How CFO’s communicate financial information - A pedagogical task in theory and practice

Abstract

An important result when communicating is to gain a deeper understanding and that meaning is created by the reciever of that which is communicated by the transmitter. This can in a way be described as the core of the pedagogical communication. The premise of this study is that the pedagogical communication can be understood and explained by means of the financial reports (1), oral presentation (2), using concepts and illustrations (3) and by the social context, the group where the communication takes place (4). The theoretical areas that form the basis of the first question in this study, how the communication can be designed, are based on these four areas. In a second part 111 CFOs in Swedish municipalities responded, via a web-based questionnaire, how they work with these areas. The result shows that they are largely working with several of the pedagogical areas, such as in the financial reports and oral presentations but that there are also areas such as the social context and the group's importance in the pedagogical communication that are not as developed. Although much is already working well, there are areas that can be developed to get the pedagogical communication of financial information to work even better.