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The making of the management accountant - Becoming the producer of truthful knowledge

Author

Listed:
  • Caroline Virginie Lambert

    (GREGH - Groupement de Recherche et d'Etudes en Gestion à HEC - HEC Paris - Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Eric Pezet

Abstract

In this paper, we analyse the practices through which the management accountant is constructed as a knowing subject and becomes a producer of truthful knowledge. We draw on a case study of an automobile equipment manufacturer in which management accountants play a central role. The centrality of their role is evidenced, among other aspects, by their participation in online reverse auctions, wherein they commit themselves and their company to long-term projects. This commitment is constitutive of their identity as knowing subjects and organisational truth tellers. However, the "validity" of the truth they produce can only be assessed over time. We argue that, in this firm, monthly performance review meetings constitute "accounting trials of truth" during which peers and senior management cross-examine the accounting truth presented. Preparations for these trials of truth constitute a form of subjectivation whereby management accountants act on their ways of being in the firm and become the producers of truthful knowledge.

Suggested Citation

  • Caroline Virginie Lambert & Eric Pezet, 2011. "The making of the management accountant - Becoming the producer of truthful knowledge," Post-Print hal-00609186, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00609186
    DOI: 10.1016/j.aos.2010.07.005
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Ahmad Mohammed Alamri, 2018. "Strategic Management Accounting and the Dimensions of Competitive Advantage: Testing the Associations in Saudi Industrial Sector," International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, vol. 8(2), pages 48-64, April.
    2. Grisard, Claudine & Annisette, Marcia & Graham, Cameron, 2020. "Performative agency and incremental change in a CSR context," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    3. Adapa, Sujana & Rindfleish, Jennifer & Sheridan, Alison, 2016. "‘Doing gender’ in a regional context: Explaining women's absence from senior roles in regional accounting firms in Australia," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 100-110.
    4. Violeta Keršulienė & Zenonas Turskis, 2014. "A hybrid linguistic fuzzy multiple criteria group selection of a chief accounting officer," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 232-252, April.
    5. Lukas Goretzki & Kari Lukka & Martin Messner, 2018. "Controllers’ use of informational tactics," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(6), pages 700-726, September.
    6. Goretzki, Lukas & Messner, Martin, 2019. "Backstage and frontstage interactions in management accountants' identity work," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1-20.
    7. Robert Rieg, 2018. "Tasks, interaction and role perception of management accountants: evidence from Germany," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 183-220, August.
    8. Morales, Jérémy & Lambert, Caroline, 2013. "Dirty work and the construction of identity. An ethnographic study of management accounting practices," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 228-244.
    9. Erhart, Raphaela & Mahlendorf, Matthias D. & Reimer, Marko & Schäffer, Utz, 2017. "Theorizing and testing bidirectional effects: The relationship between strategy formation and involvement of controllers," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 36-52.

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    Keywords

    management accountant; truthful knowledge;

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