Financial Controller - Business Partner or Not? This is an investigation of the claim by Graham et al. (2012:1) that there has been a change in the role of the Financial Controller. A diachronic analysis of job adverts will attempt to determine the resear

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Robin Eriksson

Linguistic Survey Course B

Tutor: Maggie Kerridge

        Business Controller and its constructional change

INTRODUCTION

This is an investigation of the claim by Graham et al. (2012:1) that there has been a change in the role of the Financial Controller. A diachronic analysis of job adverts will attempt to determine the research questions:

  1. Has the construction of the working title Financial Controller changed over time, from 1960 to 2012?
  2. If there has been any change, how has the meaning changed?

TOPIC, THEORY AND METHOD

FINANCIAL CONTROLLER AND CHANGE OF MEANING

Verstegen et al., (2007, quoted in Graham et al. 2012:1) claim that:

The Financial Controller has been described as the person who supports and advises management of an organisation in realising its economic, public and/or financial goals by means of the design and maintenance of management control and accounting information systems, and the procurement and distribution of information.

However Financial Controllers have likewise been described as “bean-counters” and “number crunchers” and as a “scorekeeper” (Burns & Baldvinsdottir, 2007:117-118). The Financial Controller has moreover been described as an internal police who control everything around a company’s economy (Burns & Baldvinsdottir 2005:726). Nevertheless, both Burns and Baldvinsdottir (2007:117-118) and Graham et al. (2012:2) argue that the role of Financial Controllers has changed over time. The “new type” of Financial Controller is usually referred to as a “business partner” and as a part of the management team that outlines new strategies for a business (Burns & Baldvinsdottir,2007:117-118).

     Friedman and Lyne (1997:20) define a bean-counter as ‘an accountant who produces financial information which is regarded as of little use in efficiently running the business and, as a result, its production has become an end in itself.’

LANGUAGE CHANGE

Words can either widen or narrow their meaning (Baugh & Cable, 2002:308). One argument for the change in the role of Financial Controllers is improved business systems which are now available. This new technology provides companies with most of the data which Controllers used to produced. Because of this new technology more time is available for Controllers to give advice and to function as a business partner (Baldvinsdottir et al., 2009:867).

RESEARCH METHOD

Job advertisements from 1960 to 2012 were used as primary data; gathered from The Times (London). The data from 1970 till 1985 was compared with data from current job adverts. Ten adverts from each decade were analysed to discover what different tasks Controllers were assigned to do and how these tasks had changed over time (see appendix I).

ANALYSIS

Job advertisement from 1960

During 1960 most companies seem to have looked for a male applicant. In 6 out of 10 adverts a term such as he/his or man were used while there were no references to women. This might suggest that this type of work was male dominated during this period, something that might also correlate with what UK Sexual Discrimination in Employment Act 1975  points out about sex discrimination in job adverts and employments (UK Sexual Discrimination in Employment Act 1975, chapter 65:3-4). All adverts address the applicant in third person which can be seen as quite formal. There is no direct addressing in any of the adverts investigated.

     Another prominent feature was the use of advice/advising. This might be an indication that the Controller was not just intended to report data and numbers or acting as police. This was in some ways surprising to discover since the theory says that the Controller was more of a bean counter during this period (Graham et al. 2012:1).

     However, at the same time all adverts listed the usual number cruncher and bean counter tasks, such as preparation of capital budgeting, comprehensive scrutiny of the group’s capital investments, budgeting and forecasting, etc. Another feature that came up quite frequently was the task of implementation different accounting routines and accounting systems. This is arguably a suitable task for a Controller since it is most often the Controller who has the widest knowledge of these types of systems. However, this does not suggest any real involvement in the strategic planning.

     Another description of the Controller’s role that could be seen as rather surprising was the following description; ‘He will be a member of the top management team’.  This is a task which one might expect to see in the newer adverts but not in one from 1960 since this description is closely related to what the “newer” definition of the Controller as a business partner (Graham et al. 2012:2; Burns & Baldvinsdottir 2007: 117-118).

Job advertisement from 1970

In the 70s the Controller role still seemed to be a male-dominated profession; however the direct male reference fell from 6 out of 10 to 4 out of 10 adverts. This might just be a coincidence but it is still interesting since one might expect a decrease in this type of language as we get closer to present time. The applicant is still addressed mainly in third person with one exception where the pronoun you is used. This can be seen as a less formal use of the language. However, in most of the adverts a more formalized language is still used.

     The word advice was not used as frequently in adverts from the 70s, it was only used in 2 of the 10 adverts. This might suggest that the Controller became less involved in the day to day management of the company; however one cannot be sure about this. The adverts do not suggest any real increase of the Controller as a business partner. Nevertheless, two of the adverts presents the following tasks which could be seen as business partner tasks; ‘[the applicant] will become a senior member of the management team’ and ‘the successful candidate will be working with management teams, operating internally in growth markets’.

      As in the adverts from 1960 the implementation of accounting system seems to have been a feature of the 70s Controller. In most ways the adverts from 1970 are the same as the ones from 1960. The role includes the typical bean counting duties such as budgeting, financial planning, cash flow forecasting and data processing. Arguably, this might suggest that there had been no change or that the change was somewhat marginal.

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Job advertisement from 1980

When comparing the 1980’s adverts with the ones from 60s and 70s one could see that the ones from the 80s were more gender neutral. This was expected due to the UK Sexual Discrimination in Employment Act 1975. There were no adverts that refer to men only and in one of the adverts there is explicit use of both he and she. This was the first time a reference to a woman could be seen in one of the adverts. The language does not seem to have become more informal; third person references can be seen in ...

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