Abstract
This paper examines organizational change in a Malaysian local council using Council A as the case study. Correctly, this paper identifies factors influencing accounting reforms in a public sector organization. This paper employs semi-structured interview with ten staff of Council A. The content analysis involves observation on the council’s financial statement for the period of ten years starting from 2005 to 2014. Drawing from the institutional theory comprising of coercive, mimetic, and normative isomorphism, this paper found that accounting reformation in Council A is identified during the financial and management audit, that is, Accountability Index. Since its establishment in 2005 to 2014, Council A has implemented accrual accounting . This paper found that the factors influencing the accounting reforms in Council A consist of factors including budget allocation, auditor’s opinion, staff knowledge and capabilities, and the management decision. The findings in this paper would potentially benefit other local authorities particularly in Sarawak in becoming more effective in their service delivery and in facilitating the Financial Management Transformation. The paper adds to the limited literature on public sector reform in developing countries using the institutional theory .
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Sarawak is one of the states in Malaysia and located at Borneo Island.
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Ariff, A.I.B.A.M., Joseph, C. (2019). Enhancing Governance Through Accounting Reform: A Local Council Evidence. In: Çalıyurt, K. (eds) Ethics and Sustainability in Accounting and Finance, Volume I. Accounting, Finance, Sustainability, Governance & Fraud: Theory and Application. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3203-6_2
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