Dealing with the unknown: Leading in uncertain times by rethinking the design of management accounting and reporting systems

1.In a complex world, uncertainty is an intrinsic and irreducible feature of any decision. 2. Trying to eliminate or reduce this uncertainty can be counterproductive as it makes managers focus only on what can be measured, thus creating blind spots when making decisions. 3. We need to rethink management accounting and reporting systems to make sure accounting gures help to raise the right questions about what cannot be measured rather than providing reassuring but faulty or irrelevant numerical answers. 4. Management accounting should force the exercise of judgment and scrutiny by generating debate and productive tensions around doubt rather than alignment and shared fallacies around certainty. 5. Management accountants can regain the centre stage in organizational contexts if they mediate tensions, facilitate debate and generate innovative solutions when dealing with complex-decision making. This can be achieved through the appropriate design of management reports and processes which thus return to be central in governing organizations. 6. We propose new principles to build management accounting systems that achieve this goal. 7. We label as a ‘maieutic machine’ any management accounting and reporting system that works as (1)a visual space for interaction; (2)a method of ordering and scrutiny; (3)a platform of mediation; and (4) a motivating ritual of engagement.