Facilidades e/ou dificuldades no comportamento pragmático da norma patrimonial no contexto da contabilidade do Exército Brasileiro

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the perceptions of accounting professionals about the facilitating and/or hindering aspects of the implementation of institutional changes related to Equity Accounting Procedures (PCP). The analysis was performed under the lens of the New Institutional Theory, based on the assumption that the change of formal rules may suffer resistance in its assimilation and implementation in organizations. The study, based on a survey, with the participation of 601 accounting agents, from 13 accounting sectors and 396 management units, from the Brazilian Army, was carried out with the application of a questionnaire composed of five blocks based on the following constructs: interpretation of norms, external support, infrastructure, training, and involvement of convergence actors. For each construct, a hypothesis was formulated, submitted to the difference of means test and the t-student test, at a significance level of 1%, to achieve the proposed objective. Through the quantitative analysis, the null hypothesis was rejected in all blocks, indicating that the respondents perceive the interpretation of the norms, as well as the external support, the infrastructure, the training, and the involvement of the actors of the convergence as facilitating and/or hindering aspects for the implementation of PCPs in the Brazilian Army's accounting. On the other hand, the qualitative analysis allowed to verify that the interpretation of the rules is significant as it allowed the change from the strictly budgetary focus of the CASP to the disclosure and patrimonial control. As for the construct of external support, only 30% of the respondents indicated that they knew its forms, with emphasis on the training and guidelines of the STN/CFC. In relation to infrastructure, unlikely from what was found in the literature review, where the relevance was related to software dependence, in the context of the Army, the lack of personnel with training in accounting for the performance of functions in the management units stands out, indicated by 78.9% of the respondents. Training, in turn, was pointed out as relevant to relieved the lack of personnel with training in the accounting area, however, insufficient or inadequate for agents without accounting training. Finally, the aspect of the involvement of the actors of convergence is perceived as significant as an environment of resistance to the implementation of PCPs can be overcome with the favorable attitude of the accounting agents. The study allowed to conclude that the understanding and assimilation of the new rules change the resistance behavior. However, this does not confirm the complete implementation of the new rules in the Brazilian Army's accounting.