Krister Bredmar

Krister Bredmar is a professor of Business Administration, specialising in management control. His research focuses primarily on how organisational sense-making can be understood as both an expression of and an objective for management control.

- Throughout my academic career, I have been interested in how managers at various levels, but particularly at middle management level within organisations, plan for and monitor what is happening in an organisation.

This interest can be captured in a fairly simple question, says Bredmar; How is the organisation doing? The answer often comprises three parts: a reference to a performance, an evaluation in relation to a goal, and a description of the performance in relation to a context within or outside the organisation. The answer thus expresses an individual process of sens-making that is reflected in the understanding of what is happening in the organisation.

The thesis, which was defended in 2002 at the Department of Business Administration, School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, describes how middle managers in three different types of organisations – a manufacturing firm, a service provider and a retailer – used management control as a process that created organisational meaning.

- Whilst working on my thesis, it became clear that management control did not consist of static techniques or methods, but was something dynamic that middle managers used to be able to act in a meaningful way.

My next major research project, funded by the Vice-Chancellor’s strategic funds, focuses on how a responsible manager and owner succeeded in developing a business to generate billions in turnover during their lifetime. Three business leaders with links to Kalmar County were included in the study. These were then contrasted with the work of a county council director and the management of the music festival in Hultsfred. Traditional management control concepts, such as planning and control, were contrasted in the study with concepts such as responsibility, risk management, learning and change management. The project was reported in 2011 in the book Meningsskapande verksamhetsstyrning - en funktion under utveckling.

Bredmar has published several academic articles in international peer-reviewed journals. A significant proportion are authored by him alone, but others have been co-authored with colleagues and former students. The articles demonstrate a variety of methodological approaches, such as interviews, field observations, surveys and literature reviews.

Meetings with entrepreneurs, for example organised in collaboration with Kalmar Science Park, have resulted in two monographs. The first, entitled Strategisk ekonomistyrning - att leda för långsiktig utveckling, is the result of a series of seminars with business managers who felt that their companies had stalled in terms of development and growth. The book is written to assist business managers in ensuring their organisations continue to develop. The second book, Ekonomistyrning från grunden, is a textbook. The material for the book was inspired by meetings with a thousand students on introductory courses in financial management and discussions with business managers. The book summarises the skills a business manager needs to master in order to succeed in management accounting.

A further monograph based on the theories Bredmar has worked on over the years was published by a British publisher in 2016. The book, Understanding Management Control and Organisational Sense-Making, summarises his theoretical understanding developed over the years.

- The five monographs I have written are, in a way, different pieces of a jigsaw that have contributed to the knowledge and expertise I possess today, that is, the understanding I have developed during my academic career. In them, I have reported on research projects, written for professionals, written for students, and outlined my theoretical roots. Through articles addressing issues relating to management accounting, business informatics, marketing and finance, I have also demonstrated my understanding of the breadth of business administration as a phenomenon and a subject.

Bredmar’s academic career began as a lecturer at Kalmar University College, continued with postgraduate studies at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, and a senior lecturer position at Kalmar University College, which later became Linnaeus University. For a couple of years, he also worked at his alma mater, the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, where he was part of the Centre for ERP Systems, amongst other roles. During that period, Bredmar was also appointed associate professor.

Throughout his academic career, he has regularly participated in workshops and conferences, both internationally and nationally.

- Perhaps the most important network for the development of my understanding of management control as a phenomenon has been the British Management Control Association. They meet four times a year for one-day workshops and hold a conference every three years. The group of researchers I have met there has significantly shaped me as a researcher.

In recent years, Bredmar has been the research leader for two major projects on digitalisation and SMEs in a regional context, funded by the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth and Region Kalmar.