hong Kong).

Observation 5 (on employer branding-associated management consulting services): Management consulting on employer branding. Examples of management consultants offering employer branding consulting services to clients in Hong Kong include Beacon Consultants (beaconexecutive.biz, 2010) and Kellyservices.com (Kellyservices.com, 2016). 

Moreover, the writer has tried Google Scholar to search for academic works on employer branding in the Hong Kong setting but was no able to find one. Based on the five observations made, it can be said that interest in employer branding practices is quite pervasive in the business community, including the HR one, in Hong Kong. The understanding gained from reviewing the academic literature and business activities related to employer branding in Hong Kong can now be employed to work on a diagramming-based literature review. This is done in the next section.

Diagramming on employer branding ideas

Using mind mapping, cognitive mapping and system mapping to conduct literature review on a research theme such as housing market and employability, especially at the initial stage of a dissertation project stage has been reported in Ho (2016a; 2016b). Such diagramming-based literature review complements essay-form literature review. So far, this kind of diagramming approach has been employed in preliminary literature review wherein specific research objectives and questions have not been formulated yet. Typically, at the early research stage, the researcher has expressed interest in a broad research theme, e.g., housing market and employability. This interest prompts him/her to conduct an initial literature search and review so as to form an overall view on the intellectual landscape of the research theme. It is expected that, subsequent to this preliminary literature review, with the help of diagramming techniques, the researcher is in a much more informed situation to formulate research objectives and questions that have both academic and practical values. [It is well understood that literature review is an ongoing activity throughout a research project.] Having clarified the nature of diagramming-based literature review, the writer now takes up the task to produce a mind map (Buzan and Buzan, 1995), a system map (Open University, 2016) and a cognitive map (Eden et al., 1983) on employer branding. These three maps are based on the literature review findings, notably on research themes and ideas on employer branding made and reported in the previous section.

The first map, a mind map on employer branding, is shown in Figure 1 as follows:

The five themes and associated notions that make up the five branches with attached nodes of the map mind are adopted from the literature review in the previous section of this paper. With a mind map (re: Figure 1), the knowledge structure of the umbrella concept of employer branding is revealed in tree form. The second map, a system map, is provided below as Figure 2:

Regarding Figure 2, the components of the system map are made up of five key employer branding topics. This map is useful for highlighting these topics for presentation purpose. The arrows in the system map are added by the writer to underline the relatedness of these employer branding topics. There are also labels in Figure 2 to indicate the key themes that these employer branding topics belong to. In the writer’s view, these labels enable presentation audience to more easily grasp the presentation topics. The signs of labels and arrows in Figure 2 are not used in the original version of system map as introduced in the Open University website (Open University, 2016).  This writer found these two symbols useful for making the presentation of ideas clearer with the system map from his own experience of doing diagramming-based literature review. The third map, a cognitive map, is now provided in Figure 3.

Regarding Figure 3, some selected employer branding notions are related with each other to exhibit a somewhat systemic knowledge structure on employer branding. The arrows in Figure 3 indicate the direction of amplifying influences between variables in the cognitive map. For readers who are receptive to systemic phenomena, they would have no problems to study Figure 3. As to those who are not, they should find the mind map (re: Figure 1) easier to interpret than the cognitive map (re: Figure 3).

Reflection on the diagramming-based literature review exercise

Like the previous two diagramming-based literature review studies (Ho, 2016a; 2016b), the writer find the diagramming-based literature review valuable to facilitate reviewing research topics. This review facilitation takes the form of visually imposing alternative forms of knowledge structure (i.e., tree-form and network-form) on the research theme under review. These visual knowledge structures make the preliminary literature review findings easier to remember and comprehend. These maps are also useful to convey literature review findings to other readers. At the same time, they encourages a systemic way to study the literature review findings. Moreover, constructing these maps are not time-consuming and do not require much time to learn as these maps only make use of a limited numbers of mandatory symbols to produce. (It is also understood that the underlying methodologies associated with these mapping techniques are more sophisticated, especially for mind mapping and cognitive mapping.) Lastly, it is clear that the diagramming-based literature review is employed to complement, not to replace, the essay-form literature review.

Concluding remarks

This preliminary literature review portrays a sketchy picture on the intellectual landscape of employer branding. This is first done in the essay form-literature review and then with the diagramming-based approach. The findings should be of use to those who are interested in the employer branding topic (re: objective 2 of this paper). The illustrative account of how to perform diagramming-based literature review should be valuable to those who are (i) learning literature review skills, most likely for doing dissertation projects and (ii) the managerial intellectual learning subject (re: managerial intellectual learning Facebook page in the Bibliography) (re: objective 1 of this paper). In short, this paper offers some academic and pedagogical values to those who are learning employer branding, literature review and managerial intellectual learning.

Bibliography

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[1] A brand can be conceived as “a mixture of attributes, tangible and intangible, symbolized in a trademark, which if managed properly, creates value and influence” (Swystun, 2007). It was originally employed to differentiate tangible products; by now, it has also been applied to differentiate people, places and companies (Peters, 1999).

[2] Internal marketing has been defined as “the task of successfully hiring, training and motivating able employees to serve the customer well” (Kotler, 1994).

[3] Organizational identification has been defined as “the perception of oneness with or belongingness to the organization” (Ashforth and Mael, 1989: 22).

[4] A psychological contract can be conceived as “an individual’s beliefs regarding the terms and conditions of a reciprocal exchange agreement between that focal person and another party” (Rousseau, 1989: 123).

[5] Brand associations refer to “the thoughts and ideas that a brand name evokes…” (Aaker, 1991).

The profile of a double-hybrid management accountant: an article

An exploratory exercise to portray the profile of a double-hybrid management accountant

Joseph Kim-keung Ho

Independent Trainer

Hong Kong, China

 Dated: June 16, 2016

Abstract:

In the late 80s, the profession of management accounting encountered much criticisms on its models and practices, generally known as the “relevance lost”.  Since then, much effort has been made by the management accounting community to develop innovative management accounting practices and promotes a business-unit orientation of management accountants. The management accounting field recognizes two main types of management accountant profiles, i.e., the functionally oriented management accountants and the hybrid management accountants. This paper argues that, both from a theoretical and a real-world practice standpoint, there is a need to offer another profile of management accountant, called a double-hybrid management accountant. Double-hybrid management accountants are scholar-practitioners. The intellectual competence of them is explicitly grounded on pluralism. In the discussion, the paper identifies a number of research topics as related to the notion of double-hybrid management accountant.

Key words: double-hybrid management accountant, management accounting research, management accounting practices, pluralism, professional development

This paper is a revised one on Ho, J.K.K. 2014. “An Exploratory Exercise to Establish the Profile of a Double-hybrid Management Accountant with Justifications” European Academic Research 1(2), February: 4261-4273.

Introduction

Since the late 80s, the field of management accounting has experienced a quite turbulent period of time.  A key concern raised in the management accounting field is captured in the phrase “relevance lost”, coming from a book written by Johnson and Kaplan around that time (1991).  Three main responses from the management accounting community have been made: (i) development of innovative management accounting methods (i.e., the products), (ii) development of better implementation of management accounting practices, and (iii) stress of the hybrid (multi-disciplinary) and business-orientated profile of management accountants. This paper examines this context of evolution of management accounting thinking and practices. It then formulates a more demanding version of hybrid management accountant, called “double-hybrid management accountant”, which the writer maintains as possessing much better professional and academic competence to cope with the challenges originating from the theoretical foundation in the mainstream management accounting thinking.

A review on management accounting theories and practices

Management accounting has been informed by cost accounting, which is concerned with measuring costs of objects, e.g., products and departments, and cost behaviors in organizations.  Cost accounting provides cost information for operations control and planning. The information of cost accounting is also relevant for financial accounting and financial reporting. For instance, financial reporting needs product costs to establish valuation of inventory balance which needs to be disclosed in balanced sheets of enterprises. Management accounting incorporates cost accounting information, plus other accounting and non-accounting information to support managerial decision-making and management function in general. These are summarized as the score-keeping, attention directing and problem solving functions of management accounting (Bhimani et al., 2012). Broadly speaking, management accounting theories cover both the accounting and management domains.

In the late 80s, however, dissatisfaction with management accounting models and practices grew. [The notion of management accounting model was explained in Bjørnenak and Olson (1999) as “a general scheme of how the management accounting system is designed.”]  For examples, there were complaints that conventional overhead cost allocation practices were too crude, that budgeting practices were less relevant in an increasingly turbulent business environment, that management accounting was not capable to deal with intangible resources, and that management accounting was not sufficiently strategic in orientation, etc.. As Otley (2001) states about the situation around that time: “The use of management accounting information was… inimical with good management practice…”. Management accounting innovations began to appear in the management accounting field. Major innovative management accounting models include activity based costing, the balanced scorecard approach, “beyond budgeting” models, management accounting for intellectual capital and target costing. Many of these management accounting innovations incorporate strategic management and marketing thinking and are subsequently included in a broad subject called Strategic Management Accounting. [The subject of Strategic Management Accounting was put forward much earlier by Simmonds in 1981.] At the same time, in the academic management accounting community, the mainstream management accounting thinking and management models have been challenged as being solely focused on a scientific, and objective theoretical stance. The mainstream management accounting is said to be mainly based on neoclassical economics and is essentially a kind of rational accounting theory studies (RATS).  The limitations of an objective and scientific theoretical perspective of mainstream management accounting have been especially exposed in alternative management accounting perspectives, which have been identified as Ethnographic or interpretive accounting research studies (EARS) perspective and Critical accounting theory studies (CATS) perspective (Jönsoson and Macintosh, 1997). As Otley (2001) also points out: “…our subject matter is not amenable to the methods of the ‘hard’ sciences; our ‘facts’ are social ‘facts’ generated by the perceptions and attitudes of the participants themselves, and coloured by the social and cultural context within which they are set…” Otley’s viewpoint underlines the 3 inter-related complexities in social sciences, namely, natural world complexity, social world complexity and internal world complexity as explained by Midgley (1992). [It should be noted that Midgley’s work belongs to the systems thinking literature.]

Many of the works on alternative management accounting perspectives have been published in refereed journals such as Critical perspectives on Accounting, Management Accounting Research and Accounting, Organisations and Society. From the alternative management accounting perspectives, the mainstream management accounting perspective is insensitive to the fundamental characteristics of the object of study of management accounting, which are social, cultural political, psychological and value-full in nature; the contexts of management accounting practices very often are messy. This kind of criticisms on the scientific and objective theoretical stance as embraced by mainstream management accounting can also be easily found in the literatures of Research Methods and Systems Thinking. It can also be said that the mainstream management accounting thinking has been too restrictive by mainly upholding the organizational metaphor of machines; while metaphors of organisms, brains, cultures, political systems, psychic prisons, flux and transformation, and instruments of domination have been ignored. [These metaphors of organization are explained in Morgan (1986).] As management accounting has been applied in more messy topics and contexts such as environmental protection, corporate governance, support for virtual organizations and cross-national/ cross-cultural business management, the limitations of the scientific and objective stance of mainstream management accounting is more acutely felt by management accounting practitioners.

Overall, management accounting research has been conducted from diverse theoretical perspectives, though relatively independently. As Jönsoson and Macintosh (1997) put it: “…it seems that EARS [Ethnographic or interpretive accounting research studies], CATS [Critical accounting theory studies] and RATS [Rational accounting theory studies], in the main and all too often, do indeed pass each like ships in the night…”. [It should be noted that textbooks on Research Methods in Accounting, such as Ryan et al. (2002), explicitly cover various theoretical perspectives.]

On double-hybrid management accounting research items

Jackson (2003) argues that different theories and theoretical perspectives examine situations, problems and practices from different angles. Based on this argument, it is attractive to adopt a pluralist stance to inform problem-solving and management practice. Specifically, Jackson (2003) maintains that:

·       some systems approaches are for “improving goal seeking and viability”

·       some systems approaches are for “exploring purposes”

·       some systems approaches are for “ensuring fairness”

·       some systems approaches are for “promoting diversity”

In essence Jackson’s recommendation is supportive of pluralism at the theoretical and methodological levels in management practices. In our case, this recommendation equally applies to management accounting practices.

For Midgley (1992), pluralism represents a “new set of paradigmatic assumptions”, which incorporates the three paradigms of ontological thoughts, namely, realism, idealism and normative construction, although, in practice, only one paradigm is employed as “a moment of thought”.  Adoption of pluralism is justified because the complexity of reality that management accountants, like practitioners in other social sciences fields, are facing is made up of three inter-related parts, i.e., natural world complexity, social world complexity and internal world complexity (Midgley, 1992).

In short, Jackson (2003)’s thinking about systems approaches and Midgley’s thinking about pluralism can be applied in management accounting theories and models. For Jackson, employment of pluralism, when explicitly grounded on contemporary systems thinking, promotes creative holism. That is, it is fully aware of the 3 inter-related parts of complexity as pointed out by Midgley (1992) with systems thinking that is multi-perspective; and being multi-perspective promotes creativity in problem-solving and management practices. In our case, this can be management accounting practices. Creative holism and pluralism also support usage of multiple methodologies anchored on different theoretical perspectives. Recently, this idea on pluralism-based methodology application has been employed by Ho (2015) to formulate a research strategy blueprint for double-hybrid management accounting research.

Out of this literature review, the writer identifies the following research items for investigation in management accounting based on creative holism and pluralism:

1.     Double-hybrid management accounting research

2.     Double-hybrid management accounting models

3.     Double-hybrid management accounting practices

4.     Double-hybrid management accounting development

5.     Desired profile of a double-hybrid management accountant

Double-hybrid means supportive of multiple perspectives and multiple methods in management accounting research and practices. So far, discussions of aspects of these research items have been scattered in the management accounting literature but not synthesized via the lens of pluralism explicitly.

A comparison of the three profiles of management accountants

Emsley (2005) distinguishes two profiles of management accountants, namely, functionally oriented management accountants and business unit oriented management accountants; and argues that business oriented management accountants are more capable than functionally oriented management accountants to introduce management accounting innovations in organizations. The writer would argue that business unit-oriented management accountants are essentially hybrid management accountants; they must have sufficient management education in other non-accounting disciplines and working experience in other non-accounting work domains to be competent business unit-oriented management accountants. Thus, the profile of business unit-oriented management accountants is the same as that of hybrid management accountants referred to in management accountant works, e.g.,  Bhimani, Horngren, Datar and Rajan (2012) and Cooper and Dart (2009), and the profile of a hybrid management accountant is typified by the description of professional management accountant in professional management accountants’ websites such as that of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), UK.[1] The following quotation from Kim et al. (2012) also serves as an illustration: “Respondents strongly valued qualities such as professional principles, hard work, intelligence, analytical and forward thinking in MAs. Further, more innovative, dynamic and people-oriented qualities were strongly suggested for future MAs [writer’s note: MAs means management accountants], with roles relating to multi-skilled business integrator, business partner/advisor, leader, agent, and decision enabler/maker..” Notwithstanding this, a hybrid management accountant is still not a true master of management accounting; a hybrid management accountant’s skills is still plagued by the limitations of mainstream management accounting thinking and affiliated management accounting models. Thus, the writer recommends another profile of management accountants, which is named by this writer as a double-hybrid management accountant.

A double-hybrid management accountant is not only a hybrid accountant with good knowledge and working experience in various management disciplines, but also a person well versed in various management accounting perspectives, such as the RATS, the CATS, and the EARS perspectives. In addition, this person has good knowledge of pluralism in the academic literature, especially the systems thinking one. In short, a double-hybrid management accountant is hybrid at both the theoretical and practices levels. Since the professional development to possess the competence of a double-hybrid management accountant is very demanding and engaging, it should be clear that not all management accounting practitioners want to be or can afford to be a double-hybrid management accountant.

The following table, Table 1, makes a comparison of the profiles of functionally oriented management accountants, hybrid management accountants and double-hybrid management accountants. It serves the purpose of consolidating some of the ideas presented in this paper.

Table 1: a comparison of the profiles of functionally oriented management accountants, hybrid management accountants and double-hybrid management accountants

	Functionally oriented managements accountants	Hybrid management accountants	Double-hybrid management accountants
Typical working experience	Work in the Accounting Department	Work in various departments in organizations	Work in various departments in organizations, plus some research and teaching experience at universities
Research philosophy	RATS	RATS + EARS	Pluralism RATS + EARS + CATS
Performance criteria	Efficiency Effectiveness	Effectiveness Mutual understanding	Creative holism
Role in organizations	Functional specialist	Business partner	Transformational leader

Based on the literature review as introduced in this paper, this writer argues that a double-hybrid management accountant is in the best position to be a master of management accounting practices; a double-hybrid management accountant, being a scholar-practitioner, should also be able to make significant contribution to the theoretical development of management accounting that has high academic and practical values. This version of management accountant profile, however, is missing in the existing management accounting literature.

Implications on management accounting development and education

Using the analogy of a ladder, it can be said that the education requirement for a functionally oriented management accountant (level 1 – lower level) is lower than that of a business unit-oriented management accountant (level 2 – middle level); in turn, the education requirement of a business unit-oriented management accountant (a hybrid management accountant) is less stringent than that of a double-hybrid management accountant (level 3 – upper level). The body of knowledge required for level 1 has been clearly established in the syllabus of professional management accounting bodies, such as the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA); and that for a hybrid management accountant is that of the CIMA, plus that of an MBA programme, for instance. As to the educational requirement for a double-hybrid management accountant, this should be equivalent to that of a Ph.D., with explicit mastery of the theory on pluralism. Having said that, there is a need to investigate further the topic of professional development to reach level 3 for double-hybrid management accountants.  There is also a need to research on the managerial intellectual learning process involved to develop management accountants of different profiles. The works of Ho (2013a; 2013b) on managerial intellectual learning process and on Enlightening Management Education are relevant to this research topic, in this respect.

Concluding remarks

Both the works of (i) Kim et al. (2012), which is on the professional identity of management accountants, and (ii) Stone et al. (2000) and Hunton et al. (2000), which examine the job requirements for management accountants at different levels of hierarchy in organizations, direct their attention on functionally oriented and business unit-oriented management accountants. There is scant attention of these works on the scholar-practitioner profile on management accounting. In this paper, the writer points out the professional and academic contributions that a double-hybrid management accountant can make to the academic and business communities.

The importance of developing double-hybrid management accountants is becoming increasingly important as more attention is paid to the “management” aspect of management accounting rather than the “accounting” aspect of management accounting, as Otley (2001) recommends. At the same time, the relevance of the professional competence of double-hybrid management accountants is growing with an increasingly complex external environment facing management accounting practices, which is revealed in Stede et al. (2010)’s report. For instance, Stede et al. (2010) state: “Business models used in emerging Asia and traditional western markets were at odds. In the west, transparency was the keystone, providing new rules and disclosures for how business should be conducted, and shareholder value maximization became the universal mantra….. Meanwhile, in emerging Asia the powerful corporations were generally less transparent, governance systems were murkier, and decisions at all levels often influenced by personal relationships….  With the global flow of capital and increased competition on global markets between companies in the east and west, these differences create tensions, particularly in financial functions where they must be reconciled to complete business transactions and smooth other interactions, especially where governments are meddling in the business…”. Informed by critical systems thinking, double-hybrid accountants have the creative and holistic mindset and intellectual toolbox to comprehend and cope with such complexity exhibited by the contemporary external environment.

This ends my endeavor to portray the profile of a double-hybrid management accountant with its theoretical/ practical significance clarified. For a more theoretical elucidation on the topic of double-hybrid management accountants, readers are referred to Ho (2014). Updated information related to the double-hybrid management accountant topic can also be found on the Facebook pages of the Multi-perspective, Systems Research, Managerial intellectual learning and the literature on management accounting (see References).

Bibliography

Bhimani, A., C.T. Horngren, S.M. Datar and M.V. Rajan. 2012. Management and Cost Accounting, Financial Times Prentice-Hall, Harlow, England.

Bjørnenak, T. and O. Olson. 1999. “Unbundling management accounting innovations” Management Accounting Research 10: 325-338.

Cooper, P. and E. Dart. 2009. “Change in the Management Accountant’s Role: Drivers and Diversity” Working Paper Series, School of Management, University of Bath (url address: http://www.bath.ac.uk/management/research/pdf/2009-06.pdf) [visited at Jan, 3, 2014].

Emsley, D. 2005. “Restructuring the management accounting function: A note on the effect of role involvement on innovativeness” Management Accounting Review 16: 157-177.

Ho, J.K.K. 2013a. “A Research Note: An exploration on the intellectual learning process of systems thinking by managers in the digital social media ecosystem” European Academic Research 1(5) August: 636-649.

Ho, J.K.K. 2013b. “An endeavor to render an impressionistic image of Enlightening Management Education in Multi-perspective, Systems-based Research” European Academic Research 1(6) September: 1013-1034.

Ho, J.K.K. 2014. “A Research Note on why and how to develop double-hybrid management accountants (DHMAs)” European Academic Research 2(5) August: 6493-6515.

Ho, J.K.K. 2015. “A blueprint on research strategies for the double-hybrid management accounting research” American Research Thoughts 1(11) October: 2838-2851.

Hunton, J.E., B. Wier and D.N. Stone. 2000. “Succeeding in managerial accounting. Part 2: a structural equations analysis” Accounting, Organizations and Society 25: 751-762.

Jackson, M.C. 2003. Systems Thinking: Creative Holism for Managers, Wiley, Chichester, England.

Johnson, H.T. and R.S. Kaplan. 1991. Relevance Lost: The Rise and Fall of Management Accounting, Harvard Business School Press, Boston.

Jönsoson, S. and N.B. Macintosh. 1997. “CATS, RATS, and EARS: Making the case for ethnographic accounting research” Accounting, Organizations and Society 22 (¾): 367-386.

Kim, J., C. Hatcher and C. Newton. 2012. “Professional identity of management accountants: leadership in changing environment” 8(1), Research executive summary series, May, Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, London, U.K.

Literature on management accounting Facebook page, maintained by Joseph K.K. Ho (url address: https://www.facebook.com/literature.management.accounting/).

Managerial intellectual learning Facebook page, maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address: https://www.facebook.com/managerial.intellectual.learning/).

Midgley, G. 1992. “Pluralism and the Legitimation of Systems Science” Systems Practice 5(2): 147-172.

Morgan, G. 1986. Images of Organization, SAGE Publication, London.

Otley, D. 2001. “Extending the boundaries of management accounting research: developing systems for performance management” British Accounting Review 33: 243-261.

Ryan, B., R.W. Scapens and M. Theobold. 2002. Research Method and Methodology in Finance and Accounting, Thomson, Australia.

Simmonds, K. 1981. “Strategic management accounting”, Management Accounting (UK), April.

Stone, D.N., J.E. Hunton and B. Wier. 2000. “Succeeding in managerial accounting. Part 1: knowledge, ability and rank” Accounting, Organizations and Society 25: 697-715.

The Multi-perspective, Systems-based Research Facebook page, maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address: https://www.facebook.com/multiperspective.systemsbased.research/

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[1] There are other management accounting professional bodies such as: Institute of Certified Management Accountants (ICMA Australia), Certified Management Accountants of Canada, Institute of Management Accountants (IMA USA).