Mobilizing local knowledge with ‘Provocative’ non-financial measures

Abstract

Knowledge and organizational learning are central concerns of contemporary organizations. Local knowledge is stored in the detailed operational practices, professional routines and grassroot ways of thinking in specific situations, which different agents employ in their organizational segments and niches. These sources of field insight are relevant in producing new competitive initiatives and in the creation of new strategy. This empirically grounded paper illustrates how focused non-financial management accounting measurement brings the controller closer to operational detail, stimulates horizontal debate, and leads to expert resistance. It suggests that non-financial measurement, as an intrusive and controversial management accounting technology, can be perceived as being ‘provocative’. Organizational actors react strongly to this focused measurement. However, ‘provocative’ non-financial measurement assists the articulation of intriguing local knowledge in organizational discourse, providing new possibilities for the controller in locally situated processes of learning.