ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses change and learning in both the norm system and the procedural system, and how these learning processes interact, using the example of accounting reforms. It deals with what happens when municipal accounting systems in Sweden and Norway are reformed. Accounting is an important element of formal organizations. Normative rhetoric on accounting teaches that the basic function of accounting is to reduce uncertainty in decision-making about future actions and to enforce responsibility for past actions. In reform processes accounting is often presented as a goal orientated instrument built on a technology with clear cause-and-effect relationships. A norm system has a limited potential to learn about the norms it is reforming. The Norwegian norm system has always been part of the state. The major changes in municipal accounting have taken place when there has been a conflict between norms and ideology. The concept of hierarchy facilitates understanding of the Norwegian learning process.
