Similar Journals
|
Critical Perspectives on Accounting
Journal Prestige (SJR): 1.773  Citation Impact (citeScore): 3 Number of Followers: 19  Hybrid journal (It can contain Open Access articles)ISSN (Print) 1045-2354 - ISSN (Online) 1095-9955 Published by Elsevier  [3303 journals]
|
- Using accountability to shape the common good
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 16 March 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Caterina Pesci, Ericka Costa, Michele Andreaus This paper focuses on the relationship between accountability and the concept of the common good. From a theoretical viewpoint, the work is grounded on the notion of the common good as expressed by ancient philosophers, among whom Aquinas played a prominent role.We adopted an ethnographic approach and a longitudinal analysis to deepen the case of Alpine collective ownership (CO). This type of organisation can be classified in the non-profit domain because it manages Alpine territories without directly benefitting the members in monetary terms.CO is a non-profit organisation 'oriented to values and beliefs' and the common good notion is embedded in the mission. The focus is on the ability of the CO's accountability to shape a renewed notion of the common good in order to engage the community in managing CO's properties.The CO's accountability shows that: (a) the definition of the common good is reshaped; (b) there is a continuous call for engagement; (c) financial data become ancillary to the disclosed information; and (d) information on new social and environmental needs is disclosed. The study shows that accountability is a protean concept where a key issue is the language used (i.e., local spoken language versus the national language).
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 16 March 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Caterina Pesci, Ericka Costa, Michele Andreaus This paper focuses on the relationship between accountability and the concept of the common good. From a theoretical viewpoint, the work is grounded on the notion of the common good as expressed by ancient philosophers, among whom Aquinas played a prominent role.We adopted an ethnographic approach and a longitudinal analysis to deepen the case of Alpine collective ownership (CO). This type of organisation can be classified in the non-profit domain because it manages Alpine territories without directly benefitting the members in monetary terms.CO is a non-profit organisation 'oriented to values and beliefs' and the common good notion is embedded in the mission. The focus is on the ability of the CO's accountability to shape a renewed notion of the common good in order to engage the community in managing CO's properties.The CO's accountability shows that: (a) the definition of the common good is reshaped; (b) there is a continuous call for engagement; (c) financial data become ancillary to the disclosed information; and (d) information on new social and environmental needs is disclosed. The study shows that accountability is a protean concept where a key issue is the language used (i.e., local spoken language versus the national language).
- Critical Perspectives on Accounting in Spanish
- Abstract: Publication date: March 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 59Author(s): Javier Husillos, Carlos Larrinaga
- Abstract: Publication date: March 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 59Author(s): Javier Husillos, Carlos Larrinaga
- Ideological hegemony and consent to IFRS: Insights from practitioners in
Greece- Abstract: Publication date: March 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 59Author(s): Elisavet Mantzari, Omiros Georgiou This paper critically examines the rationale that drives the acceptance of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) at the level of professional practice in an unfavourable local context. Drawing on Gramsci’s work on hegemony and interviews with local practitioners in Greece, we explore the role of Gramscian “common sense” in bolstering consent about the superiority of IFRS over local standards. We find that local practitioner understandings of the operation of the standards are fragmented and contradictory; notions of the common sense behind the high quality of IFRS are in conflict with the reality of collective practical experience—or “good sense”, in Gramsci’s terms—where the standards fail at specific levels to provide conclusive benefits. However, local practitioners appear to organise their overall consensus on the appropriateness of IFRS, drawing on justifications closely linked to espoused and hegemonic aspects of the common sense of neoliberalism, including the tropes of Europeanisation and modernisation. Therefore, despite the contradictions identified in the operation of IFRS and the inability of the standards to fulfil their objectives, the conflict between common-sense and good-sense understandings has led—at least temporarily—to the wide endorsement of IFRS by practitioners. The evidence challenges economic justifications of the functional utility of IFRS at the level of reported practical experience. That viewpoints about IFRS are found to be so contradictory and fragmented also challenges conceptions in existing literature about the coherence of the IFRS project.
- Abstract: Publication date: March 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 59Author(s): Elisavet Mantzari, Omiros Georgiou This paper critically examines the rationale that drives the acceptance of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) at the level of professional practice in an unfavourable local context. Drawing on Gramsci’s work on hegemony and interviews with local practitioners in Greece, we explore the role of Gramscian “common sense” in bolstering consent about the superiority of IFRS over local standards. We find that local practitioner understandings of the operation of the standards are fragmented and contradictory; notions of the common sense behind the high quality of IFRS are in conflict with the reality of collective practical experience—or “good sense”, in Gramsci’s terms—where the standards fail at specific levels to provide conclusive benefits. However, local practitioners appear to organise their overall consensus on the appropriateness of IFRS, drawing on justifications closely linked to espoused and hegemonic aspects of the common sense of neoliberalism, including the tropes of Europeanisation and modernisation. Therefore, despite the contradictions identified in the operation of IFRS and the inability of the standards to fulfil their objectives, the conflict between common-sense and good-sense understandings has led—at least temporarily—to the wide endorsement of IFRS by practitioners. The evidence challenges economic justifications of the functional utility of IFRS at the level of reported practical experience. That viewpoints about IFRS are found to be so contradictory and fragmented also challenges conceptions in existing literature about the coherence of the IFRS project.
- Religion-based resistance strategies, politics of authenticity and
professional women accountants- Abstract: Publication date: March 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 59Author(s): Rania Kamla This study examines resistance strategies to patriarchal interpretations of women’s roles in Islam by Syrian women accountants (SWAs). It expands discussions on gender subjectivity construction and resistance in the profession by focusing on women’s religion-based strategies in a non-western context. The study introduces debates from Muslim Feminism on resistance through egalitarian and ethics-based re-interpretations of religious texts. It parallels these with ordinary professional Muslim women accountants’ strategies. The article finds that SWAs significantly mobilise religion-based strategies to contest patriarchal interpretations of their roles in Islam, and to secure access and progress in the profession. These strategies go beyond shifting between defensive/compliance and offensive/challenging approaches to incorporate a third authentic/ethical dimension often neglected in professional and organization research on women’s resistance strategies. The paper concludes that a greater theoretical and empirical understanding of resistance within religion and ethics enhances appreciation of distinctive and diverse ways that gendering in professions is resisted and transformed.
- Abstract: Publication date: March 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 59Author(s): Rania Kamla This study examines resistance strategies to patriarchal interpretations of women’s roles in Islam by Syrian women accountants (SWAs). It expands discussions on gender subjectivity construction and resistance in the profession by focusing on women’s religion-based strategies in a non-western context. The study introduces debates from Muslim Feminism on resistance through egalitarian and ethics-based re-interpretations of religious texts. It parallels these with ordinary professional Muslim women accountants’ strategies. The article finds that SWAs significantly mobilise religion-based strategies to contest patriarchal interpretations of their roles in Islam, and to secure access and progress in the profession. These strategies go beyond shifting between defensive/compliance and offensive/challenging approaches to incorporate a third authentic/ethical dimension often neglected in professional and organization research on women’s resistance strategies. The paper concludes that a greater theoretical and empirical understanding of resistance within religion and ethics enhances appreciation of distinctive and diverse ways that gendering in professions is resisted and transformed.
- Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief: Accounting and the stigma of
poverty- Abstract: Publication date: March 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 59Author(s): Cameron Graham, Claudine Grisard In this paper, we examine the roles of accounting in two institutions dealing with poverty in Toronto during the 1920s. We draw on Georg Simmel’s influential insights on poverty to explore how accounting for poverty alleviation programs helps structure the relationship between rich and poor in society. We argue that accounting serves to bridge the social distance between rich and poor while insulating the rich from the stigma of the poor. This enables the rich to benefit from their efforts to assist the poor, ensuring the legitimation of wealth and the continued existence of poverty. Our analysis of these two historical institutions helps us comprehend some of the roles of accounting in poverty alleviation today.
- Abstract: Publication date: March 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 59Author(s): Cameron Graham, Claudine Grisard In this paper, we examine the roles of accounting in two institutions dealing with poverty in Toronto during the 1920s. We draw on Georg Simmel’s influential insights on poverty to explore how accounting for poverty alleviation programs helps structure the relationship between rich and poor in society. We argue that accounting serves to bridge the social distance between rich and poor while insulating the rich from the stigma of the poor. This enables the rich to benefit from their efforts to assist the poor, ensuring the legitimation of wealth and the continued existence of poverty. Our analysis of these two historical institutions helps us comprehend some of the roles of accounting in poverty alleviation today.
- Identity constructions in the annual reports of international development
NGOs: Preserving institutional interests'- Abstract: Publication date: March 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 59Author(s): Alpa Dhanani This paper examines the enactment of identities in the annual reports of large, prestigious Northern development NGOs who have become a key player in the social, economic and political developments throughout the world. Drawing on postcolonial theory, it analyses the visual images that these organisations use to understand critically how they represent and construct identities about themselves and their divergent constituents, namely the Southern constituents they work with, and the funders and volunteers who support their activities. The analysis suggests that on the one hand, in accordance with the accountability remit of annual reports, organisations deploy visual imagery to complement their stories of successes and achievements. On the other, however, these representations also formulate identities about the organisations themselves and their divergent constituents. Organisations frequently (but possibly unintentionally) present their Southern constituents as reliant, dependent, passive, backward, voiceless, unintelligent and needing care in accordance with the traditional charity model of development. There are also signs that they segregate Africa from the rest of the world. In accordance with postcolonial theory, these representations enable organisations to construct themselves as reliable, able and knowledgeable experts who better the lives of Southern constituents. Northern NGOs also represent and appreciate their donors and supporters as active, energetic, willing and generous ‘do-gooders’ in the development project. The varied and diverse representations not only question the seemingly neutral and objective role of the annual report, but also compromise the principles of dignity, respect, equity, solidarity and egalitarianism that are immanent to development NGOs.
- Abstract: Publication date: March 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 59Author(s): Alpa Dhanani This paper examines the enactment of identities in the annual reports of large, prestigious Northern development NGOs who have become a key player in the social, economic and political developments throughout the world. Drawing on postcolonial theory, it analyses the visual images that these organisations use to understand critically how they represent and construct identities about themselves and their divergent constituents, namely the Southern constituents they work with, and the funders and volunteers who support their activities. The analysis suggests that on the one hand, in accordance with the accountability remit of annual reports, organisations deploy visual imagery to complement their stories of successes and achievements. On the other, however, these representations also formulate identities about the organisations themselves and their divergent constituents. Organisations frequently (but possibly unintentionally) present their Southern constituents as reliant, dependent, passive, backward, voiceless, unintelligent and needing care in accordance with the traditional charity model of development. There are also signs that they segregate Africa from the rest of the world. In accordance with postcolonial theory, these representations enable organisations to construct themselves as reliable, able and knowledgeable experts who better the lives of Southern constituents. Northern NGOs also represent and appreciate their donors and supporters as active, energetic, willing and generous ‘do-gooders’ in the development project. The varied and diverse representations not only question the seemingly neutral and objective role of the annual report, but also compromise the principles of dignity, respect, equity, solidarity and egalitarianism that are immanent to development NGOs.
- Editorial Board/Publication Information
- Abstract: Publication date: March 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 59Author(s):
- Abstract: Publication date: March 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 59Author(s):
- Big Data and accounting
- Abstract: Publication date: March 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 59Author(s): Max Baker, Jane Andrew
- Abstract: Publication date: March 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 59Author(s): Max Baker, Jane Andrew
- Theme: Critical perspectives on NGO governance and accountability
- Abstract: Publication date: March 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 59Author(s): Ataur Belal, Ian Thomson, Carolyn Cordery
- Abstract: Publication date: March 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 59Author(s): Ataur Belal, Ian Thomson, Carolyn Cordery
- On the centrality of peripheral research and the dangers of tight boundary
gatekeeping- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 22 February 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Yves Gendron, Michelle Rodrigue Drawing on a literature-based analysis and our own experiences in doing work at the periphery of accounting research, this essay aims to reflect on the processes by which accounting research boundaries are socially constructed, henceforth demarcating a division between center and peripheral research. Recognizing that serious indications of tight boundary gatekeeping are on the rise in the accounting research domain, we highlight the extent of negative consequences ensuing from this kind of behavior. We also maintain how, collectively speaking, we may gain from developing more receptive attitudes toward the peripheral. Along with several other writers, we view work at the periphery of an area’s research boundaries as having significant potential for the development of new ideas and innovations. However, an excessively protective center may prevent these ideas and innovations from being brought into the field of visibility, especially when the center is inclined to issue stringent reviews and this degree of stringency, somehow, reverberates in peripheral journals’ reviewing practices. We believe that the longer-term sustainability of accounting research requires the incremental development of spaces of receptivity toward the unexpected and peripheral.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 22 February 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Yves Gendron, Michelle Rodrigue Drawing on a literature-based analysis and our own experiences in doing work at the periphery of accounting research, this essay aims to reflect on the processes by which accounting research boundaries are socially constructed, henceforth demarcating a division between center and peripheral research. Recognizing that serious indications of tight boundary gatekeeping are on the rise in the accounting research domain, we highlight the extent of negative consequences ensuing from this kind of behavior. We also maintain how, collectively speaking, we may gain from developing more receptive attitudes toward the peripheral. Along with several other writers, we view work at the periphery of an area’s research boundaries as having significant potential for the development of new ideas and innovations. However, an excessively protective center may prevent these ideas and innovations from being brought into the field of visibility, especially when the center is inclined to issue stringent reviews and this degree of stringency, somehow, reverberates in peripheral journals’ reviewing practices. We believe that the longer-term sustainability of accounting research requires the incremental development of spaces of receptivity toward the unexpected and peripheral.
- Behind the World Bank’s ringing declarations of “social
accountability”: Ghana’s public financial management reform- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 14 February 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Chandana Alawattage, John De-Clerk Azure Accountability has become integral to many African development reforms and permeated the World Bank’s (WB) policy discourses, with “social accountability” as a major plank in its development orthodoxy. Since the 2004 Word Development Report, the Bank’s leadership has been declaring its commitment to social accountability. This paper excavates what lies behind ringing declarations of commitment to social accountability in the context of Ghana’s Public Financial Management Reform Programme. Empirically, it draws on four months’ fieldwork into the accountability practices this programme brought about and an extensive analysis of WB discourses on public sector reforms and social accountability. Theoretically, the paper draws on Foucault’s governmentality and the notion of agonistic democracy central to the recent democratic accountability debate in critical accounting circles. The paper argues that WB’s social accountability crusade hinges on the neoliberal concerns of efficiency and fiscal discipline rather than creating a democratic social order, which then questions the very notion of social accountability that WB is propagating, especially its discursive and ideological “short-circuiting” of democratic processes. The paper finds that the dominant and dominating accountability forms that facilitate WB’s financial hegemony are privileged over potentially emancipatory ones. The findings highlight that as the local governments become responsible to international development agencies through the “social accountabilities” that WB is promoting they become less socially and democratically accountable to their own populace – the very place where social accountability should truly rest.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 14 February 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Chandana Alawattage, John De-Clerk Azure Accountability has become integral to many African development reforms and permeated the World Bank’s (WB) policy discourses, with “social accountability” as a major plank in its development orthodoxy. Since the 2004 Word Development Report, the Bank’s leadership has been declaring its commitment to social accountability. This paper excavates what lies behind ringing declarations of commitment to social accountability in the context of Ghana’s Public Financial Management Reform Programme. Empirically, it draws on four months’ fieldwork into the accountability practices this programme brought about and an extensive analysis of WB discourses on public sector reforms and social accountability. Theoretically, the paper draws on Foucault’s governmentality and the notion of agonistic democracy central to the recent democratic accountability debate in critical accounting circles. The paper argues that WB’s social accountability crusade hinges on the neoliberal concerns of efficiency and fiscal discipline rather than creating a democratic social order, which then questions the very notion of social accountability that WB is propagating, especially its discursive and ideological “short-circuiting” of democratic processes. The paper finds that the dominant and dominating accountability forms that facilitate WB’s financial hegemony are privileged over potentially emancipatory ones. The findings highlight that as the local governments become responsible to international development agencies through the “social accountabilities” that WB is promoting they become less socially and democratically accountable to their own populace – the very place where social accountability should truly rest.
- The emergence of benefit corporations: A cautionary tale
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 10 February 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Lisa Baudot, Jesse Dillard, Nadra Pencle The legislative formation of the benefit corporation (BC) institutionalizes a new hybrid corporate form in the United States (US) that allows for both a profit objective and a public welfare objective. This corporate form provides entities endeavoring to act in the public interest access to markets and investment capital alongside compatible governance processes. Since the initial state adoption of this form in 2010, 34 states have enacted BC legislation. Our empirical investigation demonstrates and assesses the emergence and evolution of this hybrid corporate form by articulating the discursive framings of a constellation of actors in and around these legislative enactments. The discursive framing is dynamic and contested over time, evolving from a focus on enabling for-profit firms to broaden out their objectives to include social goals beyond profit maximization to a focus on exposing activities traditionally carried out by government or not-for-profit entities to market discipline. One interpretation of the findings is that BCs are a manifestation and means by which the responsibility for public services and public welfare is transferred to the private sector along with the associated public resources. We consider the implications of a shifting landscape of corporate governance and accountability regimes for public welfare objectives.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 10 February 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Lisa Baudot, Jesse Dillard, Nadra Pencle The legislative formation of the benefit corporation (BC) institutionalizes a new hybrid corporate form in the United States (US) that allows for both a profit objective and a public welfare objective. This corporate form provides entities endeavoring to act in the public interest access to markets and investment capital alongside compatible governance processes. Since the initial state adoption of this form in 2010, 34 states have enacted BC legislation. Our empirical investigation demonstrates and assesses the emergence and evolution of this hybrid corporate form by articulating the discursive framings of a constellation of actors in and around these legislative enactments. The discursive framing is dynamic and contested over time, evolving from a focus on enabling for-profit firms to broaden out their objectives to include social goals beyond profit maximization to a focus on exposing activities traditionally carried out by government or not-for-profit entities to market discipline. One interpretation of the findings is that BCs are a manifestation and means by which the responsibility for public services and public welfare is transferred to the private sector along with the associated public resources. We consider the implications of a shifting landscape of corporate governance and accountability regimes for public welfare objectives.
- Governing and disciplining Filipino migrant workers’ health at
Hawaiian sugar plantations- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 6 February 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Maria Cadiz Dyball, Jim Rooney This paper examines an attempt by the Hawaiian sugar plantations to govern and discipline deficient bodies of Filipino workers and their families. Mobilising Foucault’s (1977; 1991) notions of governmentality and discipline, the paper analyses how the diet and reproductive habits of migrant Filipino workers became legitimate, feasible and necessary problems for plantation management to address and medical experts to cure. Filipino workers were a confined population who were a target of constant observation from the time when they left their country for work in the Hawaiian sugar plantations to the time when, having served their work contracts, they returned home. They were vulnerable to a number of control techniques. This paper exposes how accounting in coalition with statistical and medical knowledge, was implicated in such bid to govern and discipline a privately enclosed subject of its gaze.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 6 February 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Maria Cadiz Dyball, Jim Rooney This paper examines an attempt by the Hawaiian sugar plantations to govern and discipline deficient bodies of Filipino workers and their families. Mobilising Foucault’s (1977; 1991) notions of governmentality and discipline, the paper analyses how the diet and reproductive habits of migrant Filipino workers became legitimate, feasible and necessary problems for plantation management to address and medical experts to cure. Filipino workers were a confined population who were a target of constant observation from the time when they left their country for work in the Hawaiian sugar plantations to the time when, having served their work contracts, they returned home. They were vulnerable to a number of control techniques. This paper exposes how accounting in coalition with statistical and medical knowledge, was implicated in such bid to govern and discipline a privately enclosed subject of its gaze.
- Varieties of neo-colonialism: Government accounting reforms in Anglophone
and Francophone Africa – Benin and Ghana compared- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 23 January 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Philippe J.C. Lassou, Trevor Hopper, Mathew Tsamenyi, Victor Murinde This study compares government accounting reforms in an Anglophone and a Francophone African country, namely Ghana and Benin, with respect to neo-colonialism. The data draws from interviews with local officials concerned with government accounting, documents and documentaries. The focus lay on the perceived effectiveness of reforms, and their formulation and implementation. In both countries their former colonial powers, Britain and France, still influence accounting through economic means (through monetary systems), international financial institutions, political advisors, Northern accounting associations and neo-patrimonialism. However, their use of these differs. While France structures her control mostly around the monetary system established during colonialism, Britain relies on its post-colonial infrastructure and accounting profession, and concedes much influence to the USA, essentially through international financial institutions. France exerts more direct control through advisors than Britain (with the USA). The French approach is conceptualized as coercive-neo-colonialism and the British as soft-neo-colonialism. Despite international financial institutions’ pervasive presence, they are not monolithic agents with a uniform role and influence in Ghana and Benin, and good governance aims to increase civil service capacity, financial transparency and accountability remain problematic.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 23 January 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Philippe J.C. Lassou, Trevor Hopper, Mathew Tsamenyi, Victor Murinde This study compares government accounting reforms in an Anglophone and a Francophone African country, namely Ghana and Benin, with respect to neo-colonialism. The data draws from interviews with local officials concerned with government accounting, documents and documentaries. The focus lay on the perceived effectiveness of reforms, and their formulation and implementation. In both countries their former colonial powers, Britain and France, still influence accounting through economic means (through monetary systems), international financial institutions, political advisors, Northern accounting associations and neo-patrimonialism. However, their use of these differs. While France structures her control mostly around the monetary system established during colonialism, Britain relies on its post-colonial infrastructure and accounting profession, and concedes much influence to the USA, essentially through international financial institutions. France exerts more direct control through advisors than Britain (with the USA). The French approach is conceptualized as coercive-neo-colonialism and the British as soft-neo-colonialism. Despite international financial institutions’ pervasive presence, they are not monolithic agents with a uniform role and influence in Ghana and Benin, and good governance aims to increase civil service capacity, financial transparency and accountability remain problematic.
- The problematics of accountability: Internal responses to external
pressures in exposed organisations- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 19 January 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Sofia Yasmin, Chaudhry Ghafran This paper seeks to contribute to the emerging stream of literature on NGO accountability by drawing on the theoretical assertions of the problematics of accountability. It discusses how accountability has become problematic for NGOs by examining how these problems are created and how NGOs subsequently respond. Drawing on in-depth interview data complemented by extensive documentary analysis, we explore the accountability experiences of Muslim NGOs operating in the UK. We highlight how specific accountability regimes are influenced by the prevailing political, social and economic context within which they operate. We suggest this has caused Muslim NGOs to become ‘exposed’ organisations where demands for accountability, framed by security and counter-terror concerns, are limiting their ability to be accountable. Utilising insight from Kearns (1994) we explain how Muslim NGOs respond to these problems. We find engagement with discretionary accountability tactics allow the NGOs to gain trust of stakeholders, whilst strategic change processes help the NGOs to anticipate and negotiate heightened accountability demands. We discuss the implications of our findings for both theory and practice.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 19 January 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Sofia Yasmin, Chaudhry Ghafran This paper seeks to contribute to the emerging stream of literature on NGO accountability by drawing on the theoretical assertions of the problematics of accountability. It discusses how accountability has become problematic for NGOs by examining how these problems are created and how NGOs subsequently respond. Drawing on in-depth interview data complemented by extensive documentary analysis, we explore the accountability experiences of Muslim NGOs operating in the UK. We highlight how specific accountability regimes are influenced by the prevailing political, social and economic context within which they operate. We suggest this has caused Muslim NGOs to become ‘exposed’ organisations where demands for accountability, framed by security and counter-terror concerns, are limiting their ability to be accountable. Utilising insight from Kearns (1994) we explain how Muslim NGOs respond to these problems. We find engagement with discretionary accountability tactics allow the NGOs to gain trust of stakeholders, whilst strategic change processes help the NGOs to anticipate and negotiate heightened accountability demands. We discuss the implications of our findings for both theory and practice.
- ‘You know it when you see it’: In search of ‘the ideal’ research
culture in university accounting faculties- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 18 January 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Basil P. Tucker, Carol A. Tilt It is not overly contentious to claim the term ‘research culture’ has become an accepted part of the academic lexicon in accounting faculties in universities across the globe. For senior as well as early career researchers, a ‘vibrant’ and ‘enabling’ research culture is commonly argued to foster a range of research outcomes by capitalizing upon the benefits that such an environment offers. However, not only has the importance of research culture seemingly assumed the status of conventional wisdom in academic accounting discourse, but the very term ‘research culture’ carries with it an implicit expectation of an ‘ideal’ way in which research outcomes within university accounting schools can be facilitated. What exactly is ‘research culture’, and in what ways does it contribute to research outcomes' This exploratory study seeks to unpack these questions based on interviews with 44 senior accounting academics, drawn from 37 universities across 11 counties. Far from an ‘ideal’, homogenized, one-size-fits-all research culture towards which accounting schools should aspire, the findings of this study point to a continuum of research culture types depending upon the predilection of researchers to adopt a task or relationship orientation to their research. On this basis, we propose a framework within which accounting research culture may be conceptualized. Our findings and their implications offer an empirically informed point of departure for future analysis and interpretation.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 18 January 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Basil P. Tucker, Carol A. Tilt It is not overly contentious to claim the term ‘research culture’ has become an accepted part of the academic lexicon in accounting faculties in universities across the globe. For senior as well as early career researchers, a ‘vibrant’ and ‘enabling’ research culture is commonly argued to foster a range of research outcomes by capitalizing upon the benefits that such an environment offers. However, not only has the importance of research culture seemingly assumed the status of conventional wisdom in academic accounting discourse, but the very term ‘research culture’ carries with it an implicit expectation of an ‘ideal’ way in which research outcomes within university accounting schools can be facilitated. What exactly is ‘research culture’, and in what ways does it contribute to research outcomes' This exploratory study seeks to unpack these questions based on interviews with 44 senior accounting academics, drawn from 37 universities across 11 counties. Far from an ‘ideal’, homogenized, one-size-fits-all research culture towards which accounting schools should aspire, the findings of this study point to a continuum of research culture types depending upon the predilection of researchers to adopt a task or relationship orientation to their research. On this basis, we propose a framework within which accounting research culture may be conceptualized. Our findings and their implications offer an empirically informed point of departure for future analysis and interpretation.
- “It’s not often we get a visit from a beautiful woman!” The body in
client-auditor interactions and the masculinity of accountancy- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 4 January 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Nathalie Bitbol-Saba, Claire Dambrin Research on gender and auditing tends to focus on firms’ internal environment. This study looks instead at how the bodies of female auditors are brought into play in situations involving interactions with clients. We build on Goffman’s work on gender and interaction order to gain a better understanding of the gendered dynamics which underpin interactions between auditors and their clients and connect with power asymmetries. Drawing on observations of client-auditor interactions and semi-structured interviews, we reveal three gendered dynamics contributing to the masculinity of accountancy. (1) We highlight the hierarchy formation process between male and female auditors when interacting with clients. (2) We show how female bodies are used by female auditors and instrumentalized by their organizations to satisfy the supposed expectations of clients. (3) We show how female auditors are set up as sexual objects in their interactions with clients.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 4 January 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Nathalie Bitbol-Saba, Claire Dambrin Research on gender and auditing tends to focus on firms’ internal environment. This study looks instead at how the bodies of female auditors are brought into play in situations involving interactions with clients. We build on Goffman’s work on gender and interaction order to gain a better understanding of the gendered dynamics which underpin interactions between auditors and their clients and connect with power asymmetries. Drawing on observations of client-auditor interactions and semi-structured interviews, we reveal three gendered dynamics contributing to the masculinity of accountancy. (1) We highlight the hierarchy formation process between male and female auditors when interacting with clients. (2) We show how female bodies are used by female auditors and instrumentalized by their organizations to satisfy the supposed expectations of clients. (3) We show how female auditors are set up as sexual objects in their interactions with clients.
- The perceived efficacy of public-private partnerships: A study from Canada
- Abstract: Publication date: January 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 58Author(s): Michael Opara, Paul Rouse Since the 1990s, Public–Private Partnerships (P3s) have become a widely used public infrastructure financing policy tool. However, there is a vast body of evidence suggesting that they do not consistently deliver superior Value-for-Money (VfM), a central argument for engaging private industry partners. In response to the call by Andon (2012), we investigate the rationale behind governments’ continuing deployment of P3s, focusing on the factors affecting the nature and performance of P3s. We draw on contemporary institutional theory to explain the Alberta government’s deployment of P3s as a legitimate infrastructure delivery mechanism. While the P3 model has been beset by numerous problems, governments persist with P3 deployment. This practice is traced to institutional environmental forces that are set in motion to implement, sustain and institutionalize P3s as a ‘take it or no asset’ policy. Furthermore, we identify motivations tied to a new understanding of macro (group) and micro (private) interests that enact, sustain and institutionalize ‘preferred’ policy measures cloaked as ‘public interest’. Consistent with the current view of P3s as complex hybrid organizations that confront pluralistic circumstances, we argue that there is an absence of a reflective consideration among the invested local actors in balancing the competing stakeholder interests impacted by P3 policy. Furthermore, we outline the implications for the accounting industry as knowledge carriers in guiding the situated jurisdictional evolution of P3s, especially in recognition of the dual nature of P3s that are presented as objective decision models, but are context-driven and socially constructed as part of P3 policy adoption and implementation. Consequently, given the shifting political dynamics regarding the efficacy – and sustainability – of P3s, whether the end could be near for Alberta’s P3 experiment or a temporary hiatus is an open question that this paper will attempt to address.
- Abstract: Publication date: January 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 58Author(s): Michael Opara, Paul Rouse Since the 1990s, Public–Private Partnerships (P3s) have become a widely used public infrastructure financing policy tool. However, there is a vast body of evidence suggesting that they do not consistently deliver superior Value-for-Money (VfM), a central argument for engaging private industry partners. In response to the call by Andon (2012), we investigate the rationale behind governments’ continuing deployment of P3s, focusing on the factors affecting the nature and performance of P3s. We draw on contemporary institutional theory to explain the Alberta government’s deployment of P3s as a legitimate infrastructure delivery mechanism. While the P3 model has been beset by numerous problems, governments persist with P3 deployment. This practice is traced to institutional environmental forces that are set in motion to implement, sustain and institutionalize P3s as a ‘take it or no asset’ policy. Furthermore, we identify motivations tied to a new understanding of macro (group) and micro (private) interests that enact, sustain and institutionalize ‘preferred’ policy measures cloaked as ‘public interest’. Consistent with the current view of P3s as complex hybrid organizations that confront pluralistic circumstances, we argue that there is an absence of a reflective consideration among the invested local actors in balancing the competing stakeholder interests impacted by P3 policy. Furthermore, we outline the implications for the accounting industry as knowledge carriers in guiding the situated jurisdictional evolution of P3s, especially in recognition of the dual nature of P3s that are presented as objective decision models, but are context-driven and socially constructed as part of P3 policy adoption and implementation. Consequently, given the shifting political dynamics regarding the efficacy – and sustainability – of P3s, whether the end could be near for Alberta’s P3 experiment or a temporary hiatus is an open question that this paper will attempt to address.
- Editorial Board/Publication Information
- Abstract: Publication date: January 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 58Author(s):
- Abstract: Publication date: January 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 58Author(s):
- Enabling global accounting change: Epistemic communities and the creation
of a ‘more business-like’ public sector- Abstract: Publication date: January 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 58Author(s): Mark Christensen, Susan Newberry, Bradley N. Potter This article provides an historical assessment of the workings of an epistemic community closely associated with the implementation of accrual accounting in the Australian public sector in order for it to become ‘more business-like’. Our story begins in the 1940s, a period characterized by seemingly disconnected debates emerging from the USA about how best to manage government operations. We show that over the ensuing six decades, a small but influential epistemic community was able to problematize public sector management and accounting practices and cultivate the perception that the public sector needed to be more ‘business-like’ and that in order to do so, the adoption of ‘better’, in this case ‘accrual’, accounting was crucial. In doing so, we inform existing understanding of the early development of accrual accounting in government – the international dimensions of which are not widely acknowledged. Further, we show that in our setting, an epistemic community with transnational dimensions was crucial in enabling the reforms to occur, by disrupting the status quo in government accounting, and diffusing an accrual solution in several settings globally incubated in a discourse of business terminology that characterized governments as businesses. The epistemic community was able to diminish debate and invoke arguments to support the implementation of accrual accounting based on asserted enhancements to accountability, even though such reforms were largely untested in the public sector. Thus, we supplement existing research, by enhancing our understanding of how epistemic communities can make significant accounting change appear seemingly inevitable when it could have been otherwise.
- Abstract: Publication date: January 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 58Author(s): Mark Christensen, Susan Newberry, Bradley N. Potter This article provides an historical assessment of the workings of an epistemic community closely associated with the implementation of accrual accounting in the Australian public sector in order for it to become ‘more business-like’. Our story begins in the 1940s, a period characterized by seemingly disconnected debates emerging from the USA about how best to manage government operations. We show that over the ensuing six decades, a small but influential epistemic community was able to problematize public sector management and accounting practices and cultivate the perception that the public sector needed to be more ‘business-like’ and that in order to do so, the adoption of ‘better’, in this case ‘accrual’, accounting was crucial. In doing so, we inform existing understanding of the early development of accrual accounting in government – the international dimensions of which are not widely acknowledged. Further, we show that in our setting, an epistemic community with transnational dimensions was crucial in enabling the reforms to occur, by disrupting the status quo in government accounting, and diffusing an accrual solution in several settings globally incubated in a discourse of business terminology that characterized governments as businesses. The epistemic community was able to diminish debate and invoke arguments to support the implementation of accrual accounting based on asserted enhancements to accountability, even though such reforms were largely untested in the public sector. Thus, we supplement existing research, by enhancing our understanding of how epistemic communities can make significant accounting change appear seemingly inevitable when it could have been otherwise.
- ‘Paying taxes is losing money’: A qualitative study on institutional
logics in the tax consultancy field in Romania- Abstract: Publication date: January 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 58Author(s): Oana Apostol, Alina Pop The role of the tax consultancy industry in promoting tax avoidance products is under increasing scrutiny in the Western world. Various societal actors, such as governmental and non-governmental organisations, academics and the media, have voiced their dissatisfaction with the negative effects of tax avoidance on state budgets. This is indicative of a changing attitude towards tax avoidance practices, and the public’s expectations of tax consultancy activities. Applying an institutional logics framework, this paper interprets the traditional values of tax consultancy as articulating commercial logic, and identifies new societal developments exerting pressure for ethical practices in the tax consultancy profession. While there are visible signs of both logics currently coexisting in Western countries, less is known about how these logics manifest in contexts beyond the Western world. We take an in-depth look at tax consultancy in Romania, a country that continuously strives to balance the remnants of its communist past with its newly claimed European identity. We examine the dynamics of these two institutional logics and how the features of Romanian society affect them.
- Abstract: Publication date: January 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 58Author(s): Oana Apostol, Alina Pop The role of the tax consultancy industry in promoting tax avoidance products is under increasing scrutiny in the Western world. Various societal actors, such as governmental and non-governmental organisations, academics and the media, have voiced their dissatisfaction with the negative effects of tax avoidance on state budgets. This is indicative of a changing attitude towards tax avoidance practices, and the public’s expectations of tax consultancy activities. Applying an institutional logics framework, this paper interprets the traditional values of tax consultancy as articulating commercial logic, and identifies new societal developments exerting pressure for ethical practices in the tax consultancy profession. While there are visible signs of both logics currently coexisting in Western countries, less is known about how these logics manifest in contexts beyond the Western world. We take an in-depth look at tax consultancy in Romania, a country that continuously strives to balance the remnants of its communist past with its newly claimed European identity. We examine the dynamics of these two institutional logics and how the features of Romanian society affect them.
- Why does research in finance have so little impact'
- Abstract: Publication date: January 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 58Author(s): Chris Brooks, Evelyn Fenton, Lisa Schopohl, James Walker The quantity of finance research has grown enormously over the past two decades, yet questions remain over its breadth and ability to benefit the economy and society beyond academia. Using multisource data, we argue that individual and institutional incentives have fostered insularity and a consequent homogeneity in the discipline. We examine the characteristics of research that is published and cited in the leading field journals in finance, arguing that the work has become abstract and unrelated to real world issues. The work published in the ‘top’ journals makes increasing use of US data, even where the researchers are drawn from different countries. Using information from impact assessment, publication patterns, and grant capture, we illustrate that this narrow agenda lacks relevance to the financial services sector, the economy or wider society compared to other areas of business and management research. In particular, we highlight the relative absence of research on ethics in academic finance and discuss the likely consequences for the discipline including its relevance to society.
- Abstract: Publication date: January 2019Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 58Author(s): Chris Brooks, Evelyn Fenton, Lisa Schopohl, James Walker The quantity of finance research has grown enormously over the past two decades, yet questions remain over its breadth and ability to benefit the economy and society beyond academia. Using multisource data, we argue that individual and institutional incentives have fostered insularity and a consequent homogeneity in the discipline. We examine the characteristics of research that is published and cited in the leading field journals in finance, arguing that the work has become abstract and unrelated to real world issues. The work published in the ‘top’ journals makes increasing use of US data, even where the researchers are drawn from different countries. Using information from impact assessment, publication patterns, and grant capture, we illustrate that this narrow agenda lacks relevance to the financial services sector, the economy or wider society compared to other areas of business and management research. In particular, we highlight the relative absence of research on ethics in academic finance and discuss the likely consequences for the discipline including its relevance to society.
- An Overture for Organisational Transformation with accounting and music
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 26 December 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Helen Oakes, Steve Oakes The current crisis in capitalism and the often sublimating roles of conventional accounting suggest a pressing need for alternative, emancipatory forms of accounting. Hence, this paper presents an Overture for Organisational Transformation (OOT) which is an emancipatory performance management and measurement framework supported by music. Video recordings of six original compositions are included for illustrative purposes. Drawing on Marcuse, the framework reveals (and reflects on) key aspects of the potential value of music for emancipatory accounting, and for organisations seeking to enhance their societal contribution. The OOT has six dimensions (often inter-connected): Learning and Growth, Internal Processes, Financial, Consumer, Environment, and Community. The first four dimensions re-imagine Kaplan and Norton’s (1996) Balanced Scorecard perspectives: Learning and Growth, Internal Processes, Financial, and Consumer. Underpinned by Habermasian communicative action, each OOT dimension includes practical illustrations of potentially emancipatory organisational practices assisted by music.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 26 December 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Helen Oakes, Steve Oakes The current crisis in capitalism and the often sublimating roles of conventional accounting suggest a pressing need for alternative, emancipatory forms of accounting. Hence, this paper presents an Overture for Organisational Transformation (OOT) which is an emancipatory performance management and measurement framework supported by music. Video recordings of six original compositions are included for illustrative purposes. Drawing on Marcuse, the framework reveals (and reflects on) key aspects of the potential value of music for emancipatory accounting, and for organisations seeking to enhance their societal contribution. The OOT has six dimensions (often inter-connected): Learning and Growth, Internal Processes, Financial, Consumer, Environment, and Community. The first four dimensions re-imagine Kaplan and Norton’s (1996) Balanced Scorecard perspectives: Learning and Growth, Internal Processes, Financial, and Consumer. Underpinned by Habermasian communicative action, each OOT dimension includes practical illustrations of potentially emancipatory organisational practices assisted by music.
- Accounting for power and resistance: The University of Ferrara under the
Fascist regime in Italy- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 22 November 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Luca Papi, Michele Bigoni, Enrico Deidda Gagliardo, Warwick Funnell Recognising the dynamic character of the exercise of power, this study analyses the complex interplay between power and resistance, as conceived by Foucault, after the Italian Fascists sought to subjugate all Italian universities. When the University of Ferrara, a ‘Free University’, resisted the government’s intentions, which would also have meant restricting access to higher education to working class youth, accounting practices became essential in providing justification for the government’s actions. In response, the University was forced to use accounting practices as its main form of defence. This resulted in the government having to use different tactics to achieve its final goals. If resistance is met by governments in the implementation of their programmes this may require a shift in the tactics originally employed to achieve the planned outcomes. Greater demands were placed on the funders of the University and changes were made to how the University’s performance was represented, interpreted and evaluated by the means of accounting practices. In the power struggle, accounting played different roles in the service of conflicting objectives, ranging from concealing the interested nature of political action, demonstrating the achievement of financial stability and self-sufficiency, providing legitimacy or ensuring the use of resources consistent with the aims of those who exercised power. So persuasive was the action enabled by accounting information that the State was finally able to gain control of the University without making it a ‘Kingdom University’, and hence seeming to preserve the appearance of independence almost until the end of the Fascist regime.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 22 November 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Luca Papi, Michele Bigoni, Enrico Deidda Gagliardo, Warwick Funnell Recognising the dynamic character of the exercise of power, this study analyses the complex interplay between power and resistance, as conceived by Foucault, after the Italian Fascists sought to subjugate all Italian universities. When the University of Ferrara, a ‘Free University’, resisted the government’s intentions, which would also have meant restricting access to higher education to working class youth, accounting practices became essential in providing justification for the government’s actions. In response, the University was forced to use accounting practices as its main form of defence. This resulted in the government having to use different tactics to achieve its final goals. If resistance is met by governments in the implementation of their programmes this may require a shift in the tactics originally employed to achieve the planned outcomes. Greater demands were placed on the funders of the University and changes were made to how the University’s performance was represented, interpreted and evaluated by the means of accounting practices. In the power struggle, accounting played different roles in the service of conflicting objectives, ranging from concealing the interested nature of political action, demonstrating the achievement of financial stability and self-sufficiency, providing legitimacy or ensuring the use of resources consistent with the aims of those who exercised power. So persuasive was the action enabled by accounting information that the State was finally able to gain control of the University without making it a ‘Kingdom University’, and hence seeming to preserve the appearance of independence almost until the end of the Fascist regime.
- Critical dialogical accountability: From accounting-based accountability
to accountability-based accounting- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 3 November 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Jesse Dillard, Eija Vinnari Society is demanding that its institutions be accountable for more than economic performance. However, much research in the social and environmental accounting (SEA) literature suggests that an increased level of reporting has not prompted the anticipated increased levels of accountability. Accountability is limited by what is disclosed, and what is disclosed is limited by the extant accounting system (accounting-based accountability). Most current attempts at improving social and environmental accountability by increasing disclosure reflect, at best, incremental changes to the traditional accounting system, a system that has been explicitly designed to meet the needs of financial capital providers. Alternatively, we propose that accounting systems be designed to address specific requirements of alternative accountability systems (accountability-based accounting), and the accountability system requirements should reflect the salient evaluation criteria of the interested constituencies. We propose critical dialogic accountability as a way to conceptualize accountability systems in a pluralistic society characterized by multiple, and often conflicting, interests. We present a definition of accountability that illustrates its complexity, recognizes the salience of power for operative accountability relationships and can be applied both descriptively and normatively, providing a framework for assisting in the specification of the accountability systems and responsibility networks of various interest groups. We discuss some implications for both researchers and practitioners associated with SEA endeavors, concluding with a call for imagining box-breaking accountings that extend the conventional boundaries of the SEA field.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 3 November 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Jesse Dillard, Eija Vinnari Society is demanding that its institutions be accountable for more than economic performance. However, much research in the social and environmental accounting (SEA) literature suggests that an increased level of reporting has not prompted the anticipated increased levels of accountability. Accountability is limited by what is disclosed, and what is disclosed is limited by the extant accounting system (accounting-based accountability). Most current attempts at improving social and environmental accountability by increasing disclosure reflect, at best, incremental changes to the traditional accounting system, a system that has been explicitly designed to meet the needs of financial capital providers. Alternatively, we propose that accounting systems be designed to address specific requirements of alternative accountability systems (accountability-based accounting), and the accountability system requirements should reflect the salient evaluation criteria of the interested constituencies. We propose critical dialogic accountability as a way to conceptualize accountability systems in a pluralistic society characterized by multiple, and often conflicting, interests. We present a definition of accountability that illustrates its complexity, recognizes the salience of power for operative accountability relationships and can be applied both descriptively and normatively, providing a framework for assisting in the specification of the accountability systems and responsibility networks of various interest groups. We discuss some implications for both researchers and practitioners associated with SEA endeavors, concluding with a call for imagining box-breaking accountings that extend the conventional boundaries of the SEA field.
- Strategies of visibility in contemporary surveillance settings: Insights
from misconduct concealment in financial markets- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 29 October 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Aziza Laguecir, Bernard Leca This paper complements critical accounting research on surveillance by reversing the dominant perspective focusing on surveilling actors, considering those surveilled. Building on Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis to examine how surveilled individuals present themselves (i.e., their strategies of visibility) to the surveilling audiences and drawing on the 2008 Société Générale (SocGen) trading scandal, we examine the strategies elaborated by the involved trader to initially conceal his misconduct and achieve a positive image vis-à-vis the multiple surveilling audiences. Our analysis shows how strategies of visibility are developed in such contexts by separating a front that complies with audiences’ expectations from a backstage where elements that are inconsistent with those expectations are concealed. The development of such strategies of visibility also requires the segregation of audiences to avoid inconsistencies between fronts. This study further points to the issue of coordination among multiple intersecting control systems. Finally, it reveals the importance of technical literacy in settings with sophisticated control systems, for both the surveilling party, to exert control, and the surveilled one, to manage their visibility. This paper incidentally outlines that while control is increasingly sophisticated and multiple, there is still space for agency. As shadow spaces remain, we are not yet in a control society itself à la Deleuze (1995).
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 29 October 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Aziza Laguecir, Bernard Leca This paper complements critical accounting research on surveillance by reversing the dominant perspective focusing on surveilling actors, considering those surveilled. Building on Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis to examine how surveilled individuals present themselves (i.e., their strategies of visibility) to the surveilling audiences and drawing on the 2008 Société Générale (SocGen) trading scandal, we examine the strategies elaborated by the involved trader to initially conceal his misconduct and achieve a positive image vis-à-vis the multiple surveilling audiences. Our analysis shows how strategies of visibility are developed in such contexts by separating a front that complies with audiences’ expectations from a backstage where elements that are inconsistent with those expectations are concealed. The development of such strategies of visibility also requires the segregation of audiences to avoid inconsistencies between fronts. This study further points to the issue of coordination among multiple intersecting control systems. Finally, it reveals the importance of technical literacy in settings with sophisticated control systems, for both the surveilling party, to exert control, and the surveilled one, to manage their visibility. This paper incidentally outlines that while control is increasingly sophisticated and multiple, there is still space for agency. As shadow spaces remain, we are not yet in a control society itself à la Deleuze (1995).
- IFRS and institutional work in the accounting domain
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 23 October 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Dina Aburous This study highlights how the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards, in a context of minimal readiness, induces power imbalance between corporate accounting and audit, and changes acceptable accounting practices, and roles. Using the concept of institutional work, I analyze data from interviews and secondary sources, focusing attention on the practices of issuing financial statements. I find that the technical dependency of corporate accounting on audit blurs the boundaries between the two fields. I argue that this generates conditions for implicit negotiations, in which both groups (corporate accountants and auditors) engage in institutional work. Two subtypes of institutional work are identified as corporate accountants relinquish some of their traditionally institutionalized activities to the ‘expert’ auditors, to maintain field stability, while auditors encroach on the corporate accounting field, to remove obstacles during the implementation of IFRS. While there is no shortage of research documenting the economic outcomes of the adoption of IFRS, there is hardly any examination of how this technical disruption, has affected practices and relations within the accounting domain. Incorporating views and actions from the much-ignored corporate accounting field enables a more holistic view of how responses to IFRS are constructed, especially in contexts where IFRS are adopted for legitimacy.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 23 October 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Dina Aburous This study highlights how the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards, in a context of minimal readiness, induces power imbalance between corporate accounting and audit, and changes acceptable accounting practices, and roles. Using the concept of institutional work, I analyze data from interviews and secondary sources, focusing attention on the practices of issuing financial statements. I find that the technical dependency of corporate accounting on audit blurs the boundaries between the two fields. I argue that this generates conditions for implicit negotiations, in which both groups (corporate accountants and auditors) engage in institutional work. Two subtypes of institutional work are identified as corporate accountants relinquish some of their traditionally institutionalized activities to the ‘expert’ auditors, to maintain field stability, while auditors encroach on the corporate accounting field, to remove obstacles during the implementation of IFRS. While there is no shortage of research documenting the economic outcomes of the adoption of IFRS, there is hardly any examination of how this technical disruption, has affected practices and relations within the accounting domain. Incorporating views and actions from the much-ignored corporate accounting field enables a more holistic view of how responses to IFRS are constructed, especially in contexts where IFRS are adopted for legitimacy.
- Accounting and psychiatric power in Italy: The royal insane hospital of
Turin in the 19th century- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 6 October 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Warwick Funnell, Valerio Antonelli, Raffaele D'Alessio This paper identifies the importance of accounting practices in the successful operation of the Royal Insane Hospital of Turin, prior to the Italian unification, to show the importance of the lunatic asylum to our understanding of the way in which power is sustained by the State and the dependence of this process on the information and discourses created by accounting practices. The study is informed by insights from Michel Foucault's work on lunatic asylums and psychiatric power. Accounting practices of the Royal Insane Hospital of Turin allowed the State as a major contributor to the funding of the asylum to control and monitor the cost of providing the necessary facilities and care for patients. Accounting allowed the hospital to be managed more efficiently which, most importantly, allowed the hospital to provide the support and facilities which were essential for creating the environment required for new medical practices in the treatment of the mentally unwell at a time when the role of doctors was becoming increasingly important. Accounting is also shown to have played a prominent role in supporting the political and social legitimation of the institution and its claim for public and private support. Critical to this process was the social and political importance of the statistics produced by the doctors of the lunatic asylum.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 6 October 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Warwick Funnell, Valerio Antonelli, Raffaele D'Alessio This paper identifies the importance of accounting practices in the successful operation of the Royal Insane Hospital of Turin, prior to the Italian unification, to show the importance of the lunatic asylum to our understanding of the way in which power is sustained by the State and the dependence of this process on the information and discourses created by accounting practices. The study is informed by insights from Michel Foucault's work on lunatic asylums and psychiatric power. Accounting practices of the Royal Insane Hospital of Turin allowed the State as a major contributor to the funding of the asylum to control and monitor the cost of providing the necessary facilities and care for patients. Accounting allowed the hospital to be managed more efficiently which, most importantly, allowed the hospital to provide the support and facilities which were essential for creating the environment required for new medical practices in the treatment of the mentally unwell at a time when the role of doctors was becoming increasingly important. Accounting is also shown to have played a prominent role in supporting the political and social legitimation of the institution and its claim for public and private support. Critical to this process was the social and political importance of the statistics produced by the doctors of the lunatic asylum.
- Accounting signifiers, political discourse, popular resistance and legal
identity during Pakistan Steel Mills attempted privatization- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 25 September 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Muhammad Junaid Ashraf, Faiza Muhammad, Trevor Hopper Using the privatization of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) as an empirical site and drawing on Laclau and Mouffe’s (1985) discourse theory, this paper traces the discursive struggle between two discourses on the valuation and privatization of PSM. Specific signifiers were articulated and re-articulated into different chains of equivalence to create an appeal for each discourse surrounding the steel mill’s valuation. The anti-privatization discourse’s ‘success’ derived from its ‘interdiscursivity’ i.e. drawing on disparate signifiers from different meta-discourses; accounting, nationalism, state corruption and ‘informal’ signifiers such as ‘family silver’, ‘market value’ and ‘throw away price’. In contrast, the pro-privatization discourse drew on a homogenous (financial) economics discourse using more formal and technical signifiers such as ‘going concern’ and ‘sensitivity adjusted discounted cash flow value’. The anti-privatization discourse, with its diverse and informal (accounting) signifiers gained ‘empirical validity’, ‘narrative fidelity’, ‘and experiential commensurability’, appealed more to the masses, the media, and the judiciary. It convinced them selling PSM was a grave injustice, which must be prevented. Hence the Supreme Court reversed the privatization decision, which soured executive-judiciary relations, and led the military government to suspend the Chief Justice of Pakistan, and later the judiciary, media outlets, and the Constitution, which precipitated a successful social movement for an independent judiciary and the restoration of democracy. Events were shaped by the various interests of parties concerned and created new identities for them. The paper concludes by reflecting on how the findings contribute to, and add new issues for accounting research using discourse analysis.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 25 September 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Muhammad Junaid Ashraf, Faiza Muhammad, Trevor Hopper Using the privatization of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) as an empirical site and drawing on Laclau and Mouffe’s (1985) discourse theory, this paper traces the discursive struggle between two discourses on the valuation and privatization of PSM. Specific signifiers were articulated and re-articulated into different chains of equivalence to create an appeal for each discourse surrounding the steel mill’s valuation. The anti-privatization discourse’s ‘success’ derived from its ‘interdiscursivity’ i.e. drawing on disparate signifiers from different meta-discourses; accounting, nationalism, state corruption and ‘informal’ signifiers such as ‘family silver’, ‘market value’ and ‘throw away price’. In contrast, the pro-privatization discourse drew on a homogenous (financial) economics discourse using more formal and technical signifiers such as ‘going concern’ and ‘sensitivity adjusted discounted cash flow value’. The anti-privatization discourse, with its diverse and informal (accounting) signifiers gained ‘empirical validity’, ‘narrative fidelity’, ‘and experiential commensurability’, appealed more to the masses, the media, and the judiciary. It convinced them selling PSM was a grave injustice, which must be prevented. Hence the Supreme Court reversed the privatization decision, which soured executive-judiciary relations, and led the military government to suspend the Chief Justice of Pakistan, and later the judiciary, media outlets, and the Constitution, which precipitated a successful social movement for an independent judiciary and the restoration of democracy. Events were shaped by the various interests of parties concerned and created new identities for them. The paper concludes by reflecting on how the findings contribute to, and add new issues for accounting research using discourse analysis.
- Accounting and pseudo spirituality in Islamic financial institutions
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 25 September 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Nunung Nurul Hidayah, Alan Lowe, Margaret Woods The global financial crisis was followed by calls for a transformation of conventional finance, towards more ethico-aesthetic models. One avenue was to consider the alternative aesthetic of Islamic financial institutions (IFIs). IFIs offer profit-loss sharing (PLS) schemes as a distinctive spiritual alternative to conventional investment products. IFIs ontotheology clashes with the epistemology of modern banking and finance. The accounting for PLS creates tensions due to practical complexity that militates against implementation of the authentic Islamic financial contracts. This paper seeks to identify the role of accounting in IFIs’ practice of interpretation to resolve the struggles that have taken place around the implementation of PLS schemes as a means of spiritual based financial alternatives. We explore how IFIs use accounting in rendering notions of spiritual/prophetic values applicable to practice or how it colludes against their implementation. Our study adopts a qualitative research methodology, framed around 40 interviews and observations of PLS implementation in IFIs in five Muslim countries in Asia and the Middle East, and one in the United Kingdom. We combine the literature on accounting and religion with the ideas/concepts from the literature on religion in organizations, political economy and Islamic law/finance. These perspectives enable us to better reveal how accounting works to reinvent spirituality. In our context we show how accounting mediates the conflicting interests and intentions that arise within the epistemological clashes that happen as the scared/religious strives to take its place in the capitalistic context of the conventional finance industry.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 25 September 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Nunung Nurul Hidayah, Alan Lowe, Margaret Woods The global financial crisis was followed by calls for a transformation of conventional finance, towards more ethico-aesthetic models. One avenue was to consider the alternative aesthetic of Islamic financial institutions (IFIs). IFIs offer profit-loss sharing (PLS) schemes as a distinctive spiritual alternative to conventional investment products. IFIs ontotheology clashes with the epistemology of modern banking and finance. The accounting for PLS creates tensions due to practical complexity that militates against implementation of the authentic Islamic financial contracts. This paper seeks to identify the role of accounting in IFIs’ practice of interpretation to resolve the struggles that have taken place around the implementation of PLS schemes as a means of spiritual based financial alternatives. We explore how IFIs use accounting in rendering notions of spiritual/prophetic values applicable to practice or how it colludes against their implementation. Our study adopts a qualitative research methodology, framed around 40 interviews and observations of PLS implementation in IFIs in five Muslim countries in Asia and the Middle East, and one in the United Kingdom. We combine the literature on accounting and religion with the ideas/concepts from the literature on religion in organizations, political economy and Islamic law/finance. These perspectives enable us to better reveal how accounting works to reinvent spirituality. In our context we show how accounting mediates the conflicting interests and intentions that arise within the epistemological clashes that happen as the scared/religious strives to take its place in the capitalistic context of the conventional finance industry.
- Banking for the common good: A Lonerganian perspective
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 20 September 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Joan Ballantine, Martin Kelly, Patricia Larres The financial crisis of 2008 left a legacy of hardship in its wake and exposed a culture of moral penury in UK banking. In an ex-post attempt to address this malaise and restore confidence in the sector, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) affirmed, in its mission statement, a strong commitment to serving the public interest. We appraise the FCA’s public interest rhetoric and contrast the term public interest with its antecedent, the common good. In so doing, we conclude that the common good is superior to the public interest insofar as the former incorporates a moral dimension which is absent from the latter. Moreover, the common good embraces an inclusivity in its altruism that renders it superior to the majoritarism of the public interest. Thereafter, we illuminate the concept of the common good by drawing on Bernard Lonergan's philosophical anthropology and, in particular, his cognitive structure of dynamic knowing. Finally, we provide a discourse for the banking sector which incorporates Lonergan's philosophy as a mechanism for conceptualising accounting and accountability for the common good. We argue for a new focus to liberate banking from self-interested desires, embedded in a neoliberal ideology, and redirect it towards a compassionate caring culture.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 20 September 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Joan Ballantine, Martin Kelly, Patricia Larres The financial crisis of 2008 left a legacy of hardship in its wake and exposed a culture of moral penury in UK banking. In an ex-post attempt to address this malaise and restore confidence in the sector, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) affirmed, in its mission statement, a strong commitment to serving the public interest. We appraise the FCA’s public interest rhetoric and contrast the term public interest with its antecedent, the common good. In so doing, we conclude that the common good is superior to the public interest insofar as the former incorporates a moral dimension which is absent from the latter. Moreover, the common good embraces an inclusivity in its altruism that renders it superior to the majoritarism of the public interest. Thereafter, we illuminate the concept of the common good by drawing on Bernard Lonergan's philosophical anthropology and, in particular, his cognitive structure of dynamic knowing. Finally, we provide a discourse for the banking sector which incorporates Lonergan's philosophy as a mechanism for conceptualising accounting and accountability for the common good. We argue for a new focus to liberate banking from self-interested desires, embedded in a neoliberal ideology, and redirect it towards a compassionate caring culture.
- Few are called, fewer are chosen: Elite reproduction in U.S. academic
accounting- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 20 September 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Timothy J. Fogarty, Aleksandra Zimmerman Previous work on academic accounting in the U.S. has documented impressive concentrations in publications and labor market success by faculty with credentials from a relatively small number of prestigious universities. However, this work left open the pre-doctoral origins of people producing this work, and therefore could not rule out the operation of a meritocracy. Utilizing the theoretical contributions of Bourdieu, this paper argues that elite institutions constitute a unique positioning of symbolic capital that favors a particular type of candidate over equally able others. Through systematic personnel movements into doctoral programs, elites within the discipline are able to reproduce. A study of faculty cultural capital acquired from previous matriculation at elite universities offers empirical support for these ideas. The results suggest that previous studies of concentration in academic accounting are set in motion because of this systematic selection process.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 20 September 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Timothy J. Fogarty, Aleksandra Zimmerman Previous work on academic accounting in the U.S. has documented impressive concentrations in publications and labor market success by faculty with credentials from a relatively small number of prestigious universities. However, this work left open the pre-doctoral origins of people producing this work, and therefore could not rule out the operation of a meritocracy. Utilizing the theoretical contributions of Bourdieu, this paper argues that elite institutions constitute a unique positioning of symbolic capital that favors a particular type of candidate over equally able others. Through systematic personnel movements into doctoral programs, elites within the discipline are able to reproduce. A study of faculty cultural capital acquired from previous matriculation at elite universities offers empirical support for these ideas. The results suggest that previous studies of concentration in academic accounting are set in motion because of this systematic selection process.
- Justifying the logic of regulatory post-crisis decision-making – The
case of the French structural banking reform- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 1 September 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Margit Munzer Relying on the theories of institutional logics (Friedland and Alford) and French pragmatist sociology (Boltanski and Thévenot), this study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the dynamics of the regulatory rule-making processes in the aftermath of the financial crisis. It focuses on a national post-crisis financial market reform, namely the French structural banking reform of 2013, which is characterized by a remarkable discrepancy between the ambitious announcements that accompanied the reform and its actual impact on banks’ structure. By analysing the justifications put forward by policy-makers in support of their decisions on the amendments to the bill, this paper investigates how policy-makers succeeded in maintaining and defending the historically dominant logic (i.e., market) in a situation of controversy by actively mobilizing different orders of worth. Complex mechanisms of reconciliation between orders of worth are revealed. In particular, the study identifies the strategy of symbolization of the competing order as a means of supporting the dominating logic in the context of a national post-crisis financial market reform. The technique of balancing different measures with diverging impacts on the banking sector enables the policy-makers to refer to a (symbolic) equilibrium solution, which shields their actions against criticism and helps them to achieve legitimacy.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 1 September 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Margit Munzer Relying on the theories of institutional logics (Friedland and Alford) and French pragmatist sociology (Boltanski and Thévenot), this study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the dynamics of the regulatory rule-making processes in the aftermath of the financial crisis. It focuses on a national post-crisis financial market reform, namely the French structural banking reform of 2013, which is characterized by a remarkable discrepancy between the ambitious announcements that accompanied the reform and its actual impact on banks’ structure. By analysing the justifications put forward by policy-makers in support of their decisions on the amendments to the bill, this paper investigates how policy-makers succeeded in maintaining and defending the historically dominant logic (i.e., market) in a situation of controversy by actively mobilizing different orders of worth. Complex mechanisms of reconciliation between orders of worth are revealed. In particular, the study identifies the strategy of symbolization of the competing order as a means of supporting the dominating logic in the context of a national post-crisis financial market reform. The technique of balancing different measures with diverging impacts on the banking sector enables the policy-makers to refer to a (symbolic) equilibrium solution, which shields their actions against criticism and helps them to achieve legitimacy.
- Money laundering through the strategic management of accounting
transactions- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 29 August 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Diego Ravenda, Maika M. Valencia-Silva, Josep M. Argiles-Bosch, Josep García-Blandón We develop new transaction management (TRM) proxies, to find empirical evidence of the strategic management of accounting transactions, aiming to carry out money laundering activities, within a sample of 355 firms controlled by Italian Mafias.Our results reveal that, using a cluster analysis, Mafia-controlled firms can be classified into two different groups corresponding to real firms and shell firms, based on specific assumptions on their distinctive peculiarities. Importantly, our regression estimations provide evidence of different TRM practices of these firms, which may be linked to specific money laundering activities. Finally, the seizure of Mafia-controlled firms and their assignment to legal administrators only have a significant impact on TRM within Mafia-controlled shell firms, whereas the null impact on TRM, within Mafia-controlled real firms, casts doubt on the ability of legal administrators to completely deter money laundering.This study proposes new TRM proxies, based on the nature of the expenditure transaction, which could be used by authorities as accounting red flags of money laundering activities. Furthermore, this study may support critical arguments against the orthodox view of the anti-money laundering role of accounting and the suitability of traditional TRM proxies to depict practices within firms sharing common traits with Mafia-controlled firms. Indeed, these firms may engage in TRM for illicit and/or opportunistic purposes, when the external scrutiny is weak, their financial statements are irrelevant for trading with stakeholders, because of competitive advantages or dominant market positions, and they can count on colluded actors as counterparties of money laundering transactions.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 29 August 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Diego Ravenda, Maika M. Valencia-Silva, Josep M. Argiles-Bosch, Josep García-Blandón We develop new transaction management (TRM) proxies, to find empirical evidence of the strategic management of accounting transactions, aiming to carry out money laundering activities, within a sample of 355 firms controlled by Italian Mafias.Our results reveal that, using a cluster analysis, Mafia-controlled firms can be classified into two different groups corresponding to real firms and shell firms, based on specific assumptions on their distinctive peculiarities. Importantly, our regression estimations provide evidence of different TRM practices of these firms, which may be linked to specific money laundering activities. Finally, the seizure of Mafia-controlled firms and their assignment to legal administrators only have a significant impact on TRM within Mafia-controlled shell firms, whereas the null impact on TRM, within Mafia-controlled real firms, casts doubt on the ability of legal administrators to completely deter money laundering.This study proposes new TRM proxies, based on the nature of the expenditure transaction, which could be used by authorities as accounting red flags of money laundering activities. Furthermore, this study may support critical arguments against the orthodox view of the anti-money laundering role of accounting and the suitability of traditional TRM proxies to depict practices within firms sharing common traits with Mafia-controlled firms. Indeed, these firms may engage in TRM for illicit and/or opportunistic purposes, when the external scrutiny is weak, their financial statements are irrelevant for trading with stakeholders, because of competitive advantages or dominant market positions, and they can count on colluded actors as counterparties of money laundering transactions.
- A stakeholder salience perspective on performance and management control
systems in non-profit organisations- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 30 July 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Frank Conaty, Geraldine Robbins This paper explores the role of management’s perceptions of stakeholder salience in the management of performance in non-profit organisations (NPOs) providing social services. We present a case study of two such NPOs providing intellectual disability services in Ireland to address our research questions; how do NPO managers perceive the importance of stakeholders and how does this perception of stakeholder salience influence the design and use of management control systems (MCS)' Our research draws on stakeholder salience theory to capture management’s salience perceptions of key relevant stakeholders and we use insights gained through a framing of performance as a complex montage of individual stakeholder objectives. This work seeks to develop stakeholder salience theory, suggesting that complexity in stakeholder salience gives rise to a co-existence, or duality, in stakeholder typologies. Stakeholder salience is found to provide a valuable framework for developing insights into MCS and performance constructs in an NPO context. Findings suggest that awareness of stakeholder salience can assist in understanding performance conflicts and tensions captured in salience asymmetries most notably in relation to power. Findings also suggest that MCS design and use reflect management’s perception of stakeholder salience and may work to reinforce the status quo.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 30 July 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Frank Conaty, Geraldine Robbins This paper explores the role of management’s perceptions of stakeholder salience in the management of performance in non-profit organisations (NPOs) providing social services. We present a case study of two such NPOs providing intellectual disability services in Ireland to address our research questions; how do NPO managers perceive the importance of stakeholders and how does this perception of stakeholder salience influence the design and use of management control systems (MCS)' Our research draws on stakeholder salience theory to capture management’s salience perceptions of key relevant stakeholders and we use insights gained through a framing of performance as a complex montage of individual stakeholder objectives. This work seeks to develop stakeholder salience theory, suggesting that complexity in stakeholder salience gives rise to a co-existence, or duality, in stakeholder typologies. Stakeholder salience is found to provide a valuable framework for developing insights into MCS and performance constructs in an NPO context. Findings suggest that awareness of stakeholder salience can assist in understanding performance conflicts and tensions captured in salience asymmetries most notably in relation to power. Findings also suggest that MCS design and use reflect management’s perception of stakeholder salience and may work to reinforce the status quo.
- Beyond accountants as technocrats: A common good perspective
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 29 July 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Sandrine Frémeaux, François-Régis Puyou, Grant Michelson In a context characterised by the scientification of accounting practices and standards, an important question to pose is how might accounting professionals be released from an excessive focus on rationality (technical accuracy, technical neutrality and technical abstraction) and reclaim the profession in the public interest' Grounded in a person-oriented approach, we contend the common good principle can help accountants to mitigate the tyranny of economic rationality/homo economicus notably through greater consideration of public interest, thereby enabling them to exercise stronger ethical judgement. First, the common good can serve as a basis for the establishment of an ethical protocol based on the search for embedded community goods, human development and the personal good of each member. Second, the common good provides specific ethical principles including subsidiarity, totality, teleological hierarchy, long-term commitment, reality and unity that can better assist accounting professionals to exercise ethical judgement and therefore contribute to the public interest. In contrast to defending a strict adherence to ethical rules enshrined in professional codes of conduct, this article argues for an open ended protocol inspired by the common good principle. This will, we contend, better promote the re-contextualisation of accounting practices conducted by reflexive, sentient and publically-conscious practitioners.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 29 July 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Sandrine Frémeaux, François-Régis Puyou, Grant Michelson In a context characterised by the scientification of accounting practices and standards, an important question to pose is how might accounting professionals be released from an excessive focus on rationality (technical accuracy, technical neutrality and technical abstraction) and reclaim the profession in the public interest' Grounded in a person-oriented approach, we contend the common good principle can help accountants to mitigate the tyranny of economic rationality/homo economicus notably through greater consideration of public interest, thereby enabling them to exercise stronger ethical judgement. First, the common good can serve as a basis for the establishment of an ethical protocol based on the search for embedded community goods, human development and the personal good of each member. Second, the common good provides specific ethical principles including subsidiarity, totality, teleological hierarchy, long-term commitment, reality and unity that can better assist accounting professionals to exercise ethical judgement and therefore contribute to the public interest. In contrast to defending a strict adherence to ethical rules enshrined in professional codes of conduct, this article argues for an open ended protocol inspired by the common good principle. This will, we contend, better promote the re-contextualisation of accounting practices conducted by reflexive, sentient and publically-conscious practitioners.
- The impact of corporate governance on compounding inequality: Maximising
shareholder value and inflating executive pay- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 5 July 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Thomas Clarke, Walter Jarvis, Soheyla Gholamshahi This analysis considers the dimensions of financialisation of the international economy and how this has produced a more intensive and integrated mode of accumulation. With the increasing translation of Anglo-American listed corporations into financial entities, how the dominant shareholder primacy mode of corporate governance has served to compound inequality is examined. The damaging impact of maximising shareholder value is investigated, both in terms of the long term prospects of corporations, but also in aggressively producing increased inequality in the economy and society. Finally the ultimate paradoxical outcome of agency theory and shareholder value is highlighted as the explosion of executive reward in the last two decades in the Anglo-American countries. Finally the possibilities for reform and change towards more responsible and equitable approaches are considered.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 5 July 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Thomas Clarke, Walter Jarvis, Soheyla Gholamshahi This analysis considers the dimensions of financialisation of the international economy and how this has produced a more intensive and integrated mode of accumulation. With the increasing translation of Anglo-American listed corporations into financial entities, how the dominant shareholder primacy mode of corporate governance has served to compound inequality is examined. The damaging impact of maximising shareholder value is investigated, both in terms of the long term prospects of corporations, but also in aggressively producing increased inequality in the economy and society. Finally the ultimate paradoxical outcome of agency theory and shareholder value is highlighted as the explosion of executive reward in the last two decades in the Anglo-American countries. Finally the possibilities for reform and change towards more responsible and equitable approaches are considered.
- Reflections on the criteria for the sound measurement of intellectual
capital: A knowledge-based perspective- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 7 June 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Aino Kianto, Paavo Ritala, Mika Vanhala, Henri Hussinki As knowledge has become a key factor of competitive advantage for organizations, regions, and nations, its measurement has gained tremendous importance. During the last two decades, the intellectual capital school of thought has produced numerous measurement frameworks and models for capturing the intangible bases of value creation, which currently occupy a well-established position in academia. In this paper, we argue that something important might have been lost along the way, namely, a thorough understanding of knowledge as the basis for human and organizational productive behavior. We argue that in order to remain relevant in the face of the increasing knowledge intensity of work, organizing, and value creation, the measurements of intellectual capital (IC) should revisit the foundations of what knowledge is. In order to regain this understanding, this paper draws on a knowledge-based perspective and proposes four critical themes that should be better recognized in IC measurement: multi-dimensionality, human agency and action, contextuality, and temporality and dynamics. We discuss the challenges that each theme poses for IC measurement and construct a set of criteria and applications for a more adequate measurement of IC.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 7 June 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Aino Kianto, Paavo Ritala, Mika Vanhala, Henri Hussinki As knowledge has become a key factor of competitive advantage for organizations, regions, and nations, its measurement has gained tremendous importance. During the last two decades, the intellectual capital school of thought has produced numerous measurement frameworks and models for capturing the intangible bases of value creation, which currently occupy a well-established position in academia. In this paper, we argue that something important might have been lost along the way, namely, a thorough understanding of knowledge as the basis for human and organizational productive behavior. We argue that in order to remain relevant in the face of the increasing knowledge intensity of work, organizing, and value creation, the measurements of intellectual capital (IC) should revisit the foundations of what knowledge is. In order to regain this understanding, this paper draws on a knowledge-based perspective and proposes four critical themes that should be better recognized in IC measurement: multi-dimensionality, human agency and action, contextuality, and temporality and dynamics. We discuss the challenges that each theme poses for IC measurement and construct a set of criteria and applications for a more adequate measurement of IC.
- Protecting the public interest' Continuing professional development
policies and role-profession conflict in accountancy- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 23 April 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Catriona Paisey, Nicholas J. Paisey This paper adds to the literature on historic and current claims to a public interest mandate by professional accountants and their accountancy bodies by examining the insights offered by an analysis of continuing professional development (CPD) policies in the accountancy profession. The accountancy profession claims that these policies serve the public interest. Drawing on public interest theory, the paper examines how the profession has defined and limited the public interest via, and in relation to, CPD and the implications of the CPD policies when considering the profession’s claims to serve the public interest. The CPD policies of twelve professional accountancy bodies are reviewed. This reveals multiple dualisms (input or output, relevant to profession or relevant to current role, individual or employer-focused) and broad spectra (from more reflective to more prescribed and from core to peripheral accounting fields) resulting in multiple permutations that render CPD difficult to conceptualise. The result is that CPD in the accountancy profession exhibits contradictions that result in policies that are logically incoherent. The blurred distinction between a professional accountant’s responsibility as a member of a profession and as a person carrying out an occupational role limits the scope of CPD to adequately protect the public interest.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 23 April 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Catriona Paisey, Nicholas J. Paisey This paper adds to the literature on historic and current claims to a public interest mandate by professional accountants and their accountancy bodies by examining the insights offered by an analysis of continuing professional development (CPD) policies in the accountancy profession. The accountancy profession claims that these policies serve the public interest. Drawing on public interest theory, the paper examines how the profession has defined and limited the public interest via, and in relation to, CPD and the implications of the CPD policies when considering the profession’s claims to serve the public interest. The CPD policies of twelve professional accountancy bodies are reviewed. This reveals multiple dualisms (input or output, relevant to profession or relevant to current role, individual or employer-focused) and broad spectra (from more reflective to more prescribed and from core to peripheral accounting fields) resulting in multiple permutations that render CPD difficult to conceptualise. The result is that CPD in the accountancy profession exhibits contradictions that result in policies that are logically incoherent. The blurred distinction between a professional accountant’s responsibility as a member of a profession and as a person carrying out an occupational role limits the scope of CPD to adequately protect the public interest.
- Inequality, Inc.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 12 April 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Jeroen Veldman To engage with inequality, I explore how corporate governance theory is based on inherently contingent ideas of the legal and organizational structuring of the modern public corporation in a corporate ‘architecture’, and how these contingent ideas affect the distribution of privileges, protections and proceeds to different types of actors. I argue that the currently dominant corporate governance theory ignores a specific corporate architecture that provided internal and external legitimacy to the modern public corporation by embedding a set of trade-offs between constituent groups and cementing those trade-offs into a broader institutional setting. Ignoring this architecture leads to the redirection of the privileges and protections embodied in the modern corporation to the exclusive benefit of an implicit coalition of market value-oriented shareholders and managers, while the risks to all other actors, interests and timeframes are relegated to the status of ‘externalities’. I explore how a focus on contingent conceptions of the modern corporation and of corporate governance provides an organizational-level explanation for growing inequality with which existing sectoral and state-centric approaches and means for engagement can be complemented.
- Abstract: Publication date: Available online 12 April 2018Source: Critical Perspectives on AccountingAuthor(s): Jeroen Veldman To engage with inequality, I explore how corporate governance theory is based on inherently contingent ideas of the legal and organizational structuring of the modern public corporation in a corporate ‘architecture’, and how these contingent ideas affect the distribution of privileges, protections and proceeds to different types of actors. I argue that the currently dominant corporate governance theory ignores a specific corporate architecture that provided internal and external legitimacy to the modern public corporation by embedding a set of trade-offs between constituent groups and cementing those trade-offs into a broader institutional setting. Ignoring this architecture leads to the redirection of the privileges and protections embodied in the modern corporation to the exclusive benefit of an implicit coalition of market value-oriented shareholders and managers, while the risks to all other actors, interests and timeframes are relegated to the status of ‘externalities’. I explore how a focus on contingent conceptions of the modern corporation and of corporate governance provides an organizational-level explanation for growing inequality with which existing sectoral and state-centric approaches and means for engagement can be complemented.
