Embracing ambiguity in management control and decision-making processes: On how to design data visualizations to prompt wise judgement

Making decisions when managing organizations always involves the constant management of ambiguity and a great deal of complexity due to uncertainties and the intrinsic political nature of every decision-making processes. This paper argues that in order for management accounting to deal effectively with this ambiguity and uncertainty, both must be embraced, not suppressed, by the design of data visualizations produced by management controls as aids to the decision-making processes. Drawing on studies in rhetoric, alongside others on the rhetorical and communicative power of images and visualizations, this paper identifies a series of principles that can contribute to the development of a visual rhetorical framework to inform the design of data visualization (e.g. dashboards, business reports). The need to conceive of data visualisations beyond their representational function, and the principles that are identified, are then illustrated through the visual rhetorical analysis of a complex dashboard utilised in the programme management of the construction of a large airport terminal. The paper ends with an outline of a research agenda for the future design of data visualization in accounting, and beyond.