Corporate Governance And Mindfulness: The Impact Of Management Accounting Systems Change

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; color: black; font-size: 10pt; mso-themecolor: text1;" lang="EN-SG">The International Federation of Accountants (2009) argues that a governance structure should go beyond conformance with regulations and equally support a performance dimension that can lead to better outcomes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>This paper explores the relationship between these two governance dimensions and the capacity for mindfulness, utilizing organizational theory that describes high reliability organizations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Survey data was obtained from top-level accounting professionals in a sample of 124 Canadian firms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Regression results support the hypothesis that both the conformance and performance dimensions of governance are significant determinants of the capacity for mindfulness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Additional analysis shows that the explanatory power of this relationship persists when management accounting systems change is low but it is significantly greater under conditions of high management accounting systems change. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>The latter finding is notable in that the most important determinants of the capacity for mindfulness emerge from the performance dimension and not the conformance dimension, which has implications for achieving a balanced governance structure. <strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></strong></span></p>