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Rites of passage and the self‐immolation of academic accounting labour: an essay exploring exclusivity versus mutuality in accounting scholarship

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  • Rob Gray
  • James Guthrie
  • Lee Parker

Abstract

The changes in public sectors of many western democracies, particularly as applied in public funded universities, have led to an environment where students have been redefined as customers, organisations and their programs have been redefined as fee generating and services have been reconstituted as commercialised competitive activities in the open marketplace. Work in this ‘new’ Higher Education Sector (HES) environment has been construed as fee generating and cost incurring, subject to financial control and evaluated for its tangible, measured outputs. This paper considers the contemporary attitudes in accounting and management academia to what constitutes research and scholarship, using Australia and the UK as case examples. From this perspective, it is argued that the changing HES environment is transforming and commodifying research into a homogenised, measured and traded commodity. This commodity is then traded in the new academic marketplace in forms such as departmental research rankings, appointability of candidates for professorial positions, departmental and individual academic competitiveness for research grants, and university eligibility for government research funding. In addition, we contend that this commodification is exhibiting a convergent tendency, in that the tradable currency shows signs of reductionism to a common form of measurement, that is, to refereed research journal articles. This paper seeks to further open up discussion and debate on these issues from both academic and general community perspectives and to offer some tentative suggestions about how we, as a community of scholars, might seek to counter this process.

Suggested Citation

  • Rob Gray & James Guthrie & Lee Parker, 2002. "Rites of passage and the self‐immolation of academic accounting labour: an essay exploring exclusivity versus mutuality in accounting scholarship," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(1), pages 1-30, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:accfor:v:26:y:2002:i:1:p:1-30
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-6303.00077
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Lowe, Alan & Locke, Joanne, 2006. "Constructing an ‘efficient frontier’ of accounting journal quality," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 321-341.
    2. Hussain, Simon, 2010. "Accounting journals and the ABS quality ratings," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 1-16.
    3. Andrikopoulos, Andreas & Kostaris, Konstantinos, 2017. "Collaboration networks in accounting research," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 1-9.
    4. Tucker, Basil P. & Lawson, Raef, 2020. "EMBAs perceived usefulness of academic research for student learning and use in practice," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(5).
    5. Brian Rutherford, 2010. "The social scientific turn in UK financial accounting research: A philosophical and sociological analysis," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(2), pages 149-171.
    6. Binh Bui & Hien Hoang & Duc P. T. Phan & P. W. Senarath Yapa, 2017. "Governance and compliance in accounting education in Vietnam – case of a public university," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(3), pages 265-290, May.
    7. Giuseppe Nicolo’ & Francesca Manes-Rossi & Johan Christiaens & Natalia Aversano, 2020. "Accountability through intellectual capital disclosure in Italian Universities," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 24(4), pages 1055-1087, December.
    8. Pelger, Christoph & Grottke, Markus, 2015. "What about the future of the academy? – Some remarks on the looming colonisation of doctoral education," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 117-129.
    9. Geert Campenhout & Tom Caneghem & Steve Uytbergen, 2008. "A comparison of overall and sub-area journal influence: The case of the accounting literature," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 77(1), pages 61-90, October.
    10. Ulrike Schmidt & Thomas Günther, 2016. "Public sector accounting research in the higher education sector: a systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 66(4), pages 235-265, December.
    11. Catriona Paisey & Nicholas Paisey, 2005. "The research assessment exercise 2001—insights and implications for accounting education research in the UK," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 411-426.
    12. M. R. Mathews, 2007. "Publish or Perish: Is this Really a Viable Set of Options?," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 225-240.
    13. Tucker, Basil P. & Tilt, Carol A., 2019. "‘You know it when you see it’: In search of ‘the ideal’ research culture in university accounting faculties," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    14. Geert Van Campenhout & Tom Van Caneghem, 2010. "Article Contribution and Subsequent Citation Rates: Evidence from European Accounting Review," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 837-855.
    15. Parker, Lee D., 2012. "Qualitative management accounting research: Assessing deliverables and relevance," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 54-70.
    16. Parker, Lee, 2011. "University corporatisation: Driving redefinition," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 434-450.

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