The Role of Cognitive and affective conflict in early implementation Essay

The Role of Cognitive and affective conflict in early implementation of activity - based cost management - Essay Example The article is an empirical study of the problems concerning the implementation of activity-based cost management (ABCM), particularly during its introductory phase, as the new system impacts on the behavioural element in the organization. Two conflicts are apparently engendered when ABCM is newly implemented – there is the cognitive conflict and the affective conflict. The study tries to discover empirical evidence, through a survey of 56 senior managers representing as many manufacturing companies that have adopted the use of ABCM in their organizations. Through the use of regression and correlation statistics, the results of the survey are expected to yield insights into the relationship between conflict constructs and the seleted ABCM implementation factors. Through this study, the researcher hopes to gain insight into how manufacturing companies may benefit, financially and operationally, from activity-based cost management, while mitigating the adverse effects and enhanc ing the beneficial effects of behavioural considerations attendant to the change. The title is somewhat long-winded, but it does convey a good idea of the topic of the research study. It conveys the subject of how employees behave when change is introduced in an organization. It also captures the interest of the business student to know more about what activity-based cost management is and why it would result in behavioural conflict. From the point of view of managers, the title immediately hints that this study could provide useful insight into best practices in the management of change, in particular regarding activity-based cost management. The abstract is particularly well written. The dilemma addressed by the study is described in a way that could be easily understood by readers with a reasonable familiarity with business organizations. Hands-on managers