IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/crpeac/v69y2020ics1045235419300759.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Toward dialogic accounting? Public accountants’ assistance to works councils − A tool between hope and illusion

Author

Listed:
  • Godowski, Christophe
  • Nègre, Emmanuelle
  • Verdier, Marie-Anne

Abstract

French law allows works councils (WCs, mandatory bodies representing employees and having both economic and social rights in firms with more than 50 employees) to be assisted by public accountants (PAs) to help them understand the accounting and financial information received from managers. The aim of this assistance is to strengthen the democratic role of the WCs in firms. The purpose of this research is to examine whether and how the PAs’ assistance to WCs leads to the emergence of a form of agonistic democracy by contributing to an evolution in firms’ uses of accounting. We conducted a qualitative study with 36 semi-structured interviews with both PAs and WC members. Our results indicate that, under certain circumstances, the assistance provided by PAs can support dialogue between the WC members (“laypersons”) and the managers (“experts”) in WCs, which can be viewed as “hybrid forums” (open spaces where heterogeneous groups come together to debate socio-technical choices). The confrontation between different ideological orientations that inevitably arises can contribute to a dialogic use of accounting, which is promising for developing an agonistic democracy within organizations. However, PA assistance to a WC must be carefully handled because of the risk that managers will instrumentalize it. When this happens, accounting is still used in a monologic (as opposed to dialogic) form in firm management. The risk is that genuine participation by WC members remains illusory.

Suggested Citation

  • Godowski, Christophe & Nègre, Emmanuelle & Verdier, Marie-Anne, 2020. "Toward dialogic accounting? Public accountants’ assistance to works councils − A tool between hope and illusion," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:69:y:2020:i:c:s1045235419300759
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2019.102095
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1045235419300759
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.cpa.2019.102095?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. Judy Brown & Jesse Dillard & Trevor Hopper, 2015. "Accounting, accountants and accountability regimes in pluralistic societies," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(5), pages 626-650, June.
    2. Maunders, K. T. & Foley, B. J., 1984. "Information disclosure and the role of the accountant in collective bargaining--some comments," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 99-106, January.
    3. Tinker, Anthony M. & Merino, Barbara D. & Neimark, Marilyn Dale, 1982. "The normative origins of positive theories: Ideology and accounting thought," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 167-200, April.
    4. Ogden, Stuart & Bougen, Philip, 1985. "A radical perspective on the disclosure of accounting information to trade unions," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 211-224, April.
    5. Michel Capron, 2001. "Accounting and management in the social dialogue: the experience of fifty years of works councils in France," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 29-42.
    6. Anne-Laure Farjaudon & Jérémy Morales, 2013. "In Search of Consensus: The Role of Accounting in the Definition and Reproduction of Dominant Interests," Post-Print halshs-00864761, HAL.
    7. Judy Brown & Jesse Dillard, 2015. "Dialogic Accountings for Stakeholders: On Opening Up and Closing Down Participatory Governance," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(7), pages 961-985, November.
    8. Dillard, Jesse & Yuthas, Kristi, 2013. "Critical dialogics, agonistic pluralism, and accounting information systems," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 113-119.
    9. Chiapello, Eve, 2017. "Critical accounting research and neoliberalism," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 47-64.
    10. Mathieu Floquet, 2012. "La diffusion d'information aux salariés vue par les revues professionnelles comptables depuis 1880 : Analyse d'un débat récurrent," ACCRA, Association francophone de comptabilité, vol. 18(1), pages 67-91.
    11. Gendron, Yves, 2002. "On the role of the organization in auditors' client-acceptance decisions," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 659-684, October.
    12. Vinnari, Eija & Dillard, Jesse, 2016. "(ANT)agonistics: Pluralistic politicization of, and by, accounting and its technologies," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 25-44.
    13. Jesse Dillard & Judy Brown, 2012. "Agonistic Pluralism and Imagining CSEAR into the Future," Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1), pages 3-16, April.
    14. Ezzamel, Mahmoud & Willmott, Hugh & Worthington, Frank, 2004. "Accounting and management-labour relations: the politics of production in the 'factory with a problem'," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(3-4), pages 269-302.
    15. Cooper, Christine & Coulson, Andrea & Taylor, Phil, 2011. "Accounting for human rights: Doxic health and safety practices – The accounting lesson from ICL," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(8), pages 738-758.
    16. repec:dau:papers:123456789/12848 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Nicolas Berland & Anne Pezet, 2009. "Quand la comptabilité colonise l'économie et la société. Perspectives critiques dans les recherches en comptabilité, contrôle, audit," Post-Print hal-00340418, HAL.
    18. Dillard, Jesse & Vinnari, Eija, 2019. "Critical dialogical accountability: From accounting-based accountability to accountability-based accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 16-38.
    19. Deegan, Craig, 2017. "Twenty five years of social and environmental accounting research within Critical Perspectives of Accounting: Hits, misses and ways forward," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 65-87.
    20. Brown, Judy & Dillard, Jesse, 2013. "Critical accounting and communicative action: On the limits of consensual deliberation," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 176-190.
    21. Hopper, Trevor & Storey, John & Willmott, Hugh, 1987. "Accounting for accounting: Towards the development of a dialectical view," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(5), pages 437-456, August.
    22. Morales, Jérémy & Sponem, Samuel, 2017. "You too can have a critical perspective! 25 years of Critical Perspectives on Accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 149-166.
    23. repec:dau:papers:123456789/10730 is not listed on IDEAS
    24. 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.
    25. Marie-Anne Verdier & Jennifer Boutant, 2016. "Les dirigeants gèrent-ils les résultats comptables avant d’annoncer une réduction d’effectifs ? Le cas des entreprises françaises cotées," Comptabilité - Contrôle - Audit, Association francophone de comptabilité, vol. 22(3), pages 9-45.
    26. Anne-Laure Farjaudon & Jérémy Morales, 2013. "In search of consensus: The role of accounting in the definition and reproduction of dominant interests," Post-Print hal-01630501, HAL.
    27. Marco Bellucci & Giacomo Manetti, 2017. "Facebook as a tool for supporting dialogic accounting? Evidence from large philanthropic foundations in the United States," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 30(4), pages 874-905, May.
    28. 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.
    29. Jérémy Morales & Samuel Sponem, 2017. "You too can have a critical perspective! 25 years of Critical Perspectives on Accounting," Post-Print hal-01479941, HAL.
    30. Laughlin, Richard C., 1987. "Accounting systems in organisational contexts: A case for critical theory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(5), pages 479-502, August.
    31. Farjaudon, Anne-Laure & Morales, Jérémy, 2013. "In search of consensus: The role of accounting in the definition and reproduction of dominant interests," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 154-171.
    32. McBarnet, Doreen & Weston, Syd & Whelan, Christopher J., 1993. "Adversary accounting: Strategic uses of financial information by capital and labour," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 81-100, January.
    33. Chenhall, Robert H. & Hall, Matthew & Smith, David, 2013. "Performance measurement, modes of evaluation and the development of compromising accounts," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 51294, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    34. Gallhofer, Sonja & Haslam, Jim, 2019. "Some reflections on the construct of emancipatory accounting: Shifting meaning and the possibilities of a new pragmatism," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    35. Brown, Judy, 2009. "Democracy, sustainability and dialogic accounting technologies: Taking pluralism seriously," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 313-342.
    36. Cooper, David, 1983. "Tidiness, muddle and things: Commonalities and divergencies in two approaches to management accounting research," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 8(2-3), pages 269-286, May.
    37. Ezzamel, Mahmoud & Willmott, Hugh & Worthington, Frank, 2008. "Manufacturing shareholder value: The role of accounting in organizational transformation," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(2-3), pages 107-140.
    38. Eve Chiapello, 2007. "Accounting and the birth of the notion of capitalism," Post-Print hal-00466515, HAL.
    39. Roberts, John, 1991. "The possibilities of accountability," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 355-368.
    40. Mohamed Chelli & Yves Gendron, 2015. "L’expertise en évaluation socio-environnementale des entreprises : légitimation et mises à l’épreuve," Comptabilité - Contrôle - Audit, Association francophone de comptabilité, vol. 21(2), pages 63-96.
    41. Judy Brown & Jesse Dillard, 2014. "Integrated reporting: On the need for broadening out and opening up," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 27(7), pages 1120-1156, August.
    42. Brown, Judy, 2017. "Democratizing accounting: Reflections on the politics of “old” and “new” pluralisms," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 20-46.
    43. Marie-Anne Verdier & Jennifer Boutant, 2016. "Do managers reduce reported earnings before a workforce reduction announcement? Evidence from French listed firms [Les dirigeants gèrent-ils les résultats comptables avant d’annoncer une réduction ," Post-Print halshs-01522595, HAL.
    44. Yves Gendron, 2013. "(Re)penser la contribution à la recherche," Comptabilité - Contrôle - Audit, Association francophone de comptabilité, vol. 19(2), pages 133-155.
    45. 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.
    46. Dillard, Jesse & Vinnari, Eija, 2017. "A case study of critique: Critical perspectives on critical accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 88-109.
    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. Verdier, Marie-Anne & Boutant Lapeyre, Jennifer, 2023. "The myth of workforce reduction efficiency: The performativity of accounting language," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    2. Corinne Ollier Bessieux & Emmanuelle Negre & Marie-Anne Verdier, 2022. "Moving from Accounting for People to Accounting with People: A Critical Analysis of the Literature and Avenues for Research," Post-Print hal-03889478, HAL.
    3. Andrew, Jane & Baker, Max & Huang, Casey, 2023. "Data breaches in the age of surveillance capitalism: Do disclosures have a new role to play?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    4. Sorola, Matthew, 2022. "Q methodology to conduct a critical study in accounting: A Q study on accountants’ perspectives of social and environmental reporting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).

    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. Sorola, Matthew, 2022. "Q methodology to conduct a critical study in accounting: A Q study on accountants’ perspectives of social and environmental reporting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    2. Dillard, Jesse & Vinnari, Eija, 2019. "Critical dialogical accountability: From accounting-based accountability to accountability-based accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 16-38.
    3. Aresu, Simone & Monfardini, Patrizio, 2023. "Oppressed by consumerism: The emancipatory role of household accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    4. Vinnari, Eija & Dillard, Jesse, 2016. "(ANT)agonistics: Pluralistic politicization of, and by, accounting and its technologies," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 25-44.
    5. Brown, Judy & Tregidga, Helen, 2017. "Re-politicizing social and environmental accounting through Rancière: On the value of dissensus," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1-21.
    6. George, Sendirella & Brown, Judy & Dillard, Jesse, 2023. "Social movement activists’ conceptions of political action and counter-accounting through a critical dialogic accounting and accountability lens," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    7. Drujon d'Astros, Caecilia & Morales, Jeremy, 2024. "The silent resistance: An ethnographic study of the use of silence to resist accounting and managerialization," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    8. Corinne Ollier Bessieux & Emmanuelle Negre & Marie-Anne Verdier, 2022. "Moving from Accounting for People to Accounting with People: A Critical Analysis of the Literature and Avenues for Research," Post-Print hal-03889478, HAL.
    9. Dillard, Jesse & Shivji, Alysha & Bianchi, Lara, 2024. "Rights-based, worker-driven accountability in the fields: Contesting the uncontested contestable," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    10. Brown, Judy, 2017. "Democratizing accounting: Reflections on the politics of “old” and “new” pluralisms," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 20-46.
    11. O’Leary, Susan & Smith, David, 2020. "Moments of resistance: An internally persuasive view of performance and impact reports in non-governmental organizations," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    12. Alharthi, Amal & Cortese, Corinne & Moerman, Lee & Tanima, Farzana, 2022. "Surveillance capitalism in the middle east retail sector," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    13. Tanima, Farzana Aman & Brown, Judy & Dillard, Jesse, 2020. "Surfacing the political: Women’s empowerment, microfinance, critical dialogic accounting and accountability," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    14. Alawattage, Chandana & Azure, John De-Clerk, 2021. "Behind the World Bank’s ringing declarations of “social accountability”: Ghana’s public financial management reform," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    15. Dillard, Jesse & Yuthas, Kristi & Baudot, Lisa, 2016. "Dialogic framing of accounting information systems in social and environmental accounting domains: Lessons from, and for, microfinance," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 14-27.
    16. Tregidga, Helen & Milne, Markus J., 2022. "Not at our table: Stakeholder exclusion and ant/agonistic engagements," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    17. Ang, Soon Yong & Wickramasinghe, Danture, 2023. "Ethical disputes, coordinating acts and NGO accountability: Evidence from an NGO river-care programme in Malaysia," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    18. Tanima, Farzana Aman & Brown, Judy & Wright, Jan & Mackie, Vera, 2023. "Taking critical dialogic accountability into the field: Engaging contestation around microfinance and women’s empowerment," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    19. Chakhovich, Terhi & Virtanen, Tuija, 2023. "Accountability for sustainability – An institutional entrepreneur as the representative of future stakeholders," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    20. Cooper, Christine, 2015. "Entrepreneurs of the self: The development of management control since 1976," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 14-24.

    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:crpeac:v:69:y:2020:i:c:s1045235419300759. 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: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/critical-perspectives-on-accounting/ .

    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.