Accounting and theories of organizations: some preliminary considerations

Article Abstract:

This paper, in two parts, a historical perspective considering scientific management's effect on accounting and organizational development, and the position of accounting within organizational theories, creates a structure in which accounting, social, and organizational controls can be examined. Described are: early management stages; work process controls; control outside the work process; interaction between public and private work sectors; early organizational theories and accounting research; and sociological approaches and accounting research. Several questions are raised with respect to the proper role of accounting in relation to organizational theory; among these are: what common purposes do these two fields of inquiry share, can these two fields be coordinated in public and private sector endeavors, and what research methods can be transferred from one field of study to the other?

Management science, Organizational research

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A Weberian framework in the study of accounting

Article Abstract:

M. Weber's research provides a meaningful framework for studying accounting practices in a socio-historical context of Western capitalism. Weber's research indicates three analytic layers with which to study the relationship of accounting to organizations and society. The first layer involves the structure of institutional features that facilitate the development of capitalism, corporations, and accounting practices. The second layer, which is historical and dynamic, involves the way in which social institutions provide the framework for different and possibly competing ideas and practices regarding the appropriate nature and management of capitalist markets, rational enterprises, and accounting. The third layer involves the way in which the first two layers situate the investigation of important tensions in organizational analysis and accounting practices.

Accounting, auditing, & bookkeeping, Weber, Max (German sociologist)

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An examination of managerial accounting practices as a process of mutual adjustment

Article Abstract:

Managerial accounting belongs to a dynamic process of mutual adjustment where it changes, and is being changed by the wider system. Research followed a firm's accounting practices before and after a severe financial crisis in order to examine the contradictory nature of managerial accounting as a form of social control. Managerial accounting strategies were used by corporate decision makers to centralize the direction of resources and to control division performance. Research examined the new patterns of organization and control which developed.

Decision-making, Decision making, Management research, Social conflict, Leadership, Social control, Social psychology

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