How does organizational change affect the accountants’ role? An institutional approach on two Romanian settings

Article Type: AMIS statement and abstracts From: International Journal of Accounting and Information Management, Volume 17, Issue 1

Romania’s opening towards the West generated not only an important inflow of foreign capital, but also harmonization in regulations and new management (accounting) techniques. Conducting research on accountants’role is important in order to understand the modern society. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of the organizational and accounting change on the Romanian accountant in business. Through unstructured interviews, this paper analyzes the impact of IFRS adoption and ERP implementation in Romania-based companies onto the work of accountants in business. Findings confirm the results of previous research, in that accounting professionals seem to be affected in their work by recent changes suffered by both the Romanian society and companies. There is some evidence of a shift in accountants’ work from“bean-counters” to “business consultants” and to information providers to operational managers, from simple accounting treatments to business analysis and support for complex decision-making. This study contributes to current research as it brings a new perspective into research conducted on the Romanian accounting profession by documenting a process of hybridization of accounting tasks and significant changes in the accountants’role.

Keywords: Change, Accountant in business, IFRS, ERP

Catalin-Nicolae Albu and Nadia AlbuBucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania