search query: @author Carter, C. / total: 12
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| Author: | Mueller, F. Carter, C. |
| Title: | 'We are all managers now': Managerialism and professional engineering in UK electricity utilities |
| Journal: | Accounting, Organizations and Society
2007 : JAN/FEB, VOL. 32:1-2, p. 181-195 |
| Index terms: | managerial activities management accounting engineers professions electricity supply industry privatization history United Kingdom |
| Language: | eng |
| Abstract: | This article deals with the institutional changes having taken place in the British Electricity Supply Industry (here as: ESI) in the period following the sector's privatization. The post-war nationalisations were underpinned by an ideology of technocracy. In the case of the ESI, overseeing the industry as a whole were Treasury utility economists while the electricity boards were dominated by professional engineers. This meant a loose coupling btw. the two dominant groups, that is, economists and engineers. However, the establishment of the Regulatory structure following privatisation marked a shift away from public treasury style economics. The economists were joined by management accountants in what amounted to a hybridization of economics and management accounting. Whereas under nationalisation the dominant groups occupied semi-autonomous spheres, in the privatized context there was the interpenetration of accounting and economics into the sphere of engineering etc. |
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