| Operations managers often do not perceive information and support provided by management accountants to be useful, indicating potential communication failure. The purpose of this correlation study was to examine the relationship between operations managers' perceptions of the usefulness of accounting information and support and nine independent variables addressed by a corresponding research question. The nine independent variables were manager's (a) years of work experience, (b) hierarchical level in the organization, (c) level of education, (d) accounting training, (e) interaction with management accountants, (f) frequency of receiving accounting reports, (g) participation in report design, (h) opinion of accountants, and (i) assessment of the communicative effort of management accountants. Survey research, administered with a self-report questionnaire, was used in the study. An original design questionnaire was validated with the Lawshe model, each question attaining a content validity ratio of 1.0. Participants were members of the Association of Operations Management. Data were analyzed with Pearson's chi-square or Spearman's rho. A statistically significant relationship was found at the 5% alpha level for all variables, with the exception of accounting training, years of work experience, and level of education. Communication theory formed the basis of this study and supports the findings and conclusions. It is recommended that the findings be used to reassess current interaction and relationships between management accountants and operations managers. Positive social change can occur through improved communications between operations and accounting managers in organizations, resulting in enhanced decision making, which can result in an overall improvement in organizational efficiency and effectiveness. |
