IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/brjirl/v56y2018i2p418-441.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Political Effects of Accounting Normalization on Trade Unions: An Analysis of Financial Transparency Reform in France

Author

Listed:
  • Rémi Bourguignon
  • Karel Yon

Abstract

The law of 20 August 2008 reformed the representativeness of French unions by imposing an obligation for ‘financial transparency’. Building on exploratory research, we address the question of the organizational and political effects of the new regulation, which point to a traditional debate in union democracy studies: how do administrative and representative rationalities combine within trade union organizations? Drawing on interviews with union leaders and finance officers at various levels in three major labour confederations (CGT, CFDT and CGT†FO), we describe the different ways unionists have received the new accounting requirements and translated them into organizational practices and norms. Going beyond the traditional theses of compatibility and colonization, we make use of the body of work in critical legal and management studies to develop an endogenous approach of the relationships between trade unions and accounting management.

Suggested Citation

  • Rémi Bourguignon & Karel Yon, 2018. "The Political Effects of Accounting Normalization on Trade Unions: An Analysis of Financial Transparency Reform in France," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(2), pages 418-441, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:56:y:2018:i:2:p:418-441
    DOI: 10.1111/bjir.12276
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12276
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/bjir.12276?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Clyde W. Summers, 2000. "From Industrial Democracy to Union Democracy," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 21(1), pages 3-14, January.
    2. Miller, Peter & O'Leary, Ted, 1987. "Accounting and the construction of the governable person," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 235-265, April.
    3. Fabrizio Panozzo & Luca Zan, 1999. "The Endogenous Construction of Accounting Discourses in a Trade Union," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 3(1), pages 49-79, March.
    4. Paul Willman & Timothy Morris, 1995. "Financial Management and Financial Performance in British Trade Unions," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 33(2), pages 289-298, June.
    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. Paul F. Clark & Greg J. Bamber & Paul V. Whitehead & Lois S. Gray & Sandra Cockfield & Kay Gilbert, 2021. "Does Modernizing Union Administrative Practices Promote or Hinder Union Revitalization? A Comparative Study of US, UK and Australian Unions," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(2), pages 370-397, June.

    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. Abernethy, Margaret A. & Vagnoni, Emidia, 2004. "Power, organization design and managerial behaviour," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(3-4), pages 207-225.
    2. Marc Bollecker & Pierre Mathieu & Claude Clementz, 2006. "Le Comportement Socialement Responsable Des Entreprises : Une Lecture Des Travaux En Comptabilite Et Contrôle De Gestion Dans Une Perspective Neo-Institutionnaliste," Post-Print halshs-00769052, HAL.
    3. Bigoni, Michele & Funnell, Warwick, 2015. "Ancestors of governmentality: Accounting and pastoral power in the 15th century," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 160-176.
    4. Giovanni Gregorini, 2016. "Accounting, Charities and local government in modern Italy: the case of the Congrega della carit? apostolica in Brescia," CONTABILIT? E CULTURA AZIENDALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(2), pages 7-43.
    5. Himick, Darlene, 2016. "Actuarialism as biopolitical and disciplinary technique," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 22-44.
    6. Barrett, Michael & Cooper, David J. & Jamal, Karim, 2005. "Globalization and the coordinating of work in multinational audits," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 1-24, January.
    7. Thereza RS de Aguiar, 2018. "Turning accounting for emissions rights inside out as well as upside down," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(1), pages 139-159, February.
    8. Caroline Lambert & Éric Pezet, 2007. "Discipliner les autres et agir sur soi:la double vie du contrôleur de gestion," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 10(1), pages 183-208, March.
    9. Habersam, Michael & Piber, Martin & Skoog, Matti, 2013. "Knowledge balance sheets in Austrian universities: The implementation, use, and re-shaping of measurement and management practices," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 319-337.
    10. Quattrone, Paolo, 2009. "Books to be practiced: Memory, the power of the visual, and the success of accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 85-118, January.
    11. Walid Cheffi, 2008. "Etude Des Roles De La Comptabilite De Gestion Pour Les Managers : Le Cas D'Un Grand Groupe Automobile," Post-Print halshs-00522472, HAL.
    12. Carmona, Salvador & Ezzamel, Mahmoud & Gutierrez, Fernando, 1997. "Control and cost accounting practices in the Spanish Royal Tobacco Factory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 22(5), pages 411-446, July.
    13. Roberts, John, 2021. "The boundary of the ‘economic’: Financial accounting, corporate ‘imaginaries’ and human sentience," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    14. Anne Pezet & Jérémy Morales, 2010. "Les contrôleurs de gestion, « médiateurs » de la financiarisation," Post-Print halshs-00498673, HAL.
    15. Power, Michael, 2015. "How accounting begins: Object formation and the accretion of infrastructure," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 43-55.
    16. McSWEENEY, BRENDAN, 1997. "The Unbearable Ambiguity Of Accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 22(7), pages 691-712, October.
    17. Vijaya Murthy & Jim Rooney, 2018. "The Role of Management Accounting in Ancient India: Evidence from the Arthasastra," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(2), pages 323-341, October.
    18. Martha Poon, 2009. "From New Deal institutions to capital markets: commercial consumer risk scores and the making of subprime mortgage finance," Post-Print halshs-00359712, HAL.
    19. Michael J. Zyphur & Dean C. Pierides, 2020. "Making Quantitative Research Work: From Positivist Dogma to Actual Social Scientific Inquiry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(1), pages 49-62, November.
    20. Joao A. Ribeiro & Robert W. Scapens, 2004. "Power, ERP systems and resistance to management accounting: a case study," FEP Working Papers 141, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:bla:brjirl:v:56:y:2018:i:2:p:418-441. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    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.