A structuration analysis of accounting systems and systems of accountability in the privatised gas industry

This study investigates the consequences of regulation for management control and organisational change in privatised industries by means of a case study of the gas industry. It focuses particularly on the implications for regulation of accounting systems and systems of accountability, as important management control systems. Giddens’ [Central Problems in Social Theory: Action, Structure and Contradiction in Social Analysis, 1979; The Constitution of Society, 1984] structuration theory is adopted as an analytical framework for the study, due to its demonstrated capacity to take into account the interaction of agency and social structures in the production, reproduction and regulation of social order, together with its potential for an analysis of organisational change. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on the impact of regulation on privatised industries by providing a contextual analysis of management control and organisational change in the gas industry, and also by providing a critique of the change which has taken place. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.