IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/qrampp/v6y2009i4p205-223.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bean counters or bright young things?

Author

Listed:
  • Samantha Warren
  • Lee Parker

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to put forward a “next step” research agenda for investigating accountants' professional identity. Design/methodology/approach - The visual nature of identity construction is discussed, issues of media stereotyping are revisited and recruitment/educational implications are reviewed. Attention is also paid to the accounting profession's attempts to change perceptions of the accounting identity. Findings - A hybrid strategy of research participant generated photographs and semi‐structured interviews is exemplified as a fruitful methodology and outlined as a way forward for tapping into the identity construction processes and perceptions of accountants from their particular perspectives. Research limitations/implications - The paper is intended to stimulate further research into accountants' identities from a visual perspective. However, it does not directly report on empirical findings. Practical implications - Questions of identity construction offer us a window into the degree to which public stereotypes are matched by professional accountants' own personal definitions and the bearing these may have on current and future career intentions. Such insights can provide foundations for a range of profession policy issues spanning recruitment, retention, training and professional development. Originality/value - This paper proposes a visual methodology not employed in accounting research before and addresses the neglected area of accountants' identities as individual professionals.

Suggested Citation

  • Samantha Warren & Lee Parker, 2009. "Bean counters or bright young things?," Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 6(4), pages 205-223, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:qrampp:v:6:y:2009:i:4:p:205-223
    DOI: 10.1108/11766090910989491
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/11766090910989491/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/11766090910989491/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/11766090910989491?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeacle, Ingrid, 2008. "Beyond the boring grey: The construction of the colourful accountant," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 19(8), pages 1296-1320.
    2. Robson, Keith, 1994. "Inflation accounting and action at a distance: The sandilands episode," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 45-82, January.
    3. Dimnik, Tony & Felton, Sandra, 2006. "Accountant stereotypes in movies distributed in North America in the twentieth century," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 129-155, February.
    4. Belk, Russell W, 1988. "Possessions and the Extended Self," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 15(2), pages 139-168, September.
    5. Suresh Cuganesan, 2008. "Calculating customer intimacy: accounting numbers in a sales and marketing department," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(1), pages 78-103, January.
    6. Chua, Wai Fong, 1995. "Experts, networks and inscriptions in the fabrication of accounting images: A story of the representation of three public hospitals," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 20(2-3), pages 111-145.
    7. Bougen, Philip D., 1994. "Joking apart: The serious side to the accountant stereotype," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 319-335, April.
    8. Beard, Victoria, 1994. "Popular culture and professional identity: Accountants in the movies," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 303-318, April.
    9. Thomas Ahrens & Christopher Chapman, 2000. "Occupational identity of management accountants in Britain and Germany," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(4), pages 477-498.
    10. Preston, Alistair M. & Cooper, David J. & Coombs, Rod W., 1992. "Fabricating budgets: A study of the production of management budgeting in the national health service," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 561-593, August.
    11. Andrew L. Friedman & Stephen R. Lyne, 1997. "Activity-based techniques and the death of the beancounter," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 19-44, May.
    12. Michael Humphreys & Andrew D. Brown, 2002. "Dress and Identity: A Turkish Case Study," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(7), pages 927-952, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Barrainkua, Itsaso & Espinosa-Pike, Marcela, 2018. "The influence of auditors’ professionalism on ethical judgement: Differences among practitioners and postgraduate students," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 176-187.
    2. Riitta Forsten-Astikainen & Kyllikki Taipale-Erävala, 2018. "Clay Workshop as Staff’s Competency Self-Evaluation Related to Business Strategy," International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning, International School for Social and Business Studies, Celje, Slovenia, vol. 7(2), pages 141-164.
    3. Adapa, Sujana & Rindfleish, Jennifer & Sheridan, Alison, 2016. "‘Doing gender’ in a regional context: Explaining women's absence from senior roles in regional accounting firms in Australia," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 100-110.
    4. François Brouard & Merridee Bujaki & Sylvain Durocher & Leighann C. Neilson, 2017. "Professional Accountants’ Identity Formation: An Integrative Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 142(2), pages 225-238, May.
    5. Samantha Warren, 2009. "Performance, emotion and photographic histories," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(7), pages 1142-1146, September.
    6. Hamilton, Susan E., 2013. "Exploring professional identity: The perceptions of chartered accountant students," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 37-49.
    7. Robert Rieg, 2018. "Tasks, interaction and role perception of management accountants: evidence from Germany," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 183-220, August.
    8. Durocher, Sylvain & Bujaki, Merridee & Brouard, François, 2016. "Attracting Millennials: Legitimacy management and bottom-up socialization processes within accounting firms," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-24.
    9. Helena Liu & Leanne Cutcher & David Grant, 2015. "Doing Authenticity: The Gendered Construction of Authentic Leadership," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 237-255, May.
    10. Cardos Ildiko Reka & Pete Stefan, 2011. "Managerial And Cost Accounting Practices - A Romanian Overview," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(2), pages 484-490, December.
    11. Mouhcine Tallaki & Enrico Bracci & Monia Castellini, 2015. "Accounting learning preferences: the role of visualisation," Working Papers 2015094, University of Ferrara, Department of Economics.
    12. Adela Breuer & Mihaela Lesconi FrumuÅŸanu & Andra Manciu, 2013. "The Role Of Management Accounting In The Decision Making Process: Case Study Caraåž Severin County," Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, Faculty of Sciences, "1 Decembrie 1918" University, Alba Iulia, vol. 2(15), pages 1-1.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aldo Pavan & Isabella Fadda, 2017. "Increasing the value of accounting research: An Italian perspective," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2017(2), pages 29-42.
    2. Carnegie, Garry D. & Napier, Christopher J., 2010. "Traditional accountants and business professionals: Portraying the accounting profession after Enron," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 360-376, April.
    3. Janne Järvinen, 2009. "Shifting NPM agendas and management accountants' occupational identities," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(8), pages 1187-1210, October.
    4. Ariela Caglio & Mara Cameran, 2017. "Is it Shameful to be an Accountant? GenMe Perception(s) of Accountants' Ethics," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 53(1), pages 1-27, March.
    5. Claire France Picard & Sylvain Durocher & Yves Gendron, 2013. "From Meticulous Professionals To Superheroes Of The Business World: A Historical Portrait Of A Cultural Change In The Field Of Accountancy," Post-Print hal-00993019, HAL.
    6. François Brouard & Merridee Bujaki & Sylvain Durocher & Leighann C. Neilson, 2017. "Professional Accountants’ Identity Formation: An Integrative Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 142(2), pages 225-238, May.
    7. Chen, Clement C. & Jones, Keith T. & Scarlata, Audrey N. & Stone, Dan N., 2012. "Does the Holland model of occupational choice (HMOC) perpetuate the Beancounter-Bookkeeper (BB) stereotype of accountants?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 370-389.
    8. Durocher, Sylvain & Bujaki, Merridee & Brouard, François, 2016. "Attracting Millennials: Legitimacy management and bottom-up socialization processes within accounting firms," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-24.
    9. Richardson, Peter & Dellaportas, Steven & Perera, Luckmika & Richardson, Ben, 2015. "Towards a conceptual framework on the categorization of stereotypical perceptions in accounting," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 28-46.
    10. David Smith & Kerry Jacobs, 2011. "“Breaking up the sky”," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(7), pages 904-931, September.
    11. Sorola, Matthew, 2022. "Q methodology to conduct a critical study in accounting: A Q study on accountants’ perspectives of social and environmental reporting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    12. Guénin-Paracini, Henri & Malsch, Bertrand & Paillé, Anne Marché, 2014. "Fear and risk in the audit process," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 264-288.
    13. Amondarain, Josune & Aldazabal, M. Edurne & Espinosa-Pike, Marcela, 2023. "Gender differences in the auditing stereotype and their influence on the intention to enter the profession," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    14. Jeacle, Ingrid, 2008. "Beyond the boring grey: The construction of the colourful accountant," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 19(8), pages 1296-1320.
    15. Yves Levant & Simon Alcouffe & Nicolas Berland, 2008. "Actor-networks and the diffusion of management accounting innovations : a comparative study," Post-Print hal-01682216, HAL.
    16. Gudrun Baldvinsdottir & John Burns & Hanne Nørreklit & Robert W. Scapens, 2009. "The image of accountants: from bean counters to extreme accountants," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(6), pages 858-882, July.
    17. Mennicken, Andrea, 2008. "Connecting worlds: the translation of international auditing standards into post-Soviet audit practice," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 27070, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Marie-Andrée Caron & Hugues Boisvert & Alexander Mersereau, 2008. "La Pratique Du Comptable Professionnel En Organisation : Inertie Du Stéréotype Ou Expérimenter L'Incertain?," Post-Print halshs-00522425, HAL.
    19. Andon, Paul & Chong, Kar Ming & Roebuck, Peter, 2010. "Personality preferences of accounting and non-accounting graduates seeking to enter the accounting profession," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 253-265.
    20. Pan, Peipei & Perera, Hector, 2012. "Market relevance of university accounting programs: Evidence from Australia," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 91-108.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:qrampp:v:6:y:2009:i:4:p:205-223. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.