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The rise of accounting controls in British capitalist enterprises

Article Abstract:

An effort is made to comprehend the historical influences which resulted in the relative pre-eminence of accountants in British management hierarchies and the focus on financial controls within British firms. It is suggested that the nature of British capital markets exaggerates the importance of the audit, promoting establishment of an accounting profession power base. State wartime intervention in Great Britain also worked in favor of 'external' accounting controls as a way of avoiding more directive forms of industrial mobilization. The accounting profession has played a role in the successive waves of merger activity in recent years, and has thrived on the basis of providing financial answers to the control problems of the large organizations which result from the mergers.

Business enterprises, Great Britain

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Styles of accountability

Article Abstract:

The accounting function can play a role in processes of accountability by generating information that can form new images of organizational performance that would serve as a guide to operational management. The term 'styles of accountability' is introduced to describe the ways in which varying conceptualizations of 'good management' help define the roles of management accountants and their practice. The styles of accountability in British and German firms are compared. The British style is found to be characterized by a return-risk-framework which favors the reality of accounting information in evaluating operational action proposals. The German style reflects a differently constructed social reality. Germans view operational considerations as acceptable bases for conduct.

Germany, International aspects, Responsibility, Corporations, German

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Contradiction and social dynamics in the capitalist agency relationship

Article Abstract:

The role of accounting in systems of organizational control can take on new meaning if the capitalist agency relationship is viewed from the perspective of social action. Theories derived from existing agency theory have several shortcomings, including a functionalist explanatory structure, a deterministic perspective of social behavior, and a bias toward the micro-political problems of maintenance of the capitalist order. New theories of the capitalist agency relationship must focus on totality, structure, contradiction, and crisis. Future research should focus on the meanings that people associate with incentive and monitoring systems.

Research, Analysis, Social action, Agency theory

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