IRSPM Conference 2022

At the virtual IRSPM 2022 Conference, the Public Service Accounting and Accountability Group (PSAAG) organized its long-standing Special Interest Group (SIG) Panel Accounting and Accountability for the ninth time. Focusing on the role and facets of accounting and accountability in changing social-political-administrative relations, the panel encouraged colleagues to investigate the impact of accounting on public officials and decisions, how and why it is used, and how it helps to foster accountability.

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During the conference, scholars and practitioners explored the role of accounting in identifying, shaping, and translating different perspectives, values, and interests in public service arrangements and between politicians, managers, frontline workers, and society. The panel also looked at how accounting can contribute to a better understanding of public values beyond a merely economic perspective.

 

Along these lines, total of 40 papers addressed an array of intriguing research questions in the field of, e.g. internal audit practices and challenges in different countries, new strategies and reforms in accounting as well as analytical views of past approaches, digitization in accounting, the role of accounting in (re)creating social inequality from the bottom up, accounting for public value(s) and for sustainable goals. The panel also considered what might be learned from contemporary democratic theory about ways of engaging different publics and addressing their multiple values.

 

The panel started with a roundtable discussion which allowed scholars to apply different perspectives, to discuss and bring forward ideas on the state of the art in (applied) research, and to brainstorm about possible future avenues for research in public sector accounting, accountability, and financial management.

 

This year, the PSAAG also aimed to provide an opportunity for exchanging views on accounting and accountability for public services that could be transferred to a digital environment. We therefore organized an informal meet-up designed as an open space for colleagues to meet virtually, talk broadly about puzzling questions of public service accounting and accountability, and to use it as a sounding board for new, intriguing research questions on accounting, performance management, and financial management in the sphere of public services.

 

Furthermore, following our core value of supporting young researchers, breakout rooms were also set up to host a mini-panel designed for mini-presentations of research projects by new/junior researchers. Overall, the conference panel provided an excellent opportunity for scholars to explore the role of accounting and accountability in the public sector and to discuss current and future avenues of research in this field.

 

The panel chairs Enrico Bracci, Universitá di Ferrara; Judy Brown, Victoria University of Wellington, NZ; Giuseppe Grossi, Kiristanstad University, Sweden; Ringa Raudla, Ragnar Nurkse School of Innovation and Governance, Estland; Iris Saliterer, University Freiburg, Germany; and Ileana Steccolini, Essex Business School, UK would like to thank to the presenters and discussants, the session chairs, and the participants fort the great exchange.

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See our PSAAG convenor, Ileana Steccolini, the new IRSPM president, at the opening ceremony of the conference:

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