IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/crpeac/v77y2021ics1045235420300502.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Accounting colonization, emancipation and instrumental compliance in Nigeria

Author

Listed:
  • Ferry, Laurence
  • Haslam, Jim
  • Green, Stuart
  • Adegbite, Emmanuel
  • Gebreiter, Florian

Abstract

This study explores the extent to which designs for accounting change and accounting colonization can be absorbed through a devious compliance/implementation that deflects new interpretive schemes. To do so, it conducts an in-depth analysis of two contrasting Nigerian public service organizational cases, in which there was an ostensible search for improvements in financial governance. While one of the cases indicates how accounting colonization involved change through an ostensibly coercive accounting design, the other case organization employed budget assurances to deliver public service consistent with an ostensibly more emancipatory design. In both cases, instrumental compliance with the accounting design did not occur during implementation as a devious compliance took hold. Consequently, the delivery of priorities was not exactly as intended. This study contributes to the theorising of emancipatory/oppressive accounting, including vis-à-vis accounting colonization, by providing evidence of both the coercive and emancipatory dimensions of accounting design in this context. In addition, it highlights the relevance of a closely observed and nuanced approach to analysing accounting in action, which is of significant importance to policy-makers and other social actors.

Suggested Citation

  • Ferry, Laurence & Haslam, Jim & Green, Stuart & Adegbite, Emmanuel & Gebreiter, Florian, 2021. "Accounting colonization, emancipation and instrumental compliance in Nigeria," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:77:y:2021:i:c:s1045235420300502
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2020.102201
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1045235420300502
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.cpa.2020.102201?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. Gallhofer, Sonja & Haslam, James, 1991. "The aura of accounting in the context of a crisis: Germany and the first world war," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 16(5-6), pages 487-520.
    2. Giuseppe Grossi & Kirsi-Mari Kallio & Massimo Sargiacomo & Matti Skoog, 2019. "Accounting, performance management systems and accountability changes in knowledge-intensive public organizations," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 33(1), pages 256-280, June.
    3. Okonjo-Iweala, Ngozi, 2012. "Reforming the Unreformable: Lessons from Nigeria," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262018144, April.
    4. Wouters, Marc & Wilderom, Celeste, 2008. "Developing performance-measurement systems as enabling formalization: A longitudinal field study of a logistics department," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(4-5), pages 488-516.
    5. Campanale, Cristina & Cinquini, Lino, 2016. "Emerging pathways of colonization in healthcare from participative approaches to management accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 59-74.
    6. Sonja Gallhofer & Jim Haslam & Akira Yonekura, 2015. "Accounting as differentiated universal for emancipatory praxis," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(5), pages 846-874, June.
    7. Thomas Ahrens & Christopher S. Chapman, 2004. "Accounting for Flexibility and Efficiency: A Field Study of Management Control Systems in a Restaurant Chain," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(2), pages 271-301, June.
    8. Oakes, Helen & Berry, Anthony, 2009. "Accounting colonization: Three case studies in further education," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 343-378.
    9. Franklin Nakpodia & Emmanuel Adegbite, 2018. "Corporate governance and elites," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(1), pages 17-31, March.
    10. Gurd, Bruce, 2008. "Structuration and middle-range theory—A case study of accounting during organizational change from different theoretical perspectives," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 523-543.
    11. Power, Michael K., 1991. "Educating accountants: Towards a critical ethnography," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 333-353.
    12. 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.
    13. Bertrand Masquefa & Sonja Gallhofer & Jim Haslam, 2017. "Developing appreciation of micro-organizational processes of accounting change and indicating pathways to more ‘Enabling Accounting’ in a micro-organizational domain of research and development," Post-Print hal-02059898, HAL.
    14. 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).
    15. Kenneth Amaeshi & Emmanuel Adegbite & Tazeeb Rajwani, 2016. "Corporate Social Responsibility in Challenging and Non-enabling Institutional Contexts: Do Institutional Voids matter?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(1), pages 135-153, March.
    16. Uche, Chibuike U., 2002. "Professional accounting development in Nigeria: threats from the inside and outside," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(4-5), pages 471-496.
    17. Power, Michael & Laughlin, Richard, 1996. "Habermas, law and accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 441-465, July.
    18. Masquefa, Bertrand & Gallhofer, Sonja & Haslam, Jim, 2017. "Developing appreciation of micro-organizational processes of accounting change and indicating pathways to more ‘Enabling Accounting’ in a micro-organizational domain of research and development," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 59-82.
    19. 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.
    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. Seny Kan, Konan A. & Agbodjo, Serge & Gandja, Serge V., 2021. "Accounting polycentricity in Africa: Framing an ‘accounting and development’ research agenda," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 78(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. 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).
    2. Masquefa, Bertrand & Gallhofer, Sonja & Haslam, Jim, 2017. "Developing appreciation of micro-organizational processes of accounting change and indicating pathways to more ‘Enabling Accounting’ in a micro-organizational domain of research and development," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 59-82.
    3. Irvine, Helen & Moerman, Lee, 2017. "Gambling with the public sphere: Accounting’s contribution to debate on social issues," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 35-52.
    4. Aresu, Simone & Monfardini, Patrizio, 2023. "Oppressed by consumerism: The emancipatory role of household accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    5. 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).
    6. Chatzivgeri, Eleni & Chew, Lynsie & Crawford, Louise & Gordon, Martyn & Haslam, Jim, 2020. "Transparency and accountability for the global good? The UK’s implementation of EU law requiring country-by-country reporting of payments to governments by extractives," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 67.
    7. 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).
    8. 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.
    9. Gallhofer, Sonja & Haslam, Jim & Yonekura, Akira, 2013. "Further critical reflections on a contribution to the methodological issues debate in accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 191-206.
    10. Frémeaux, Sandrine & Puyou, François-Régis & Michelson, Grant, 2020. "Beyond accountants as technocrats: A common good perspective," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 67.
    11. Sharma, Umesh & Lawrence, Stewart, 2015. "Power, politics and privatization: A tale of a telecommunications company," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 13-29.
    12. Ruff, Katherine, 2022. "In support of making up users," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    13. 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).
    14. Laughlin, Richard, 2007. "Critical reflections on research approaches, accounting regulation and the regulation of accounting," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 271-289.
    15. Osman, Mohamed & Gallhofer, Sonja & Haslam, Jim, 2021. "Contextualising and critically theorising corporate social responsibility reporting: Dynamics of the late Mubarak Era in Egypt," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    16. Lehman, Glen, 2013. "Critical reflections on Laughlin's middle range research approach: Language not mysterious?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 211-224.
    17. Robbins, Geraldine & Lapsley, Irvine, 2015. "From secrecy to transparency: Accounting and the transition from religious charity to publicly-owned hospital," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 19-32.
    18. Rosanna Spanò & Adele Caldarelli & Luca Ferri & Marco Maffei, 2020. "Context, culture and control: a case study on accounting change in an Italian regional health service," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 24(1), pages 229-272, March.
    19. Chaturika Seneviratne & Zahirul Hoque, 2024. "The interplay of episodic power in enabling and coercive budgetary designs in universities: A case study," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 64(1), pages 1011-1036, March.
    20. Boedker, Christina & Chong, Kar-Ming & Mouritsen, Jan, 2020. "The counter-performativity of calculative practices: Mobilising rankings of intellectual capital," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).

    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:77:y:2021:i:c:s1045235420300502. 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.