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Taking pluralism seriously: Embedded moralities in management accounting and control systems

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  • Dillard, Jesse
  • Roslender, Robin

Abstract

Professor Norman Macintosh has long been a leading, and at times a dissonant, voice in critical accounting studies, exhibiting an intellectual dexterity seldom encountered in the accounting academy. His work ranges from the application of traditional organizational theories within work organizations to poststructural renderings of capital market exigencies. Here, we consider and extend Professor Macintosh's work contemplating the morality embedded within, and propagated by, management accounting and control systems (macs). We begin with Macintosh (1995) employing structuration theory in investigating the ethics of profit manipulation within large, decentralized corporations. The work highlights the fundamental dialectical contradictions within these work organizations, demonstrates the indeterminacy of traditional ethical reasoning, and shows the extent to which macs provide legitimating underpinnings for management action. We propose to extend the conversation using the tools provided in Macintosh's subsequent work: a Levinasian ethic (Macintosh et al., 2009), and heteroglossic accounting (Macintosh, 2002)—both emerging from his poststructuralist predilections. A Levinasian perspective provides an ontologically grounded ethic, and heteroglossic accounting calls for multiple accountings representing alternative moral voices. A critical dialogic framework is proposed as a theoretic for imagining heteroglossic accounting that takes pluralism seriously by recognizing the reality of irresolvable differences and asymmetric power relationships associated with assorted moral perspectives.

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  • Dillard, Jesse & Roslender, Robin, 2011. "Taking pluralism seriously: Embedded moralities in management accounting and control systems," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 135-147.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:22:y:2011:i:2:p:135-147
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2010.06.014
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Caroline Lambert & Samuel Sponem, 2005. "Corporate governance and profit manipulation: a French field study," Post-Print halshs-00170340, HAL.
    2. Roberts, John, 2001. "Corporate Governance and the Ethics of Narcissus," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 109-127, January.
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    8. Macintosh, N.B. & Shearer, T. & Riccaboni, A., 2009. "A Levinasian ethics critique of the role of management and control systems by large global corporations: The General Electric/Nuovo Pignone example," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 751-761.
    9. Jan Bebbington & Judy Brown & Bob Frame & Ian Thomson, 2007. "Theorizing engagement: the potential of a critical dialogic approach," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 20(3), pages 356-381, June.
    10. Rob Gray & Jesse Dillard & Crawford Spence, 2009. "Social Accounting Research as If The World Matters," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(5), pages 545-573, September.
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