Quality management in the public sector accounting department - (un)avoidable quality costs and unlikely financial impacts
by Toni Mättö; Marko Järvenpää; Antti Rautiainen; Kari Sippola
International Journal of Accounting and Finance (IJAF), Vol. 7, No. 3, 2017

Abstract: This paper investigates the nature of quality costs and the likelihood of their having financial impacts in the public sector. An illustrative quality development case project in an accounting department of a Finnish city administration is presented. The empirical data includes answers to a qualitative project question sheet, workshop material and participative observation. Quality problems are classified according to their quality cost category and the extent to which they are avoidable. Some of the quality costs proved unavoidable and some are likely to lack financial impact, exhibiting sticky cost behaviour. The study indicates that certain prevention and appraisal costs in the public sector might not deliver the desired outcomes because of such sticky behaviour of costs. Traditional quality thinking holds that increased prevention and appraisal investments decrease failure costs. However, the extent to which these costs are avoidable has not been analysed in previous studies.

Online publication date: Fri, 17-Nov-2017

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Accounting and Finance (IJAF):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

    Username:        Password:         

Forgotten your password?


Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com