In studies of corporate governance by default, information asymmetry is assumed, based on the principle-agent theory, between investors and executives, and also by default it is assumed that executives have superior information over investors. In this paper I apply the more rich theory of information from cybernetics, compared to the mathematical theory to this assumed information asymmetry in combination with the theory of decision making, especially with respect to producing eidetic information. The quality of eidetic information turns out to be more critical as is the management or pragmatic information, with respect to the longer-term success of a firm and subsequently its value over the longer term. Due to e.g. psychological phenomena like dominant logic or belief conservation, executives not always produce good quality eidetic information and subsequently decide poor strategies. More in general it can be concluded that the assumption of information asymmetry needs to be understood per type of information and per each phase in decision-making. The resulting model provides a more precise insight in what value investors and non-executives may contribute to improve the quality of the information in a system of corporate governance and thus its effectiveness.

Summary This book centres around three different areas; management control, organisations and information systems - in order to understand what is actually going on and to make sense of management control questions. Management control techniques used today could in many cases be traced back to industrialisation. With the help of computeraised information systems, the speed and detail with which a manager could get a hold of important information has increased. Today, it has become even more important to be able to choose what information to work with and that the context in which it should be used is understood. Organisational sense-making is in many ways an interesting and important path to take in order to do this. When working with the management control function, it is important to understand the organisation where the work is undertaken. One important part of the function is planning and another is control. Both are needed in order for the management control function to work. Performance is often a key ingredient when trying to find out what is working in a plan and what is not and here the understanding for information becomes necessary. Since the work is done within an organsation, both by managers and employees, it is also crucial to find ways to work with not only models, methods and techniques but also people and social dimensions. Key Features Managers and employees want to act in a meaningful way in general. The way planning and control is undertaken in an organization is to a large extent dependent on the way a manager interprets information about the organisation. Decisions and actions can be traced to the interpretation of a situation in the past and present. Since organisations are built on people, it is important to try to understand why they act in a certain way and how their understanding of the organsiation is evolving. Management control has in many ways been described as a function that is dependent on different techniques and methods; however, it can also be described as a social process, focusing on decisions and actions. Informations systems have come to play a crucial role in managing an organisation, especially when it comes to tracing performance. The demand for responsible and accountable management has led to an increased emphasis on meaningful decisions and actions. The Author Dr Krister Bredmar is associate professor at Linneaus University in Sweden. He has for more then 20 years worked with management control and organisational sense-making, both in theory and in practice. His research has been published both in academic journals and in books. Readership Scholars, students and practitioners. Contents The accounting heritage Corporate epistemology Thinking ahead The essence of management control Understanding performance The control concept in management control Reports, communication and stakeholders The essence of sense-making Organisations as a set of social relations Information systems and management control Individuals and organisations Organisational structure A social perspective A decisions context Techiques and functions Thinking and acting strategically Accounting tools Information and knowledge The performance paradox

Calls for greater transparency of accounting information were consistent in media discourse after the accounting crisis early this century. Our analysis of the media suggests different emergent meanings were associated with these calls of transparency and an underlying 'taken for grantedness'. We examine how this 'taken for grantedness' contributed to preserving the status quo rather than greater accountability. We posit that for many observers a loss of meaning of accounting information led to attempts to make sense of what actions are necessary to construct a meaning of accounting information. We find that academic accounting research's response had a narrow focus relating to representation and accessibility of information to permit decision making, the ocular metaphor of transparency. In contrast, the social science research literature highlights the 'invisible' in transparency or the construction of meaning through sensemaking. By extending sensemaking to the macro level we show how stakeholders construct meanings of transparency to rationalize events around the crisis. We find that senior management engaged in high levels of sensegiving via dominant media accounts of vague pledges and actions to increase transparency that provide a plausible story of events and the belief that the necessary actions have been taken, but effectively maintains the status quo. Accountants and regulators provided low and fragmented levels of sensegiving, offering little direction over the discourse of transparency. Our analysis suggests that accountants and regulators need to provide higher forms of sensegiving to create richer accounts and more coherent actions that could provide alternatives to senior management's accounts.

This Handbook provides an incisive, rigorous and contemporary guide to research methods in the continually evolving area of corporate governance, offering a welcome focus on holistic approaches to research. Not only analysing existing research methods dominated by the quantitative-qualitative dichotomy, it also explores the crucial need to challenge assumptions and methodologies in order to advance research in the field.

Finn Frandsen and Winni Johansen have won the 2019 Danish communication prize (KOM-pris) for their world-class research in organisational crises, crisis management and crisis communication. This prize is awarded by The Danish Union of Journalists (Dansk Journalistforbund) and Kforum. http://mgmt.au.dk/nyheder/nyheder/news-item/artikel/finn-frandsen-and-winni-johansen-win-the-kom-pris-2019/ The aim of this handbook is to provide an up-to-date introduction to the discipline of crisis communication. Based on the most recent international research and through a series of levels (from the textual to the inter-societal level), this handbook introduces the reader to the most important concepts, models, theories and debates within the field of crisis communication. Crisis communication is a young and very vibrant field of research and practice. It is therefore crucial that researchers, students and practitioners have access to presentations and discussions of the most recent research. Like the other handbooks in the HOCS series, this handbook contains a general introduction, a chapter on the history of crisis communication research, a series of thematic chapters on crisis communication research at various levels, a chapter perspectives, a glossary of key terms, and lists of further reading for each chapter (with references to publications in English, German, and French). Overview Section I – Introducing the field General introduction A brief history of crisis management and crisis communication: From organizational practice to academic discipline Reframing the field: Public crisis management, political crisis management, and corporate crisis management Section II – Between text and context Image repair theory Situational crisis communication theory: Influences, provenance, evolution, and prospects Contingency theory: Evolution from a public relations theory to a theory of strategic conflict management Discourse of renewal: Understanding the theory’s implications for the field of crisis communication Making sense of crisis sensemaking theory: Weick’s contributions to the study of crisis communication Arenas and voices in organizational crisis communication: How far have we come? Visual crisis communication Section III – Organizational level To minimize or mobilize? The trade-offs associated with the crisis communication process Internal crisis communication: On current and future research Whistleblowing in organizations Employee reactions to negative media coverage Crisis communication and organizational resilience Section IV – Interorganizational level Fixing the broken link: Communication strategies for supply chain crises Reputational interdependence and spillover: Exploring the contextual challenges of spillover crisis response Crisis management consulting: An emerging field of study Section V – Societal level Crisis and emergency risk communication: Past, present, and future Crisis communication in public organizations Communicating and managing crisis in the world of politics Crisis communication and the political scandal Crisis communication and social media: Short history of the evolution of social media in crisis communication Mass media and their symbiotic relationship with crisis Section VI – Intersocietal level Should CEOs of multinationals be spokespersons during an overseas product harm crisis? Intercultural and multicultural approaches to crisis communication Section VII – Critical approaches Ethics in crisis communication Section VIII – The future The future of organizational crises, crisis management and crisis communication For a detailed table of contents, please see here.

Applies an invaluable sensemaking framework to organizational change in both a practical and accessible way, to present an instructive and informative view on the implications of change in the business world today.

Corporate governance is a complex idea that is often inappropriately simplified as a cookbook of recommended measures to improve financial performance. Meta studies of published research show that the supposed benign effects of these measures - independent directors or highly incentivised executives - are at best context-specific. There is thus a challenge to explain the meaning, purpose, and importance of corporate governance. This volume addresses these issues. The issues discussed centre on relationships within the firm e.g. between labour, managers, and investors, and relationships outside the firm that affect consumers or the environment. The essays in this collection are the considered selection by the editors and the contributors themselves of what are seen as some of the most weighty and urgent issues that connect the corporation and society at large in developed economies with established property rights. The essays are to be read in dialogue with each other, giving a richer understanding than could be obtained by shepherding all contributions into a single mould. Nevertheless taken together they demonstrate a shared sense of deep concern that the corporate governance agenda has been and still is on the wrong track. The contributors, individually and collectively, identify in this compendium both a research programme and a platform for change.