IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/aosoci/v109y2023ics0361368223000375.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A genealogical and archaeological examination of the development of corporate governance and disciplinary power in English local government c.1970–2010

Author

Listed:
  • Ferry, Laurence
  • Funnell, Warwick
  • Oldroyd, David

Abstract

The paper seeks to enhance our understanding of the interaction between the development of disciplinary power in western liberal society and Foucault's writings on governmentality, through examination of the political processes resulting from the largest public scandal in the UK, the Poulson scandal of the early 1970s. The first research motive is to uncover any additional insights or hidden understandings that can be derived by applying Foucauldian historiographical and governmental perspectives as strengthened by Dean's (2010) analytics of government to the history of corporate governance in English local authorities over the forty years following Poulson. We argue that the continual process of intervention, investigation and prescription by central government set in motion by the scandal resulted in an increase in disciplinary power within local government by changing the expectations of council officials, elected representatives and politicians in Westminster through the normalisation of these intrusions and the spirit of dependency and compliance which resulted. Secondly, the paper examines the strengths and weaknesses of the analytics approach in a complex situation involving many genealogical disruptions to the status quo over a long time-period; and whilst the paper found the method helpful, limitations emerged regarding its claims to empirical certainty through precise questioning. Finally, the paper examines the significance of countering corruption as a motivating factor in the rise of disciplinary power in English local government, which it finds as limited.

Suggested Citation

  • Ferry, Laurence & Funnell, Warwick & Oldroyd, David, 2023. "A genealogical and archaeological examination of the development of corporate governance and disciplinary power in English local government c.1970–2010," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:109:y:2023:i:c:s0361368223000375
    DOI: 10.1016/j.aos.2023.101466
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361368223000375
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.aos.2023.101466?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. Radcliffe, Vaughan S., 1998. "Efficiency audit: An assembly of rationalities and programmes," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 377-410, May.
    2. Thomas Ahrens & Laurence Ferry, 2021. "Accounting and accountability practices in times of crisis: a Foucauldian perspective on the UK government's response to COVID-19 for England," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 34(6), pages 1332-1344, May.
    3. Andon, Paul & Free, Clinton, 2012. "Auditing and crisis management: The 2010 Melbourne Storm salary cap scandal," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 131-154.
    4. Radcliffe, Vaughan S., 1999. "Knowing efficiency: the enactment of efficiency in efficiency auditing," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 333-362, May.
    5. Hoskin, Keith W. & Macve, Richard H., 1986. "Accounting and the examination: A genealogy of disciplinary power," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 105-136, March.
    6. Shona L. Russell & Ian Thomson, 2009. "Analysing the role of sustainable development indicators in accounting for and constructing a Sustainable Scotland," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(3), pages 225-244, September.
    7. Paul Andon & Clinton Free, 2014. "Media coverage of accounting: the NRL salary cap crisis," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 27(1), pages 15-47, January.
    8. Hopwood, Anthony G., 1983. "On trying to study accounting in the contexts in which it operates," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 8(2-3), pages 287-305, May.
    9. Eckersley, Peter & Ferry, Laurence & Zakaria, Zamzulaila, 2014. "A ‘panoptical’ or ‘synoptical’ approach to monitoring performance? Local public services in England and the widening accountability gap," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 529-538.
    10. Spence, Laura J. & Rinaldi, Leonardo, 2014. "Governmentality in accounting and accountability: A case study of embedding sustainability in a supply chain," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 433-452.
    11. Sikka, Prem & Lehman, Glen, 2015. "The supply-side of corruption and limits to preventing corruption within government procurement and constructing ethical subjects," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 62-70.
    12. Johnston, Michael, 2015. "Making transparency real? Accounting and popular participation in corruption control," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 97-101.
    13. Massimo Sargiacomo, 2008. "Accounting and the 'Art of Government': Margaret of Austria in Abruzzo (1539-86)," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 667-695.
    14. Hopwood, Anthony G., 1987. "The archeology of accounting systems," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 207-234, April.
    15. Robson, Keith, 1991. "On the arenas of accounting change: The process of translation," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 16(5-6), pages 547-570.
    16. Everett, Jeff & Neu, Dean & Rahaman, Abu Shiraz, 2007. "Accounting and the global fight against corruption," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 513-542, August.
    17. Sargiacomo, Massimo & Ianni, Luca & D’Andreamatteo, Antonio & Servalli, Stefania, 2015. "Accounting and the fight against corruption in Italian government procurement: A longitudinal critical analysis (1992–2014)," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 89-96.
    18. Neu, Dean & Everett, Jeff & Rahaman, Abu Shiraz, 2015. "Preventing corruption within government procurement: Constructing the disciplined and ethical subject," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 49-61.
    19. Kurunmaki, Liisa & Miller, Peter, 2013. "Calculating failure: the making of a calculative infrastructure for forgiving and forecasting failure," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 50673, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Liisa Kurunm�ki & Peter Miller, 2013. "Calculating failure: The making of a calculative infrastructure for forgiving and forecasting failure," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(7), pages 1100-1118, October.
    21. Salman Ahmad & Ciaran Connolly & Istemi Demirag, 2021. "Testing times: governing a pandemic with numbers," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 34(6), pages 1362-1375, February.
    22. Clinton Free & Vaughan Radcliffe, 2009. "Accountability in Crisis: The Sponsorship Scandal and the Office of the Comptroller General in Canada," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 84(2), pages 189-208, January.
    23. Clinton Free & Vaughan Radcliffe & Brent White, 2013. "Crisis, Committees and Consultants: The Rise of Value-For-Money Auditing in the Federal Public Sector in Canada," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 113(3), pages 441-459, March.
    24. Mennicken, Andrea, 2013. "Too big to fail and too big to succeed: accounting and privatisation in the Prison Service of England and Wales," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 46366, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    25. Spira, Laura F. & Slinn, Judy, 2013. "The Cadbury Committee: A History," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199592197, Decembrie.
    26. Boomsma, Roel & O'Dwyer, Brendan, 2019. "Constituting the governable NGO: The correlation between conduct and counter-conduct in the evolution of funder-NGO accountability relations," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1-20.
    27. Burchell, Stuart & Clubb, Colin & Hopwood, Anthony G., 1985. "Accounting in its social context: Towards a history of value added in the United Kingdom," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 381-413, October.
    28. Dean Neu & Jeff Everett & Abu Shiraz Rahaman, 2013. "Internal Auditing and Corruption within Government: The Case of the Canadian Sponsorship Program," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 1223-1250, September.
    29. 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.
    30. Russell, Shona L. & Thomson, Ian, 2009. "Analysing the role of sustainable development indicators in accounting for and constructing a Sustainable Scotland," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 225-244.
    31. Neu, Dean & Everett, Jeff & Rahaman, Abu Shiraz & Martinez, Daniel, 2013. "Accounting and networks of corruption," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 505-524.
    32. Power, Michael, 2013. "The apparatus of fraud risk," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 525-543.
    33. Clinton Free & Vaughan S. Radcliffe & Crawford Spence & Mitchell J. Stein, 2020. "Auditing and the Development of the Modern State," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(1), pages 485-513, March.
    34. Gendron, Yves & Cooper, David J. & Townley, Barbara, 2007. "The construction of auditing expertise in measuring government performance," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-2), pages 101-129.
    35. Hoskin, Keith W. & Macve, Richard H., 1988. "The genesis of accountability: The west point connections," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 37-73, January.
    36. Miller, Peter & Napier, Christopher, 1993. "Genealogies of calculation," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 18(7-8), pages 631-647.
    37. Robson, Keith, 1992. "Accounting numbers as "inscription": Action at a distance and the development of accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(7), pages 685-708, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Neu, Dean & Everett, Jeff & Rahaman, Abu Shiraz, 2015. "Preventing corruption within government procurement: Constructing the disciplined and ethical subject," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 49-61.
    2. Constable, Philip & Kuasirikun, Nooch, 2020. "From cosmological to commercial form: A Buddhist theory of ‘form’, ‘space’ and ‘stream of re-becoming’ in mid-19th century Thai accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    3. Power, Michael, 2015. "How accounting begins: Object formation and the accretion of infrastructure," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 43-55.
    4. Thomson, Ian & Grubnic, Suzana & Georgakopoulos, Georgios, 2014. "Exploring accounting-sustainability hybridisation in the UK public sector," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 453-476.
    5. Napier, Christopher J., 2006. "Accounts of change: 30 years of historical accounting research," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(4-5), pages 445-507.
    6. Kornberger Martin & Pflueger Dane & Mouritsen Jan, 2017. "Evaluative infrastructures : Accounting for platform organization," Post-Print hal-02276737, HAL.
    7. Kornberger, Martin & Pflueger, Dane & Mouritsen, Jan, 2017. "Evaluative infrastructures: Accounting for platform organization," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 79-95.
    8. Ferry, Laurence & Zakaria, Zamzulaila & Zakaria, Zarina & Slack, Richard, 2018. "Framing public governance in Malaysia: Rhetorical appeals through accrual accounting," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 170-183.
    9. Power, Michael, 2015. "How accounting begins: object formation and the accretion of infrastructure," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 64324, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Nikidehaghani, Mona & Cortese, Corinne & Hui-Truscott, Freda, 2021. "Accounting and pastoral power in Australian disability welfare reform," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    11. 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.
    12. Pianezzi, Daniela & Ashraf, Muhammad Junaid, 2022. "Accounting for ignorance: An investigation into corruption, immigration and the state," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    13. Himick, Darlene, 2011. "Relative performance evaluation and pension investment management: A challenge for ESG investing," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 158-171.
    14. Carnegie, Garry D. & McBride, Karen M. & Napier, Christopher J. & Parker, Lee D., 2020. "Accounting history and theorising about organisations," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(6).
    15. Radcliffe, Vaughan S., 1998. "Efficiency audit: An assembly of rationalities and programmes," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 377-410, May.
    16. Giovanna Centorrino, 2021. "The complex power dynamics within a health care institution during the 15th and 18th centuries. The case of the Great and New Hospital of Palermo," CONTABILIT? E CULTURA AZIENDALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 0(1), pages 11-59.
    17. Bottausci, Chiara & Robson, Keith, 2023. "“He Hears”: An essay celebrating the 25 year anniversary of The Audit Society," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    18. Neu, Dean, 2006. "Accounting for public space," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(4-5), pages 391-414.
    19. Sargiacomo, Massimo & Everett, Jeff & Ianni, Luca & D'Andreamatteo, Antonio, 2024. "Auditing for fraud and corruption: A public-interest-based definition and analysis," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(2).
    20. Ahrens, Thomas & Chapman, Christopher S., 2007. "Management accounting as practice," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-2), pages 1-27.

    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:eee:aosoci:v:109:y:2023:i:c:s0361368223000375. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/aos .

    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.