IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-01630503.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

In search of consensus : The role of accounting in the definition and reproduction of dominant interests

Author

Listed:
  • Anne-Laure Farjaudon

    (DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Jérémy Morales

    (ESCP-EAP)

Abstract

This paper examines the role of consensus in the reproduction of dominant interests. Consensus building is often considered a central value for rational decision making and management. However, more than a democratic confrontation of vantage points, the quest for consensus constitutes a way to deny asymmetries in positions of power, i.e., to discourage conflict and resistance in order to promote dominating interests (and to silence others) as if they were collective. Our main argument is that accounting and consensus play central roles in processes of definition and the reproduction of dominant interests. Precisely, we argue that accounting acts to promote some stakes and strategies (and silence others), as if they were collective and disinterested, which makes them more powerful in debates that deny struggles and asymmetries in positions of power, as well as increases legitimacy by creating an illusion of participation. Bourdieu's conceptualisation of symbolic domination helps clarify how powerful actors secure influence and consolidate positions while avoiding contestation. A field study documents the intersection of two fields of knowledge, marketing and accounting, that compete to monopolize the definition of value and the ability to speak for the organisation. Accounting produces symbolic violence to legitimise the reproduction of asymmetrical positions of power by shaping what is consensual and what is not.

Suggested Citation

  • Anne-Laure Farjaudon & Jérémy Morales, 2012. "In search of consensus : The role of accounting in the definition and reproduction of dominant interests," Post-Print hal-01630503, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01630503
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-01630503
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-01630503/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hall, Matthew, 2010. "Accounting information and managerial work," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 301-315, April.
    2. Suddaby, Roy & Cooper, David J. & Greenwood, Royston, 2007. "Transnational regulation of professional services: Governance dynamics of field level organizational change," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(4-5), pages 333-362.
    3. Preston, Alistair M. & Cooper, David J. & Coombs, Rod W., 1992. "Fabricating budgets: A study of the production of management budgeting in the national health service," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 561-593, August.
    4. Neu, Dean & Ocampo Gomez, Elizabeth & Graham, Cameron & Heincke, Monica, 2006. ""Informing" technologies and the World Bank," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 635-662, October.
    5. Damon Golsorkhi & Isabelle Huault, 2006. "Pierre Bourdieu. Critique et réflexivité comme attitude analytique en sciences de gestion," Post-Print halshs-00150711, HAL.
    6. Brown, Judy, 2009. "Democracy, sustainability and dialogic accounting technologies: Taking pluralism seriously," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 313-342.
    7. B. Malsch & Y. Gendron & F. Grazzini, 2011. "Investigating interdisciplinary translations: The influence of Pierre Bourdieu on accounting literature," Post-Print halshs-00783872, HAL.
    8. Neu, Dean, 2006. "Accounting for public space," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(4-5), pages 391-414.
    9. Bertrand Malsch & Yves Gendron & Frédérique Grazzini, 2011. "Investigating interdisciplinary translations," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(2), pages 194-228, February.
    10. David Cooper & Jeff Everett & Dean Neu, 2005. "Financial scandals, accounting change and the role of accounting academics: A perspective from North America," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 373-382.
    11. 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.
    12. Damon Golsorkhi & Isabelle Huault, 2006. "Pierre Bourdieu : critique et réflexivité comme attitude analytique," Revue française de gestion, Lavoisier, vol. 165(6), pages 15-34.
    13. B. Malsch & Y. Gendron & F. Grazzini, 2011. "Investigating interdisciplinary translations: The influence of Pierre Bourdieu on accounting literature," Post-Print halshs-00586846, HAL.
    14. Hopwood, Anthony G., 1987. "The archeology of accounting systems," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 207-234, April.
    15. Hall, Matthew, 2010. "Accounting information and managerial work," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 28539, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. repec:dau:papers:123456789/9538 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. repec:dau:papers:123456789/10730 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. 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.
    4. Stenka, Renata & Jaworska, Sylvia, 2019. "The use of made-up users," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 78(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. Cooper, Christine & Coulson, Andrea B., 2014. "Accounting activism and Bourdieu's ‘collective intellectual’ – Reflections on the ICL Case," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 237-254.
    7. Bertrand Malsch & Yves Gendron, 2013. "Re-Theorizing Change: Institutional Experimentation and the Struggle for Domination in the Field of Public Accounting," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5), pages 870-899, July.
    8. repec:dau:papers:123456789/8474 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Gendron, Yves, 2018. "On the elusive nature of critical (accounting) research," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1-12.
    10. Lauwo, Sarah & Kyriacou, Orthodoxia & Julius Otusanya, Olatunde, 2020. "When sorry is not an option: CSR reporting and ‘face work’ in a stigmatised industry – A case study of Barrick (Acacia) gold mine in Tanzania," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    11. Killian, Sheila, 2015. "“For lack of accountability”: The logic of the price in Ireland’s Magdalen Laundries," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 17-32.
    12. Christensen, Mark & Newberry, Susan & Potter, Bradley N., 2019. "Enabling global accounting change: Epistemic communities and the creation of a ‘more business-like’ public sector," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 53-76.
    13. Goddard, Andrew, 2021. "Accountability and accounting in the NGO field comprising the UK and Africa – A Bordieusian analysis," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    14. Anesa, Mattia & Gillespie, Nicole & Spee, A. Paul & Sadiq, Kerrie, 2019. "The legitimation of corporate tax minimization," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 17-39.
    15. Charl de Villiers & Matteo La Torre & Vida Botes, 2022. "Accounting and social capital: A review and reflections on future research opportunities," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(4), pages 4485-4521, December.
    16. Gracia, Louise & Oats, Lynne, 2012. "Boundary work and tax regulation: A Bourdieusian view," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 304-321.
    17. Stringfellow, Lindsay & McMeeking, Kevin & Maclean, Mairi, 2015. "From four to zero? The social mechanisms of symbolic domination in the UK accounting field," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 86-100.
    18. Rowe, Casey & Shields, Michael D. & Birnberg, Jacob G., 2012. "Hardening soft accounting information: Games for planning organizational change," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 260-279.
    19. Chen, Lei & Danbolt, Jo & Holland, John, 2018. "Information about bank intangibles, analyst information intermediation, and the role of knowledge and social forces in the ‘market for information’," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 261-276.
    20. Modell, Sven, 2017. "Critical realist accounting research: In search of its emancipatory potential," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 20-35.
    21. Ejiogu, Amanze & Ambituuni, Ambisisi & Ejiogu, Chibuzo, 2021. "Accounting for accounting’s role in the neoliberalization processes of social housing in England: A Bourdieusian perspective," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    22. Karen Benson & Peter M Clarkson & Tom Smith & Irene Tutticci, 2015. "A review of accounting research in the Asia Pacific region," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 40(1), pages 36-88, February.
    23. Ferhat D. Zengul & Nurettin Oner & James D. Byrd & Arline Savage, 2021. "Revealing Research Themes and Trends in 30 Top‐ranking Accounting Journals: A Text‐mining Approach," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 57(3), pages 468-501, September.

    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:hal:journl:hal-01630503. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.