Management Accounting Control and Managerial Bullying: Economic, Social, and Political Dynamics in Bangladesh RMG Sector

This study revisits the behavioural aspect of management accounting control (MAC) that has remained mostly unexplored over the last four decades. In particular, this study investigates; how managers and supervisors use accounting technologies and other management control mechanisms (MCMs) to intentionally or unintention- ally bully the shop floor workers of selected privately owned RMG factories located in a high-power distance emerging economy. Drawing on Max Weber’s ‘social stratification’ (i.e. class, status and party), this study has revealed that to maximise organisations’ profit and secure their personal gains, managers and supervisors frequently use accounting technologies and other MCMs to deliberately (most of the cases) bully the subordinate workers. In so doing, managers and supervisors justified their bullying behaviours through workers’ class situation, educational credential, geographic location and gender. Owners of the selected factories, on the other hand, legitimised MAC based-managerial bullying (MB) through their economic resources and social status. In fact, by involving in state politics and obtaining legislative power, they also influenced government policies (e.g. labour laws and national minimum wage) to reduce the collective bargaining of workers in a particular sector of the economy. Nevertheless, owners also patronise insiders (e.g. supervisors and managers) and outsiders (e.g. members of political parties, state police, government employees, and bureaucrats) to bully the workers institutionally through intimidation, harassment, and violence. This study, therefore, argues that there is a strong connection between MAC and MB that might succeed through the existence of social stratification and political patronage in a particular sector of a high-power distance emerging economy.