Graph standardization and management accounting at AT&T during the 1920s

Abstract

Drawing principally on archival resources, this study examines the standardization of graphical representations of managerial accounting information at the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) during the 1920s. This innovation in management practice promoted operational efficiency by reducing the uncertainty associated with internal informational asymmetries that frequently arise in enterprises of great scale, scope and complexity. This change also invigorated management accounting and reduced risk perceptions by providing clearer delineation of important trends and relationships in a dynamic business environment. The innovative practices extended the vision of top management and, thus, strengthened their ability to coordinate and control the enterprise's business activities. This new form of organizational learning was also adaptive, drawing on well established approaches followed in the firm's extensive range of scientific and engineering endeavors. It shaped corporate culture in important ways by establishing norms for the accumulation, analysis and application of firm-specific economic information.

Stability and change in management accounting over time—A century or so of evidence from Guinness

“…3 Some more recent examples of such studies include Chandar et al, (2012), Noguchi and, Boyns, (2012), Robertson and Funnell (2012), Jackson et al (2012), O'Regan (2010). These studies are a representative example and there are many more such studies to be found in the general accounting and specific accounting history journals.…”

Management accounting

“…In addressing the 'sharing information' debate, it is useful to look beyond dissemination practices noted above and to consider how information may be shared within companies. Chandar et al (2012) examined the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) during the 1920s and noted that firm-wide 'conferences were extensively used to disseminate knowledge about new management accounting techniques and graphical communication throughout the firm' (2012: 56); they concluded that this had the beneficial effect of 'reducing the uncertainty associated with internal informational asymmetries that frequently arise in enterprises of great scale, scope and complexity ' (2012: 35).…”

“…Many of the contemporary developments in management accounting could not have taken place without recent changes in information technology. Whilst 'mechanical accounting' (Wootton and Kemmerer 2007) and early computing (Boyns and Edwards 2013;Chandar 2012) have been studied (see also Chapter 6), the impacts of digitization (Bhimani 2007), social media and big data (Arnaboldi 2017) on management accounting remain to be placed in full historical perspective.…”

The history of the standard for the calculation of cost of ownership in the semiconductor industry

“…The topic of standards for management information has been discussed in the literature, although Caglio and Ditillo (2008) identified the topic as under-researched in their review of the literature on interorganizational management accounting. While some papers describe the history of particular standardization initiatives of management accounting inside a large company (Chandar et al, 2012; Collier, 2012), the notion of management accounting standards implies use across multiple organizations. A few empirical studies provide examples of cost models that extend beyond a single firm, often initiated by a large and powerful customer who enforced this on his suppliers (Dekker, 2003; Dekker and Van Goor, 2000; Schulze et al, 2012).…”