La axiología como guía para una definición del objeto de la disciplina contable en el siglo XXI

The present work states the importance of the hierarchy of the human values involved in the conceptual frameworks of accounting systems for the construction of social reports. It is argued here that one of the areas that has worked the most for the valuation of actions and real events according to patterns of human value systems is accounting. The study and assessment of the useful or economic values, which are one of the typologies of human values, have been deeper in this area than in other properly axiological disciplines. The axiological view is based on non-indifference to human actions. It is men who value and assess, on the basis of a scale of values, making judgements in this regard. The economic value is one more within that complicated hierarchy that makes it possible to assess actions. Since this value does not rank first in said scale, it is included in the reports on corporations’ comprehensive social responsibility but not with the role given in traditional private accounting reports. Three likely frameworks for a comprehensive analysis stemming from the axiology are proposed: a. The one-dimensional evaluation of the actions of the organisations on the sole basis of economic value for themselves. b. An evaluation in which it is also worth knowing the economic value that the organisation makes it possible to create for the rest of the present and future communities. c. A more complete evaluation considering the whole set of human, economic and non-economic values. The work concludes that it is never easy to provide information to choose in contexts of uncertain facts, values under discussion, high risks and urgent decisions, but that we must do so based on the compatibility between the hierarchy of human values and the missions of the organisations that are suppliers of the information.