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Responding to expanding accountability regimes by re-presenting organizational context

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  • Dillard, Jesse

Abstract

Accounting information systems (AIS) provide information needed to manage, control, and evaluate organizational activities. As the corporate accountability regimes expand into such areas as social and environmental responsibility, these information systems must also expand in order to meet the requisite information needs. Adequately addressing the emerging information needs requires that the focus move beyond the customary preoccupation with the technical aspects of AIS design, implementation, and use in order to incorporate a broader conceptualization of organizational context. An initial step in designing more salient AIS is to recognize the social forces and related conflicts present within work organizations that relate to issues within the purview of the expanded accountability regimes. I propose that organizations be viewed through the lens of social theory as a way to expand what has traditionally been a narrow, exclusive, and instrumental perspective. Re-presenting organizational context using alternative social theory-based perspectives opens the conventional, taken-for-granted scope and functions of AIS to examination and critique, providing space for change. I demonstrate how alternative perspectives can provide a basis for revealing the assumptions, conflicts, and ideologies that underlie conventional systems applications, facilitating more inclusive designs that incorporate a greater range of values, interests, and objectives. I use three disparate social theories to illustrate possibilities following from alternative organizational representations. From labor process theory, we gain an understanding of forces underlying representations of work by organizations operating within the context of market capitalism. Latour's accumulation cycle provides a description of the embedded processes whereby information is collected, processed, and applied to maintain organizational control. A variant of postmodern thinking reveals hegemonic contextual assumptions and constraints that underlie prevailing organizational representations. A more comprehensive understanding of organizational context increases the likelihood that AIS will provide the information necessary to support the more inclusive accountability regimes arising from an expanding notion of acting in the public interest.

Suggested Citation

  • Dillard, Jesse, 2008. "Responding to expanding accountability regimes by re-presenting organizational context," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 21-42.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ijoais:v:9:y:2008:i:1:p:21-42
    DOI: 10.1016/j.accinf.2008.01.001
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    Cited by:

    1. Blackburn, Nivea & Brown, Judy & Dillard, Jesse & Hooper, Val, 2014. "A dialogical framing of AIS–SEA design," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 83-101.
    2. Robalo, Rui C. & Moreira, José António, 2020. "The influence of power strategies in AIS implementation processes," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    3. Mia Kaspersen & Thomas Riise Johansen, 2016. "Changing Social and Environmental Reporting Systems," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(4), pages 731-749, June.
    4. Lowe, Alan & Locke, Joanne & Lymer, Andy, 2012. "The SEC's retail investor 2.0: Interactive data and the rise of calculative accountability," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 183-200.
    5. Alewine, Hank C. & Allport, Christopher D. & Shen, Wei-Cheng Milton, 2016. "How measurement framing and accounting information system evaluation mode influence environmental performance judgments," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 28-44.
    6. Granlund, Markus, 2011. "Extending AIS research to management accounting and control issues: A research note," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 3-19.
    7. Tingey-Holyoak, Joanne & Pisaniello, John & Buss, Peter & Mayer, Wolfgang, 2021. "The importance of accounting-integrated information systems for realising productivity and sustainability in the agricultural sector," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    8. Kocsis, David, 2019. "A conceptual foundation of design and implementation research in accounting information systems," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-1.
    9. 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.
    10. 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.

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