Re-framing a ‘subfusc’ Institute: Building on the past for the future at Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London, 1965–1970

The study which follows traces the circumstances surrounding the rebuilding of Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London, from ca. 1965 to 1970, in order to show how the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales consciously utilised the architecture of its remodelled headquarters for status-building purposes and for adjusting public perceptions of its role in society. It proceeds by outlining the Hall's prehistory, dealing with the earlier use of architectural effect by the Institute to build its status when Chartered Accountants’ Hall was first built in 1893. Setting the Hall's extension in the context of post-World War II Britain and a rapidly expanding Institute, it details the practicalities associated with the rebuilding; it also outlines the architectural climate of the times and reveals the architect's design ideas and use of architectural metaphors and iconography for status building and related purposes. The study makes clear the role of key individuals within the Institute in forwarding the project, as well as emphasising the unique, creative contribution of the architect. It also offers some refinements to the findings of Macdonald (1989) and McKinstry (1997) concerning the role and use of professional headquarters as status symbols.     

The mystery of the missing members: the first 600 chartered accountants in England and Wales

There are a number of factual errors within the authoritative literature on the history of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and of its five founder bodies. The aim of this article is to outline some of these errors, explain how and why they arose, and attempt to correct them. Its primary concern is to establish the membership of these early professional accountancy bodies at the time of the granting of a royal charter in May 1880.     

First attempt at localising imperial accountancy: the case of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Jamaica (ICAJ) (1950s–1970s)

Within the context of capitalism and cultural imperialism, this paper will critically examine the post-independence aspirations of the Jamaican government and accountants, in establishing an independent professional body, devoid of any foreign influence, particularly from the former colonial power. This was attempted by forming the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Jamaica (ICAJ), which was expected to be capable of examining and credentialing future Jamaican accountants. These efforts, however, were not without conflicts among local capitalist elites and global capitalist elites, with each group representing various sets of interests. The paper examines, on the basis of available evidence, the nature of these conflicts, and the extent to which the Institute of Chartered Accounts of Jamaica (ICAJ) was able to achieve independence from former colonial accounting bodies such as the UK-based Association of Certified and Corporate Accountants (ACCA).     

'Elevating the profession': the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and the implementation of social closure strategies 1888-1909

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland was formed in 1888 on an all-island basis by a group of prominent public accountants who envisaged it as a means of appropriating the social and economic benefits that accompanied professional status. Employing Weber's notion of 'social closure' in the context of a professional project, this paper examines the manner in which the Institute sought to operationalise this strategy, focusing in particular on membership criteria, articles and examinations, as well as issues of trust and respectability.     

Monetary Policy in the UK

This is the text of the IFS Annual Lecture 1994 delivered at the Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London on 1 June 1994.     

Some History of the Debate on Educational Policy of Accountants in Australia

The Australian professional accounting bodies developed their present educational policies during the period prior to 1964 when two major reports were issued. This paper traces the development of those educational policies, but particularly the crystallization of the philosophy underlying the decision of the Australian Society of Accountants to adopt degree level entry in 1965. The Institute of Chartered Accountants followed suit some years later. This signalled the end of the traditional system of part-time technical training associated with work experience, and established full degree-level education as a pre-requisite for professional accountants.     

Australia's divided accounting profession: The 1969 merger attempt and its legacy

The Australian accounting environment is dominated by two competing brands – Chartered Accountant (CA) and Certified Practising Accountant (CPA) – which signal that the profession has been unable to achieve full unification. Focussed on 1969, this dual theory-informed, in-depth study examines the first of four unsuccessful attempts to merge the two professional accounting associations from which the two brands originate: The Australian Society of Accountants (the Society) and The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (the Institute). Primary data from public archives and oral history interviews, combined with secondary sources, are drawn upon to explain the failure of this proposed merger and to consider its legacy. The complementary theoretical perspectives of “boundary-work” and “institutional work” are applied. Amidst other challenges, corporate collapses during the 1960s precipitated a legitimacy crisis for the profession and raised the prospect of there being sufficient commonality of purpose to enable a merger. While there was overwhelming support from Society members, the merger proposal was defeated by a comprehensive “no” vote from Institute members. This pattern of voting was repeated in three subsequent merger attempts, leading to the persistence of the curious binary structure of the Australian accounting profession and associated ongoing differences and tensions.     

Tax Law: Rules or Principles?

This is the text of the IFS Annual Lecture 1996 delivered at the Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London on 17 June 1996.     

'A Public Expert in Matters of Account': Defining the Chartered Accountant in England and Wales

This study addresses the attempts by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) to set its professional boundaries based on the performance of work in order to create a definition of the specialist chartered accountant or 'public expert in matters of account'. The article, located in the 1880-1900 period, provides an insight into the activities and arenas in which chartered accountants could engage. The complexities associated with this demarcation between permissible and non-permissible activities, revealed through a series of 'test cases', were exacerbated by the 'grandfather clauses' contained in the ICAEW's Royal Charter.     

Role of the Auditor-General: The ICAA View

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia has made the following submission to the Victorian government's review committee appointed to examine the Audit Act in the context of the national competition policy. This and the submission by the Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants which follows are published with the permission of the accounting bodies.     

An Historical Analysis of Ethical Pronouncements and Debate in the Australian Accounting Profession

This paper traces the forerunners of the present-day ethical rulings of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and the Australian Society of Accountants from the earlies professional Australian accounting bodies of the 1880s and 1890s. Various codes of ethics, articles, and memoranda of association, by-laws, charters, and professional publications are reviewed. Key Australian ethical issues are identified and their orientation over time considered. There is an early orientation towards overseas viewpoints and the issue of advertising is identified as a key impetus for ethical code development. The profession's self-interest is identified as an underlying rationale. This is presented as an historical case study of the development of accounting ethics with a view to identifying factors influencing change over time.     

Quality in professional accounting education provision in the UK – the CIMA experience

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) introduced its Quality Through Partnership (QTP) scheme in 1994. This scheme was designed to provide a system of monitoring and quality control for colleges providing CIMA tuition. Following a review of colleges by trained assessors, those colleges which had in place quality procedures that met certain minimum threshold standards were approved under the QTP scheme in terms of the quality of their course delivery. The aim of this paper is to trace the development of the QTP scheme in the UK since its inception within the context of evolving notions of ‘quality’. The paper begins by discussing notions of quality, distinguishing between quality control and quality assurance, and emphasizing the evolutionary process indicated by the progression from control to assurance. The history of the QTP scheme since its inception is then traced. Finally, the experience of the QTP scheme is reflected upon in the light of the concept of quality within professional education.     

Oral history, accounting history and an interview with Sir John Grenside

This article arises out of a programme of oral history funded by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). It discusses the issues involved in setting up and carrying through the programme and the advantages and disadvantages of the technique particularly with regard to accounting history. It uses as an example an interview with one of the leaders of the accountancy profession in the period since the Second World War - Sir John Grenside. Grenside discusses his training and the changes he saw and helped bring about as senior partner in his firm, Peat Marwick Mitchell. Grenside was also one of the leading lights in the ICAEW in the 1970s and early 1980s and was the architect of the Joint Disciplinary Scheme on which he gives his views as well as on the recent troubles of the profession.     

Constructing the governable small practitioner: The changing nature of professional bodies and the management of professional accountants’ identities in the UK

This article aims at contributing to the sociology of the accountancy profession by analysing how professional organisations govern the various categories that have emerged in the professional body throughout its history. To this end, the attempt by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales to give an institutional existence to the category of “the small practitioner” is examined. The plasticity and the polysemic nature of the notion of smallness, which refers simultaneously to physical (small/big), geographical (local/global) and moral (anonymous/notorious) characteristics, offers a particular opportunity to show how these three dimensions have been integrated into evolving organisational arrangements and discourses aimed at legitimising the professional order. It is contended that the definition of what small practitioners are, and how they should be dealt with, can only be understood as part of the broader issue of governance of the accountancy community and the nature of the professional body. The ICAEW’s efforts to problematise the nature of small practices indicates a will to integrate distant modalities of accounting expertise into a single professional space, so as to prevent the physical and geographical distance between big and small firms from becoming too conspicuous a hierarchical distinction, and thus preserve the ideal of the community of peers upon which professional bodies have been built.     

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.     

Competence-based Approaches to the Assessment of Professional Accountancy Training Work Experience Requirements: The ICAS Experience

Most professional accountancy bodies' qualification processes encompass three components: a prescribed programme of professional education, some form of work experience, and a formal final examination to determine professional competence. The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) suggests that purely theoretical and knowledge-based education does not meet the needs of all employers. Thus professional bodies are encouraged to find ways to deliver and assess relevant competences in the most appropriate manner. Despite educationalists suggesting that performance measurements based on direct observation within the work place are more effective at measuring competences than traditional paper-based examinations, assessment strategies within the accountancy domain remain conservative. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) was one of the first professional bodies to introduce a competency-based approach to work based assessment in 1999 and subsequently undertook a review of the process in 2004. The data collected for the review was undertaken by way of a questionnaire to authorized training offices, in-depth interviews with employers, and discussions which emanated from a Working Party which included internal ICAS employees, an academic and a representative from a large accountancy firm. This paper presents the findings of the review, discusses the pertinent issues in relation to work based assessment and outlines the changes that were made to the competency-based approach adopted by ICAS. It concludes with recommendations for future practice.     

亚太地区会计行业与区域经济繁荣——澳大利亚特许会计师协会首席执行官格雷厄姆·梅尔先生接受本刊专访

正如不断从秦始皇及其地下大军(秦陵)发掘出一件叉一件珍宝一样,在太阳升起的每一个崭新的日子里,我们都能看到澳大利亚和中国两国关系变得越发地紧密.梅尔先生提到,人们总是称澳大利亚是个"幸运国"."我们澳大利亚真的是非常幸运,我们很荣幸在二十多年前成为首个举办秦始皇兵马俑这一考古奇迹展览的西方国家."梅尔先生介绍说,现在中国的兵马俑们再次来到悉尼.在澳大利亚举办的这个令人称奇的展览正好与中国春节的各种壮观的庆祝活动遥相呼应.     

The contributions of Alexander Thomas Niven and John Ballantine Niven to the international history of modern public accountancy

This study examines the historical contributions to public accountancy of two Scottish Chartered Accountants. Alexander Thomas Niven was a charter member of the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh in 1854. and founded the Scottish public accountancy firm of A T Niven and Company in 1859. His son, John Ballantine Niven, became a Society member in 1893, co-founded the American public accountancy firm of Touche, Niven and Company in 1900, and was elected President of the American Institute of Accountants in 1924. The professional careers of both men are analysed in the context of a researched genealogy of the Niven family over two centuries in Scotland and the US. The analysis reveals the potential impact of successive generations of the Niven family in Scotland on the professional careers of Alexander Thomas Niven and John Ballantine Niven, and the significance of the latter's emigration to the development of the American profession. The historical contributions of both men are discussed within the context of specific economic and social factors over a considerable period of time. The conclusions of the study are that each Niven career was more than the sum of the events of a defined lifetime, and that the transfer of public accountancy knowledge through the emigration of John Ballantine Niven was a vital ingredient in the maturation of the American profession.     

Extent of environmental disclosure of U.S. and Canadian firms by annual report location

This study discusses various influences on firms to provide additional environmental disclosure and empirically measures and analyzes the extent of actual environmental disclosures included in the annual reports of firms in the U.S. and Canada. The environmental disclosure content provided in the annual reports of firms is evaluated based on environmental reporting guidelines published by the American Institute of Public Accountants and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. In general, the results indicate that U.S. firms provided a significantly higher level of environmental disclosure than did Canadian firms. Also, firms in each nation varied significantly in the amount of environmental disclosure provided in each of four annual report sections.     

Whose rights? Professional discipline and the incorporation of a (human) rights framework: The case of ICAS

Professions typically develop disciplinary systems that allow them to caution, fine or expel members whose conduct falls below expected standards. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) has amended its disciplinary procedures following challenge under the UK's Human Rights Act 1998. This paper aims to explore the implications of the incorporation of a (human) rights’ framework on ICAS's professional discipline. Disciplinary procedures are located in the context of the nature of professions and professionalism. Human rights legislation relevant to professional discipline is examined and its impact in the context of the nature of rights in general, and human rights in particular, is explored. The ICAS disciplinary changes are discussed in the context of a Hohfeldian-type framework of a range of types of rights. ICAS's procedures are shown to be multifaceted and, when examined in terms of rights (and, where relevant, duties) provide added insight into the nature of accountancy's professional discipline, but deficiencies remain, with the public interest continuing to be subservient to the private interest of accountants and their professional body.