IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/aosoci/v35y2010i3p275-300.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Identity narratives under threat: A study of former members of Arthur Andersen

Author

Listed:
  • Gendron, Yves
  • Spira, Laura F.

Abstract

This paper examines the processes by which individuals work their sense of organizational and professional identity in the aftermath of a professional failure. Drawing on twenty-five interviews carried out with former members of Arthur Andersen who mostly worked for the firm in Canada and the United Kingdom, we investigate interviewees' identity work ensuing from the breakdown of the firm. Specifically, identity work comprises processes by which individuals reflectively seek to maintain or revise their sense of identification with the AA organization and also with the public accounting profession, along with developing self-understandings regarding causes and consequences ensuing from the firm's collapse. Our analysis indicates that four interpretive schemes or patterns mainly characterize interviewees' identity work: disillusion; resentfulness; rationalization; and hopefulness. Each of these patterns can be viewed as conveying a distinct representation of what "truly" happened within AA. In this sense, identity work, sense-making and truth contests are inextricably linked altogether. Moreover, the present paper underlines the pertinence of studying entangled processes of identity work and sense-making in order to better understand how broader social forces or discourses (e.g., commercialization and risk) are experienced and translated by the self in the context of identity-threatening events. That is, the identity work/sense-making nexus constitutes a relevant theoretical anchoring to study the circulation of discourses in society.

Suggested Citation

  • Gendron, Yves & Spira, Laura F., 2010. "Identity narratives under threat: A study of former members of Arthur Andersen," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 275-300, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:35:y:2010:i:3:p:275-300
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361-3682(09)00093-2
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    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. Anderson-Gough, Fiona & Grey, Christopher & Robson, Keith, 2005. ""Helping them to forget..": the organizational embedding of gender relations in public audit firms," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 469-490, July.
    2. Ahrens, Thomas & Chapman, Christopher S., 2006. "Doing qualitative field research in management accounting: Positioning data to contribute to theory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 819-841, November.
    3. Cooper, David J. & Robson, Keith, 2006. "Accounting, professions and regulation: Locating the sites of professionalization," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(4-5), pages 415-444.
    4. Radcliffe, Vaughan & Cooper, David J. & Robson, Keith, 1994. "The management of professional enterprises and regulatory change: British accountacy and the financial services act, 1896," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 19(7), pages 601-628, October.
    5. Pentland, Brian T., 1993. "Getting comfortable with the numbers: Auditing and the micro-production of macro-order," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 18(7-8), pages 605-620.
    6. Arnold, Patricia J., 2005. "Disciplining domestic regulation: the World Trade Organization and the market for professional services," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 299-330, May.
    7. Power, Michael, 2007. "Business risk auditing - Debating the history of its present," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(4-5), pages 379-382.
    8. Anderson-Gough, Fiona & Grey, Christopher & Robson, Keith, 2001. "Tests of time: organizational time-reckoning and the making of accountants in two multi-national accounting firms," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 99-122, March.
    9. 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.
    10. Robson, Keith & Humphrey, Christopher & Khalifa, Rihab & Jones, Julian, 2007. "Transforming audit technologies: Business risk audit methodologies and the audit field," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(4-5), pages 409-438.
    11. Empson, Laura, 2004. "Organizational identity change: managerial regulation and member identification in an accounting firm acquisition," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(8), pages 759-781, November.
    12. Denis Harrisson & Murielle Laberge, 2002. "Innovation, Identities and Resistance: The Social Construction of An Innovation Network," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(4), pages 497-521, June.
    13. Power, Michael K., 2003. "Auditing and the production of legitimacy," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 379-394, May.
    14. Kimberly D. Elsbach & C. B. Bhattacharya, 2001. "Defining Who You Are By What You're Not: Organizational Disidentification and The National Rifle Association," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(4), pages 393-413, August.
    15. Mats Alvesson & Hugh Willmott, 2002. "Identity Regulation as Organizational Control: Producing the Appropriate Individual," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 619-644, July.
    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. 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.
    2. Detzen, Dominic & Evans, Lisa & Hoffmann, Sebastian, 2023. "Identities in transition: Audit recruits and the German reunification," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    3. Beau, Pauline & Jerman, Lambert, 2022. "Bonding forged in “auditing hell”: The emotional qualities of Big Four auditors," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    4. Carrington, Thomas, 2010. "An analysis of the demands on a sufficient audit: Professional appearance is what counts!," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(8), pages 669-682.
    5. Williams, James W., 2013. "Regulatory technologies, risky subjects, and financial boundaries: Governing ‘fraud’ in the financial markets," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 544-558.
    6. Dermarkar, Simon & Hazgui, Mouna, 2022. "How auditors legitimize commercialism: A micro-discursive analysis," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    7. Cooper, David J. & Robson, Keith, 2006. "Accounting, professions and regulation: Locating the sites of professionalization," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(4-5), pages 415-444.
    8. Hamilton, Susan E., 2013. "Exploring professional identity: The perceptions of chartered accountant students," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 37-49.
    9. Bitbol-Saba, Nathalie & Dambrin, Claire, 2019. "“It’s not often we get a visit from a beautiful woman!” The body in client-auditor interactions and the masculinity of accountancy," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    10. Yves Gendron & Laura F. Spira, 2009. "What Went Wrong? The Downfall of Arthur Andersen and the Construction of Controllability Boundaries Surrounding Financial Auditing," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(4), pages 987-1027, December.
    11. Pernilla Broberg & Torbjörn Tagesson & Daniela Argento & Niclas Gyllengahm & Ola Mårtensson, 2017. "Explaining the influence of time budget pressure on audit quality in Sweden," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 21(2), pages 331-350, June.
    12. Martin Kornberger & Lise Justesen & Jan Mouritsen, 2011. "“When you make manager, we put a big mountain in front of you” : An ethnography of managers in a Big 4 Accounting Firm," Post-Print hal-02276736, HAL.
    13. de Vries, Marlies & Blomme, Rob & De Loo, Ivo, 2022. "Part of the herd or black sheep? An exploration of trainee accountants’ suffering and modes of adaptation," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    14. Gammie, Elizabeth & Whiting, Rosalind, 2013. "Women accountants: Is the grass greener outside the profession?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 83-98.
    15. Smith-Lacroix, Jean-Hubert & Durocher, Sylvain & Gendron, Yves, 2012. "The erosion of jurisdiction: Auditing in a market value accounting regime," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 36-53.
    16. Kohler, Hervé & Pochet, Christine & Gendron, Yves, 2021. "Networks of interpretation: An ethnography of the quest for IFRS consistency in a global accounting firm," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    17. Christensen, Mark & Skærbæk, Peter, 2010. "Consultancy outputs and the purification of accounting technologies," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 524-545, July.
    18. Alice Garcia-Falières & Olivier Herrbach, 2015. "Organizational and Professional Identification in Audit Firms: An Affective Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(4), pages 753-763, December.
    19. 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).
    20. Lambert Jerman & Alaric Bourgoin, 2016. "L'identité négative de l'auditeur," Post-Print hal-01902594, HAL.

    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:eee:aosoci:v:35:y:2010:i:3:p:275-300. 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.