Dr Jan Pfister
MA (Fribourg); Visiting Scholar (Berkeley); Doctorate (Zurich)
Lecturer
Department
Accounting and Finance
Professional Role
LUMS Research Ethics Committee
Current Teaching
AcF 213a/AcF 213b: Management Accounting for Business Decisions
This large-scale (double taught) 2nd-year undergraduate course acts as an introduction to management accounting, and is designed to explore the basic principles and underlying concepts of the subject.
AcF 604: Management Control Systems
This postgraduate course provides insights how management control systems (MCS) support strategy implementation and how management accounting information is used in the design and operation of MCS.
Research Interests
My research focuses on the managerial and behavioural implications of the work of financial executives and senior managers (e.g., chief financial officers, accountants, controllers, internal auditors, compliance officers, risk managers, innovation managers). Of interest are the procedures, controls, tools, measures and incentives needed to steer and implement organisational strategy and maintain a sustainable business model. Most of the research is based on an interpretive methodology, field studies and an interdisciplinary approach that considers the institutional, social and organisational contexts in which performance measurement and control systems are designed and operated.
In performing the research, I have interviewed financial executives and/or managers from companies in the banking, energy, food, petrochemical, pharma, retail, services and technology industries. Some of these companies are: Adecco, Aicent, AMD, Charles Schwab Corporation, Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Cisco Systems, Credit Suisse Group, Deloitte, Dole, eBay, Ernst & Young, Genentech, Google, Hewlett Packard, Intel, KPMG, Levi Strauss & Co., McKesson, Microsoft, Motorola, Novartis, PG&E and SAP.
Prior field research with 21 companies on the topic "Managing Organizational Culture for Effective Internal Control" resulted in an interpretive control framework that distinguishes three types of managerial activities. They should be used in combination and are defined as closing drivers (close the culture by giving direction and setting boundaries), opening drivers (open the culture by enhancing constructive debate and ensuring control issues are identified at all levels) and reinforcing drivers (strengthen an open-minded culture by promoting the other two drivers via leadership, selection, and socialisation). This work has been published by Springer, 2009.
Current Research
My research is currently concentrated in the following areas:
A) Organisational governance, risk management and internal control
- Translating regulation into practice: The objective of this research is to understand how financial executives and managers ensure that risk management and internal control procedures are effective and efficient as well as comply with all relevant statutes.
B) Performance measurement in innovation- and services-driven economies
- Designing, testing and implementing a new costing and performance measurement system: The objective of this case study is to report on the implementation process of a new costing and performance measurement system in the finance organisation of a large US technology company.
- Financial and non-financial measures for specific innovation activities (with colleagues from UC Berkeley): The objective of this cross-sectional field visit research is to identify measures (and combinations of measures) that track and promote specific innovation activities.
C) Organisational culture and accounting research
- Organisational culture as analytical lens for accounting research: The objective of this theoretical research is to provide suggestions for the methodological and conceptual positioning of organisational culture in accounting research.
Research Grants
Small Grant Scheme, Lancaster University 2010
Research Grant, Janggen-Poehn Stiftung 2007
Swiss National Science Foundation Fellowship 2006-2007 (Project no. 112729)
Other awards:
Best Paper by a PhD Student Award, 2007 Ethics Research Symposium, American Accounting Association
Profile
Jan Pfister holds a Doctorate from the University of Zurich and a Masters degree from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. Prior to joining Lancaster, he was a Research and Teaching Fellow at the University of Zurich and a Visiting Scholar at the University of California at Berkeley.
Journal article (2)
Book (1)
Working paper (1)
Conference paper (1)
Article (3)
Selected publications (2)
View all publications (11)
Publications
- Pfister J A, 2011, 'Capturing contextual meanings: The use of organizational culture as theoretical and methodological lens in accounting research',
View details - Pfister J A, 2009, Managing organizational culture for effective internal control: From practice to theory, Springer Physica-Verlag, Dordrecht, ISBN: 9783790823394
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