Article Abstract:
The ethnography of three Australian public hospitals is examined with the aim of assessing the manner by which and the reasons why new accounting systems are experimented in organizations. The ethnology describes the social connections and customs that helped a group of account-fabricators in the development of new accounting numbers, supported their activity for a number of years and convinced them to agree on the numbers ultimately made. The focus is on the catalytic capabilities of knowledge experts, the tendency of accounting numbers to generate several socialized decisions and their character as constitutive, transformative text in organizations. It is explained that the emergence of the accounting change is the result of an uncertain faith which acted as the connection of changing concerns in an actor network. This uncertain faith is seen to be generated by rhetorical strategies and scriptions produced by experts.
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Article Abstract:
Haried's 'Semantic Dimensions of Financial Reports' and 'Measurement of Meaning in Financial Reports' from 1972 and 1973 are inconsistent with his own work but consistent with Osgood et al. The three dimensional structure is tested against within-group and between-group factor comparability or stability and shown to be applicable to most groups, but not to groups of students and investment club members. Haried's selection of a subset of these scales and his seven-dimensional cognitive structure will probably not endure. Measurement of meaning is possible, and the doubt that connotative meaning and semantic differentials cannot be applied can be dropped. Haried overcame the problem of identifying bipolar adjectives relevant to financial report terminology, but identifying the independent dimensions of semantic space remains to be accomplished.
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Article Abstract:
Accounting research is governed by the rules of hypothetical and deductive reasoning; theory is almost never seen as the result of a process in the 'real' world, nor does it relate to social experiences. As a result, the creation of theory is a highly objectified process that is alien to the life of the researcher and the subject being researched. An alternative view of the nature and construction of theory is described, in which theory is derived from prior assumptions about accounting realities. Theory and reality have a symbiotic relationship, and constructing and choosing a theory is a natural result of performing research.
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