The act of interpretation - Accounting reports and management control action

Today management control systems of different kinds are important parts of managing any local or global organization. This paper seeks to understand how the act of interpreting accounting reports becomes an interface to management control actions. The empirical material consists of fieldwork and interviews with managers at different levels in four Swedish organizations. The findings show that through the process of interpreting accounting reports managers become more focused on purposeful actions. Modern organizations need to develop their ability to interpret accounting reports in order to use management control systems even better, increase the understanding of what is happening in the organization and consequently act more purposefully.