This book offers a detailed theoretical analysis of the fields of learning and management in the digital age. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it opens a dialogue between agile management theory and agile learning theory. The book argues that there is a tension between participative and action-orientated approaches on the one hand and neoliberal enclosure of the actor on the other hand. It takes this as an opportunity for interdisciplinary dialogue between learning theories and management concepts. With contributions from a range of international experts, chapters discuss the need for suitable theoretical, epistemological, and ethical foundations as well as practice-orientated methods for learning and management to implement appropriate strategies and meet educational challenges. This highly topical book will be of great interest to academics, postgraduate students, and researchers in the fields of digital learning, educational theory, management theory, and communication studies.

This book offers a detailed theoretical analysis of the fields of learning and management in the digital age. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it opens a dialogue between agile management theory and agile learning theory. The book argues that there is a tension between participative and action-orientated approaches on the one hand and neoliberal enclosure of the actor on the other hand. It takes this as an opportunity for interdisciplinary dialogue between learning theories and management concepts. With contributions from a range of international experts, chapters discuss the need for suitable theoretical, epistemological, and ethical foundations as well as practice-orientated methods for learning and management to implement appropriate strategies and meet educational challenges. This highly topical book will be of great interest to academics, postgraduate students, and researchers in the fields of digital learning, educational theory, management theory, and communication studies.

The book introduces pragmatic constructivism as a paradigm for understanding actors' construction of functioning practice and for developing methods and concepts for managing and observing that practice. The book explores, understands and theorises organisational practices as constructed through the activities of all organisational actors. Actors always act under presumptions of a specific actor-world-relation which they continuously construct, adjust and reconstruct in light of new experiences, contexts and communication. The outcome of the actor-world-relation is a reality construction. The reality construction may function successfully or it may be hampered by fictitious and illusionary elements, due to missing or faulty actor-world relations. The thesis is that four dimensions of reality - facts, possibilities, values and communication - must be integrated in the actor-world-relation if the construct is to form a successful basis for effective, functioning actions. Drawing on pragmatic constructivism, the book provides concepts and ideas for studies regarding actors and their use of management accounting models in their construction of organized reality. It concentrates on researching and conceptualizing what creates functioning reality construction. It develops concept and methods for understanding, analysing and managing the actors' reality constructions. It is intended for people who do research on or work actively with developing management accounting.

This is a book for all who are interested in organizational management philosophy or control practices as the book offers new ways of understanding the dynamics of management. By employing multiple theoretical and methodological perspectives the book provides refreshing and engaging analyses of beyond budgeting and different forms of control. This book will be a source of inspiration for researchers and practitioners by given reasoning and ideas for better understanding of the dynamics, mysteries and paradoxes of control in contemporary organizations.' - Frode Mellemvik, University of Nordland, NorwayThis timely and innovative book focuses on budgeting control and ongoing beyond budgeting trends and its consequences for the organization. Ensuring an optimal balance between individual autonomy and management control is a critical challenge for organizations operating in dynamic business environments. Too much of the former leads to chaos, and too much of the latter guarantees rigidity. This book explores the tensions that arise in seeking the best possible balance between these two dimensions. Resolving these tensions is a critical challenge for achieving competitiveness. In order to examine budgeting control and ongoing 'beyond budgeting', the book's starting point is the Beyond Budgeting movement and what it implies for a new approach to autonomy and management control. This discussion is further supplemented with a broader approach to the issue of control that spans issues such as self-control, time control, transparency as control, ethical control and cultural control. This book's innovative and explorative approach will be of interest to students at master level, scholars and senior and middle-level managers. HR departments will find it instrumental to their work and practice. Contributors: S.D. Becker, T. Bjornenak, B. Bogsnes, A. Bourmistrov, B. Catasus, B. Espedal, P.N. Gooderham, D. Johanson, K. Kaarboe, T. Malmi, M. Messner, O. Nordhaug, H. Norreklit, L.J.T. Pedersen, N. Sandalgaard, A.M. Sandvik, I. Stensaker, S. Terjesen

Over the last two decades, cost management has been an area of dynamic change and development. This is evident in the extensive inventory of new, high-profile techniques that have emerged.

With cost management now firmly established as a distinct sub-discipline within management accounting, The Routledge Companion to Cost Management is a timely reference volume covering both practical developments and research in this area. Topics covered include:

• Input cost management
• Product design
• Cost analysis and decision making
• Cost management systems
• Lessons for cost management

With chapters from an international team of contributors, this prestigious companion will prove an indispensible addition to any library with aspirations to keeping up-to-date with the world of accounting.

The book introduces pragmatic constructivism as a paradigm for understanding actors' construction of functioning practice and for developing methods and concepts for managing and observing that practice. The book explores, understands and theorises organisational practices as constructed through the activities of all organisational actors. Actors always act under presumptions of a specific actor-world-relation which they continuously construct, adjust and reconstruct in light of new experiences, contexts and communication. The outcome of the actor-world-relation is a reality construction. The reality construction may function successfully or it may be hampered by fictitious and illusionary elements, due to missing or faulty actor-world relations. The thesis is that four dimensions of reality - facts, possibilities, values and communication - must be integrated in the actor-world-relation if the construct is to form a successful basis for effective, functioning actions. Drawing on pragmatic constructivism, the book provides concepts and ideas for studies regarding actors and their use of management accounting models in their construction of organized reality. It concentrates on researching and conceptualizing what creates functioning reality construction. It develops concept and methods for understanding, analysing and managing the actors' reality constructions. It is intended for people who do research on or work actively with developing management accounting.

This book is intended for practitioners, students, and researchers who are interested in designing, using, assessing, and researching performance management systems. Managerial personnel involved in such activity will hold many beliefs about how their organization functions. This text uses the philosophy of pragmatic constructivism to show how managerial beliefs that underlie action can be made explicit and so facilitate their assessment and improvement. This involves recognizing and integrating the four dimensions (facts, possibilities, values, and communication) that represent how managers relate to the reality in which they operate. When managerial beliefs are based on an accurate representation of reality, they are more likely to be successful. Problems occur where reality is misrepresented in managerial beliefs. This is especially so in performance management, as the book illustrates using real-world examples. Specific topics addressed include planning and decision making, performance management of investment center managers, strategic performance management, and operational performance management.