Studying influence and accounting use—empirical evidence about individual managers and organizations with changes in Galician healthcare

Abstract

Legislation outlined proposed changes in Galician Health Centres. This allowed us to set down the theory about personal and organizational Information–Influence Matrices and then Frameworks of Issues for the interactions between an individual Financial Manager and a Health Centre Co-ordinator, as well as the proposed organizational changes into a new system [Purdy DE, Gago S. Extending influence and accounting use: developing the frameworks to incorporate Galician legal matters about the proposed healthcare changes with managers and organizations for empirical study. Critical Perspectives on Accounting; in press]. Evidence from a longitudinal study covering January 1997 and December 2001, indicated the suitability of these types of Matrices and Frameworks of Issues to analyse conversational data. Results agreed with anticipations at a personal level—wholly for a co-ordinator and partly for the Financial Manager. Differences between the findings and our anticipated Financial Manager's framework are straightforward and we have amended our Framework accordingly. The organization level has followed our anticipations though only 15% of Health Centres had continued with the new system, 85% remained working with the old system. Galician law contained aspirations for changing healthcare with autonomous Health Centres. Spanish health policies and budget laws have inhibited moves to change, as well as the actions of the professionals involved.