Caterpillar: two stories and an argument
Article Abstract:
Miller and Leary's description of Caterpillar Inc's reorganization strategy for its Decatur, IL, plant is examined. This analysis sought to study the problems in critical accounting research on such topics as downsizing, delayering and outsourcing, which tend to result in social divisiveness. Miller and Leary's narrative employed certain discourse techniques and quoted management to determine the goals of the reorganization. However, researchers can use an array of other sources to question management and to tell another story. An empirics-based alternative account to Miller and Leary's storytelling is presented. This approach examines the industrial conflict that ensued after the reorganization at Decatur in terms of a broad structural context. A discussion of the relationship among the different narratives and the implications for accounting research is presented.
Publication Name: Accounting, Organizations and Society
Subject: Business
ISSN: 0361-3682
Year: 1998
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Finding things out
Article Abstract:
Miller and O'Leary recounted the reorganization of Caterpillar Inc's plant at Decatur, IL, in their 1994 paper. The undertaking was one of the most comprehensive corporate-wide, factory modernization initiatives ever taken by an American organization. The discussion sought to examine the contributions of accounting and other areas of managerial expertise in this sweeping change. To illuminate on this transformation, the narrative traced the Plant with a Future program of Caterpillar Inc, and described the relays and associations between the analysis of manufacturing processes within a particular corporate context and the broader analysis of the competitiveness of the American industrial sector. The paper did not aim to advocate postmodernism by degrading historical materialism. Unfortunately, many critics find the focus of the article undesirable.
Publication Name: Accounting, Organizations and Society
Subject: Business
ISSN: 0361-3682
Year: 1998
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The limits of postmodernism in accounting history: the Decatur experience
Article Abstract:
Peter Miller and Ted O'Leary's 1994 discussion of the modernization of Caterpillar's plant in Decatur, IL, is a significant contribution to the postmodern and post-structuralist interpretation of the role of accounting in organizations and society. However, this account of factory modernization and the role of accounting and other fields in the development of 'economic citizenship' is undermined by the industrial conflicts at Caterpillar Inc and labor unrest in Decatur after the paper was published. Based on interviews with Caterpillar's workers in Decatur, an argument for historical materialism is presented. It questions the failure of postmodernism to consider such concepts as class, ideology and social structure.
Publication Name: Accounting, Organizations and Society
Subject: Business
ISSN: 0361-3682
Year: 1998
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