This paper is concerned with accounting — particularly the occupation, but also its practices and knowledge and its relationship with the state. In so far as we refer to specific occupational groupings of accountants and to specific state institutions, we will be referring to those in the UK. Focusing on the relationship between the UK state and the UK accounting profession may seem rather peculiar in a book concerned with management control, where the latter term is usually applied to the management of organisations. Our analysis is provided, however, to illustrate a social analysis of the relationship between an organisation and its environment, a relationship which is implicit in most conventional studies of management control. In so doing we also wish to explain how acxountancy is intertwined with the state and those corporatist arrangements that developed (sometimes temporarily) in several countries.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
H. E. Aldrich, Organizations and Environments(Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1979).
R. N. Anthony, Planning and Control Systems(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965).
P. Armstrong, ‘Changing Management Control Strategies’, Accounting, Organizations and Society(1985), pp. 129–48.
A. Briloff, More Debits than Credits: the Burnt Investor’s Guide to Financial Statements(New York: Harper and Row, 1976).
R. Briston and R. Perks, ‘The External Auditor: His Role and Cost to Society’, Accountancy(Nov. 1977) pp. 48–52.
S. Burchell, S. Clubb and A. G. Hopwood, ‘Accounting in its Social Context: a History of Value Added in the UK’, Accounting, Organizations and Society (1985).
J. L. Carey, The Riseof theAccounting Profession(New York: AICPA, 1969).
A. M. Carr-Saunders and P. A. Wilson, The Professions(Oxford, 1933).
A. Cawson (ed.), Organized Interests and the State: Studies in MesoCorporatism(London: Sage, 1985).
D. J. Cooper, A Political Economy of the UK Accounting Profession, unpublished manuscript, Department of Management Sciences, UMIST, Manchester (1984).
D. J. Cooper and M. Sherer, ‘The Value of Corporate Accounting Reports: Arguments for a Political Economy of Accounting’, Accounting, Organizations and Society(1984) pp. 207–32.
R. A. Dahl, Dimensions of Pluralist Democracy: Autonomy versus Control(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982).
J. Dillard and K. Ferris, ‘Sources of Professional Staff Turnover in Public Accounting Firms: Some Further Evidence’, Accounting, Organizations and Society(1979) pp. 179–86.
F. Emery and Trist, ‘The Causal Texture of Organizational Environments’, Human Relations18 (1965) pp. 21–32.
F. Frobel, Heinrichs and O. Kraye, The New International Division of Labour(Cambridge University Press, 1980).
J. Galbraith, Organizational Design(Addison-Wesley, 1973).
D. M. Gilling, ‘Accounting and Social Change’, International Journal of Accounting, 11, 2 (1976) pp. 59–71.
J. Habermas. Towards a Rational Society(London: Heinemann, 1971).
J. Habermas, Theory and Practice(London: Heinemann, 1973).
J. Habermas, Legitimation Crisis(London: Heinemann, 1976).
J. Habermas, Knowledge and Human Interests(London: Heinemann, 1978).
J. Habermas, Communication and the Evolution of Society(London: Heinemann, 1979).
D. Held, Introduction to Critical Theory(London: Hutchinson, 1980).
D. Held, ‘Central Perspective on the Modern State’ in G. McLennan, D. Held and S. Hall (eds) The Idea of the Modern State(Open University Press, 1984).
A. Hope and R. Gray, ‘Power and Policy Making: the Development of an R&D Standard’, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting(Winter 1982) pp. 531–58.
A. G. Hopwood, S. Burchell and C. Clubb, ‘The Development of Accounting in its International Context: Past Concerns and Emergent Issues’ in A. Roberts (ed.) An Historical and Contemporary Review of the Development of International Accounting(Georgia State University, 1979).
A. G.Hopwood, Accounting Research and Accounting Practice: the Ambiguous Relationship between the Two, unpublished, London Business School (1985).
A. G. Hopwood and C. Tomkins (eds), Accounting in the Public Sector(Deddington, Oxford: Philip Alan, 1984).
B. N. Horowitz and R. Kolodny, ‘The Economic Effects of Involuntary Uniformity in the Financial Reporting of R&D Expenditures’, Journal of Accounting Research(Supplement, 1980) pp. 38–74.
G. Ingham, Capitalism Divided? The City and Industry in British Social Development(London: Macmillan, 1984).
H. Jamous and B. Peloille, ‘Professions or Self-Perpetuating Systems? Changes in the French University Hospital System’ in J. A. Jackson (ed.) Professions and Professionalisation(Cambridae. 1970).
B. Jessop, The Capitalist State(Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1982).
T. Johnson, Professions and Power(London: Macmillan 1972)
T. Johnson, ‘What is to be Known: the Structural Determination of Social Class’, Economy and Society, vol. 6 (1977).
T. Johnson, ‘Work and Power’ in G. Esland and G. Salaman (eds) The Politics of Work and Occupations(Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1980).
T. Johnson, ‘The State and the Professions: Peculiarities of the British’ in G. Mackenzie and A. Giddens (eds) Social Class and the Division of Labour(Cambridge University Press, 1982).
E. Jones, Accountancy and the British Economy 1840–1980: the Evolution of Ernst and Whinney(London: Batsford, 1981).
L. Kelly, Accounting Policy Making(Addison-Wesley, 1980).
D. Knights and J. Roberts, ‘The Power of Organization or the Organization of Power?’, Organizational Studies(1982) pp. 47–63.
P. Lawrence and J. Lorsch, Organization and Environment(Harvard University Press, 1967).
C. Lehman and A. M. Tinker, A Semiotic Analysis of ‘The Great Moving Right Show’ Featuring the Accounting Profession, given at the Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Accounting Conference, Manchester (July 1985).
C. E. Lindblom, Politics and Markets: The World’s Political-Economic Systems(New York: Basic Books, 1977).
E. A. Lowe and J. M. Mclnnes, ‘Control of Socio-Economic Organizations: a Rationale for the Design of Management Control Systems’ (Part 1) Journal of Management Studiesvol. 8 (1971) pp. 213–27.
R. Miliband, The State in Capitalist Society(New York: Basic Books, 1969).
P. Montagna, Certified Public Accounting: a Sociological View of a Profession in Change(Scholars Book Co., 1974).
M. Neimark, The Social Construction of Annual Reports: A Radical Approach to Corporate Control, unpublished PhD thesis, New York University (1983).
M. Neimark and A. M. Tinker, ‘The Social Construction of Management Control Systems’, Accounting, Organizations and Society11, 4/5 (1986) pp. 369–95.
J. O‘Connor, The Fiscal Crisis of the State(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1973).
C. Offe, ’The Theory of the State and the Problem of Policy Formulation’ in L. Lindberg, R. Alford, C. Crouch and C. Offe (eds) Stress and Contradiction in Modern Capitalism(Lexington, Mass: Lexington Books, 1975).
C. Offe, in J. Keane (ed.) Contradictions of the Welfare State(London: Hutchinson, 1984).
C. Offe and V. Ronge, ‘Theses on the Theory of the State’, New German Critique(Fall 1975) pp. 139–47.
L. Panitch, ‘Recent Theorisations of Corporatism: Reflections on a Growth Industry’, British Journal of Sociology(June 1980) pp. 159–87.
J. Pfeffer and G. Salancik, The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective(New York: Harper and Row. 1978).
E. Rhenman, Organization Theory for Long Range Planning(Chichester: Wile 1974).
K. Robson and D. J. Cooper, ‘Power and Management Control’, this volume.
A. Sampson, Changing Anatomy of Britain(Coronet, 1983).
P. Schmitter, ‘Modes of Interest Intermediation and Models of Societal Change in Western Europe’, Comparative Political Studies(1977) pp. 7–38.
N. A. H. Stacey, English Accountancy 1800–1954: A Study in Social and Economic History(London: Gee and Co., 1954).
S. Strange, Sterling and British Policy(London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1971).
W. Streeck and P. Schmitter, Private Interest Government and Public Policy(London: Sage, 1985).
S. Terreberry, The Evolution of Organizational Environments, Administrative Science QuarterlyMarch vol. 12, 4 (1968) pp. 540–613.
G. Therborn, What does the Ruling Class do when it Rules?(London: New Left Books, 1978).
A. M. Tinker, ‘Theories of the State and the State of Accounting’, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy(1984).
A. M. Tinker, Paper Prophets(London: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1985).
J. Tomlinson, ‘Corporatism: A Further Sociologisation of Marxism’, Ideology and Consciousness, 1981, pp. 1–11.
D. Tweedie and G. Whittington, The Debate on Inflation Accounting(Cambridge University Press, 1984).
H. Wiltmott, Serving the Public Interest: A Critical Examination of a Professional Claim, unpublished, University of Aston (1985).
UK Treasury, Financial Management in Government Departments(Cmnd 9058) (London, HMSO, 1983).
US Senate, Subcommittee on Reports, Accounting and Management of the Committee on Government Operations The Accounting Establishment: A Staff Study(Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1976).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1989 Wai Fong Chua, Tony Lowe and Tony Puxty
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cooper, D., Puxty, T., Lowe, T., Willmott, H. (1989). The Accounting Profession, Corporatism and the State. In: Chua, W.F., Lowe, T., Puxty, T. (eds) Critical Perspectives in Management Control. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07658-1_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07658-1_12
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-07660-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-07658-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Business & Management CollectionBusiness and Management (R0)