Abstract (EN)

In this paper, we explore the different forms of decoupling taking place in organisational departments as an accounting tool is adopted at the departmental level. Through an in depth case study, this paper contributes to research on decoupling in several ways. First, by focusing at the departmental level, this research complements existing studies on decoupling which has assumed that organisational response to decoupling would be uniform, and reveals that when responding to policy adoption, different departments will decide to comply or decouple depending on their specific agendas. Second, it contributes to research on means-ends decoupling as recently developed by Bromley and Powell (2012). While Bromley and Powell suggest that means-ends decoupling is an unintentional outcome of the complexity of the environment and the potentially opaque relationship between means and ends, the present research shows that means-ends decoupling can also be intentional as actors engage in such decoupling to pursue their own agendas. Third, this research identifies a new form of decoupling – between decision and policy – not identified by previous studies, opening new directions for research into the relationship between the adoption of accounting tools and the potential impact on decisions based supposedly on those tools. Finally, the research points to the importance when investigating decoupling of considering the political dimensions of the relationships between the actors.