FROM THE POLITICS OF FEAR TO THE POLITICS OF EMANCIPATION

This paper welcomes Stanley Martens and Elizabeth Murphy's contribution which urges accounting scholars to intervene in contemporary debates on accounting for healthcare and social security and develop alternative and more enabling forms of accounting. However, it argues that in ``the age of insecurity'', such calls need to be supplemented by an engagement with the ideologies of the New Right which encourage cut-backs and throw people to the mercy of the markets. It encourages critical accountants to contribute to a ``remaking of society'' by developing research programs which highlight the atrocities committed by ``markets''. The issues are illustrated with reference to the recent pensions debates in the UK.     

Author-itative interpretation in understanding accounting practice through case research

The way interviews are used in accounting research, and the way this research is written up, suggests that there is only one way to interpret these interviews. This invests the author(s) with great perceptive power and storytelling ability. What if different assumptions are used about how to interpret research, and how to present the ensuing findings? We give an illustration of what this might imply, using the notion of ‘reflexivity’. The setting for our illustration concerns a series of interviews with management accountants on the dilemmas they face in their daily work. We apply Alvesson's ideas on how to use metaphors to open up the interpretation of interview accounts. The aim of the paper is to shed a different light on the way interviews can be used and interpreted in accounting research. We assert that allowing for reflexive accounts is likely to require substantially differently written research papers, in which the process of discovery is emphasized.     

The role of internet-related technologies in shaping the work of accountants: New directions for accounting research

This paper reviews the accounting literature that focuses on four Internet-related technologies that have the potential to dramatically change and disrupt the work of accountants and accounting researchers in the near future. These include cloud, big data, blockchain, and artificial intelligence (AI). For instance, access to distributed ledgers (blockchain) and big data supported by cloud-based analytics tools and AI will automate decision making to a large extent. These technologies may significantly improve financial visibility and allow more timely intervention due to the perpetual nature of accounting. However, given the number of tasks technology has relieved of accountants, these technologies may also lead to concerns about the profession's legitimacy. The findings suggest that scholars have not given sufficient attention to these technologies and how these technologies affect the everyday work of accountants. Research is urgently needed to understand the new kinds of accounting required to manage firms in the changing digital economy and to determine the new skills and competencies accountants may need to master to remain relevant and add value. The paper outlines a set of questions to guide future research.     

Does the Holland model of occupational choice (HMOC) perpetuate the Beancounter-Bookkeeper (BB) stereotype of accountants?

This article investigates the Holland model of occupational choice's (HMOC) development, influence, and validity in relation to its classification of bookkeepers, accountants, and business professionals. Study 1 reanalyzes published data and provides evidence that the Beancounter-Bookkeeper (BB) stereotype, which is promoted in the HMOC, is partially predictive of the personality characteristics of individuals who choose to enter professional accountancy. Study 2 investigates the influence of HMOC training, and exposure to accounting education, on perceptions of the personality type needed for accounting work; results indicate that: (1) HMOC training is associated with perceptions that accounting work requires a BB personality, and (2) the importance of investigative skills to accounting work increase with accounting education. Following this, we review evidence that suggests low validity in the HMOC's claims of greater job success and satisfaction among BB accountants. Finally, we consider three possible processes that may explain Holland and colleagues’ conjoining of accountants with bookkeepers. Together, the analysis promotes skepticism regarding whether the HMOC's claim that professional accounting success demands a passive, compliant, subservient, i.e., BB, personality supports the public interest obligations of professional accountants.     

Is it Shameful to be an Accountant? GenMe Perception(s) of Accountants' Ethics

The function that accountants fulfil in the economic system is dependent on their ability to maintain the perception of high ethical standards. Building on the idea that birth cohorts, otherwise known as generations, are a useful proxy for the socio‐cultural environment of different time periods, we focus on the so‐called ‘GenMe’, that is, students and young workers born in the 1980s and 1990s. In particular, combining the accounting and business ethics literature, the purpose of our paper is to contribute to an increased awareness of the GenMe perceptions of accountants, with special attention given to ethical aspects. We believe that the perceptions of this age group are particularly crucial for the future of the accounting profession as it is these young people who will either become professional accountants or the accountants' future clients. Using an extensive database of 1,794 questionnaires, results show that the impression of the accountant as a corrupt professional is not dominant among GenMe and seem to suggest the existence of a multifaceted perception of accountants' ethics. Specifically, the factors that contribute to influencing GenMe perceptions of accountants' ethics are level of education, having attended an accounting course at high school level, gender, and belonging to the accounting profession. Finally, our study indicates that there is room for improving public perceptions of accountants' ethics through university courses in ethics, continuing education programs, and focused communication strategies by accounting firms and professional bodies.     

Modernity,space-based patriarchy and global capitalism: implications for Syrian women accountants

This paper contributes to the current literature on gender, modernity, patriarchy and accounting by bringing insights into the experiences of women accountants in Syria: an Arab and predominantly Muslim country. By doing so, this paper enhances understanding of women's interrelationship with accounting beyond the Anglo-American context that currently dominates the research agenda on gender and accounting. Face-to-face interviews with 20 women accountants were carried out in Syria in 2008. This study reveals that in the context of global capitalism and patriarchy, factors of class, alienation, tradition and economic difficulties are contributing to the subordinated role of women in society in general and in the accounting profession in particular. The increased commercialisation of the accounting profession in the Arab world, including Syria, has resulted in socio-economic hierarchies and discriminatory practices, where interviewees spoke of discrimination based on class, sex and on the knowledge held. Further, despite advances to Syrian women's access to the public space, the public space for Syrian women accountants often operates based largely on how men act in this space. Men (and socially/financially advantaged women) often occupy aspects of the public (accounting) space that are perceived to be more significant and better financially rewarded. Thus, the dichotomy of public/private spaces in this study is understood in a broader sense to incorporate the symbolic as well as spatial aspects. This paper concludes that the accounting profession's aspirations need to be challenged through critically evaluating and redefining work roles and values to ensure emancipation for women. Furthermore, in the Arab world, dominant patriarchal structures will only be challenged and changed when obstacles preventing women from enjoying their human rights and contributing fully in society are addressed and eliminated.     

The influence of power strategies in AIS implementation processes

This study is based on a longitudinal in-depth case study, conducted in a Portuguese public-sector organization, where the accountants adopted a strategic business partner role and promoted the implementation of two new accounting information systems (AIS), under the context of increasing business competition. Given their role, we examined how the implementation processes of such AIS were influenced by the accountants’ power strategies, adopting an organizational power narrative inquiry grounded on the four power dimensions proposed in Hardy’s (1996) framework: power over resources, power over decision-making processes, power over meanings and power of the system. As a result, this study contributes to the literature available on AIS by discussing the strategic business partner role of (management) accountants in a specific case; and by offering new insights into AIS research under the topic of accounting change through the exercise of power. Our research also contributes to the literature on organizational power by providing theoretical developments to Hardy’s (1996) power framework.     

Cutting to the core? A reflection upon recent education policy debates within the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales

Knowledge is widely regarded as a characteristic of professions, but given the ever-increasing knowledge base, professional accountancy bodies have begun to question whether professional examinations can continue to cover all areas relevant to the work of accountants. At the heart of the debate about how the professional knowledge base is to be defined lie questions about how chartered accountants are ‘made’. This paper discusses the introduction of a ‘core and options’ model for professional accountancy education as a possible means of ‘making the chartered accountant’. Using Porter's (1981) theory of historical explanation, it discusses an episode in the recent history of education policy at The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) which illuminates aspects of the core and options model. The paper concludes that, while the introduction of core curricula in accounting education can be justified on educational grounds, the rejection of core curricula by ICAEW suggests that educational debates were strongly influenced by the wider political, economic, social and professional environments and the resultant educational policy can be viewed as the product of a variety of competing agendas.     

A new approach to accounting examinations: The Final Qualifying Examination in New Zealand

New Zealand's Final Qualifying Examination for accountants was introduced in 1989 and has developed in a different way from professional accounting examinations in other countries. It provides a final check on the quality of the individuals concerned, but it does not re-test the subjects studied at the university. It includes ethical issues facing accountants, and current issues facing the accounting profession. This paper examines the origins of the Final Qualifying Examination (FQE), and the influences on its subsequent development. Some problem areas are also discussed in order to assist others to learn from the experience of the FQE. Further modifications that will shortly impact the New Zealand accounting profession's admission policy are also introduced.     

Traditional accountants and business professionals: Portraying the accounting profession after Enron

Society’s perception of the legitimacy of the accounting profession and its members is grounded in the verbal and visual images of accountants that are projected not only by accountants themselves but also by the media. The paper uses the critical literature on stereotypes to examine how books written for a general readership on Enron and other recent corporate failures portray accountants and accounting, and the implications their authors draw for corporate governance and the survival of the financial system. The paper explores how commentators have analyzed the changing activities of accountants (including the rise of consulting) and have contrasted the personalities of “founding fathers” of the US accounting profession with their early 21st-century successors. The paper concludes that changing stereotypes of accountants are evidence of “negative signals of movement” for accounting as a profession.     

Professor R. J. Chambers: A biographical note

The paper attempts to assess the potential value of generic standards of competence to the future education and training of accountants and the implications for education, training and assessment practices. It identifies some problems in applying the technique of functional analysis to the definition of professional standards in general before looking at the specific problems of setting standards for accountants. Eraut's classification of types of knowledge which underpin professional performance is applied to the case of accounting. These comments are related to the draft accounting standards which have been produced under the Occupational Standards Programme with particular reference to the Management Accounting Standards.     

EXPLORING AN ACCOUNTING PARADIGM: THE CASH ACCOUNT

This paper explores the possibility that practitioners' standards of accounting rationality are partly determined by a “cash account” paradigm, of which the method for preparing accounts from incomplete records is a major exemplar (an important part of the Kuhnian concept). Preparation of accounts from incomplete records forms part of many accountants' early practical experience, and often provides the setting in which elementary bookkeeping and accounting concepts start to become “second nature”. In addition to this, and partly as a result of it, accountants may tend to refer (perhaps not always explicitly) to the so-called “single entry method” when addressing much more complex and intractable problems. Practitioner paradigms get less attention in the literature than research paradigms, and one purpose of this paper is to redress this balance, and to show how articulation of a practitioner paradigm might suggest ways out of some conceptual difficulties     

Judgment and Decision‐Making Research in Auditing and Accounting: Future Research Implications of Person,Task, and Environment Perspective

The discipline of accounting and auditing has increasingly recognized judgment and decision making (JDM) as highly important attributes in the profession because individuals such as managers, auditors, financial analysts, accountants, and standard setters make pivotal judgments and decisions. Many studies undertaken in this domain of research also substantiate the significance of JDM in accounting and auditing. This study evaluates all the papers published in 10 accounting journals among the leading ones from 1980 to 2010 that fall within the domain of JDM research. The categorization of the studies reviewed in this paper is based on Bonner's ( 1999 ) three major determinants of JDM: Person, Task, and Environment variables. The review highlights the progress in the literature over the past three decades and also identifies the methodological limitations of previous research. The identified limitations will be useful for improving the research method of future JDM studies in accounting and auditing. The review also draws inferences on how JDM research in auditing, which is well established, could usefully guide future JDM research in financial accounting.     

The emancipatory potential of extinction accounting: Exploring current practice in integrated reports

This paper adopts a normative approach to develop a dynamic form of corporate reporting designed to deal with the threat posed by mass extinction of species. The proposed reporting framework is intended to show how a type of accounting – which is referred to as extinction accounting – can and should be used to drive positive corporate change and prevent the loss of species. The framework is inspired by both an anthropocentric and deep ecological view on nature and draws on accountancy’s emancipatory potential rather than attempting to find a substitute for current technologies of accounting and accountability. The prior literature on biodiversity and emancipatory accounting is complemented by showing how an innovative form of reporting on a specific environmental issue can be operationalised and used in the short-term to respond to the threats posed by mass extinction.     

Vocational skills in the accounting professional profile: the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) employers' opinion

The increasingly dynamic environment in which accountants work has necessitated a reorientation of accounting education. In some countries this issue has raised great interest amongst accounting educators and practitioners. The ongoing debate has already resulted in the publication of several statements and research papers that have raised the question of the relevance of the role of vocational skills in accounting education. Examples of these vocational skills are communication skills, interpersonal skills, and problem-solving skills. This paper reports on the importance that the employers of management accountants gave to a specified set of vocational skills and capabilities and the level of ability of these skills exhibited by students. In order to prioritize future developments an integrated analysis of the two attributes, importance and exhibited level, is enabled by the use of strategic mapping. The results of this study suggest that the employers perceive deficiencies in several capabilities that they have identified as being quite important. These deficiencies exist, in the employers' opinion, both prior to recruitment and on professional qualification. The research also indicates that, in the opinion of these employers, the development of these skills should be a central concern for universities and professional bodies. The employers also indicated that vocational skills should be attained in an integrated way.     

The re-emergence of the public accounting profession in China: A hegemonic analysis

This paper draws on Gramsci's concept of hegemony to examine and explain the circumstances leading to the re-emergence of the public accounting profession in China in the early 1980s. In particular, the paper attempts to understand the political and ideological influence upon the professionalisation process of the Chinese accountants. The paper not only highlights a major difference between the professionalisation process of the public accounting profession in China as compared to the West, but also the authoritative and dominant role assumed by the Chinese state in the whole societal set-up. Through effectively exercising its political and ideological leadership, the state successfully mobilised the Chinese accountants in the implementation of its economic-related agenda. The paper demonstrates that the state has clearly achieved hegemony within the accounting community, and further suggests that the state-accounting profession relationship could be likened to the father–son relationship as encompassed within the Confucian notion of wu lun.     

Elusive boundaries,power relations,and knowledge production: A systematic review of the literature on digitalization in accounting

A third wave of technological advancements, which is often referred to as “digitalization,” is affecting organizations across the board. This paper aims to present a comprehensive synthesis of the extant scholarly work on digitalization in the accounting literature. It does so through a systematic literature review that focuses on articles on digitalization published by the highest-ranked accounting journals in the period 2007–2017. By conducting a thorough review, we extend Rom and Rohde's (2007) literature review on integrated information systems (IIS) in management accounting. Furthermore, we utilize a modified version of the framework proposed by Rom and Rohde (2007) to classify and interpret the literature. This allows us to understand the differences between IIS and digitalization in accounting, and to illuminate avenues for future research. The paper concludes with an overview of three main differences in how IIS and digitalization have influenced accounting, and three concurrent avenues for future research on digitalization in accounting: the elusive boundaries of accounting, power relations, and knowledge production for decision making.     

Expanding the perspective and knowledge of the accounting curriculum and pedagogy in other locations: The case of Mexico

In our analysis of the accounting career and practice in Mexico, we include a comparative examination of the university curriculum, noting how it has changed over time, and we examine the differences between the accounting programs in the public and private higher education systems. We took this approach to investigate recent concerns raised by many academics from the field of accounting, about the ethicality of the accounting practice and the role played by universities in teaching would-be accountants ethics, and how Mexico compares to other countries that are currently being studied in response to Chabrak and Craig's (2012) work. Our perspective and experience with Community Service-Learning as a tool to achieve critical self-reflexivity, foster community engagement, and experiential understanding with principles of social justice, leads us to suggest CSL as another method to help address the valid concerns that have been raised about ethics education in the accounting career.     

An institutional perspective on the changes in management accountants’ professional role

The paper theorises how a new actor of a firm can drive the institutionalisation of a new role for management accountants. Drawing on institutional theory and using insights from a single case study in a German manufacturing firm, the paper analyses the institutionalisation of the so-called “business partner” role for management accountants, which was promoted and driven by the case firm's newcomer CFO. The paper focuses on the micro-processes and especially the institutional work carried out by the new CFO that supported the entrenchment of the “business partner’ role within the case firm. In this light, we illustrate that especially three interrelated kinds of institutional work were carried out within the case firm to support the institutionalisation of the management accountants’ new role: (1) legitimising the new “business partner” role, (2) (re-)constructing the management accountants’ role identities and (3) linking the intra-organisational level with an institutional environment in which external actors aim to achieve changes in the management accountants’ role on a broader societal level. In this context, the paper also provides insights into the specific German management accounting context. Overall, the findings suggest that the institutionalisation of a new role for management accountants can be understood as the product of purposive actions carried out by actors to support a specific institutional arrangement within the firm.