Analytical Concept of Arena by Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985 - Article Example

………………………………………………………………………xxxxxx ………………………………………………………………….xxxxxx ……………………………………………………………………..xxxxxx …………………………………………………………………………xxxxx @2015 Analytical concept of ‘arena by Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985 In their article "Value-added accounting and National Economic Policy", Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985 used three arenas to shed an analytical and descriptive light on the process of accounting change. The three arenas include the management of the national economy, the explication of standards for corporate financial reporting and the functioning of the system of industrial relations. Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985 used the three arenas in order to analyze the nature of the accounting process from a point of view of understanding social interactions. Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985 argued that there have been very few attempts towards the development of general descriptions of the process that is involved in the accounting interaction as well as its social context. The authors therefore tried showing the process of interaction of accounting together with its social context with the study of value added statement. In their value added statement, the authors puts forward the idea of accounting change being bound up with the way accounting interacts with its social process. Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985 do not in any way seek to deny the purposive nature of accounting action rather they emphasize on the potential multitude that different actors have while acting on accounting in purposive ways and in different arenas. On the arena of the explication of standards for corporate financial reporting, the authors argued that the value added is the wealth that any reporting entity has been able to create by its own employees and its own efforts. The authors emphasize on the importance of value-added reporting and in accounting policy making. On the arena of the management of the national economy, the authors linked income policies to value added statements while on the arena on the functioning of the system of industrial relations; the authors show the intersection between industrial relations and accounting. The three arenas have been used to put forth the practices and concepts of value added which has since been reviewed as legitimate and alternative performance indicators. Formed by the intersection of the development in the fields of setting of accounting standards, the regulation and reform of industrial relations, the management of the national economy, value added becomes the central focus and attention of the three arenas and also provides a link between them. How Robson refines and extends the analytical concept of ‘arena In "On the Arenas of accounting change: The process of translation" Robson 1991 extensively refines and extends the analytical concept of arena that was formulated by Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985. Robson 1991 adopts the analysis by Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985 and elaborates the insights of Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985 by developing a concept of the arenas of accounting change as one that is being dependent upon a translation process. In his analysis, Robson considers the arguments of Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985 and then draws out their theorisation in the accounting change process. The author further develops the concept of the arena in terms of the translation process between rationales and non-accounting discourses with the problematization of particular accounting techniques as well as their own institutional conditions of existence. Robson 1991 intensified the research on the relationship of accounting practice to the social context by examining the roles of organizational and social practices from several perspectives like management accounting, budgeting research and the legitimating and rationalizing accounting roles. Unlike the analysis by Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985, Robson 1991 analysis about the three arenas addresses the specific social space within which value-added emerges and develops and therefore charting a genealogy of the discourses as well as the practices of value added. Robson 1991 clarified and elaborates on the genealogical methods developed by Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985 and further considers the process through which accounting connects and links to the environment. Robson 1991 considers the arguments of Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985 and then draws out their theorisation in the process of accounting change. Robson further develops the concept of arena in terms of the translation process between non-accounting discourses and rationales, with their own institutional existence conditions as well as the problematization of given accounting techniques. Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985 were concerned with the development of a mode of analysis that is appropriate to the understanding of the process of accounting change in its social context. Unlike Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985 whose purpose behind the examination of Value Added accounting was the formulation of a historical and conceptual analytic that recognized environment interdependence in accounting, Robson 1991 discusses about the accounting-society interpenetration. To extend the analytical concept of arenas by Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985, Robson 1991 states that arenas do not provide a priori distinction between accounting and social context. He extends the arguments of Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985 by discussing on how to interpret the process through which accounting is called upon to elaborate and change the process through which connectivity between accounting and its environment is achieved. Robson 1991 emphasizes on the importance of the concept of translation as a constitutive of the analytical concept of arenas. According to Robson 1991, the notion of accounting has multiple and even conflicting roles and this makes the understanding of accounting to be a technical process that requires translations. Even though accounting is employed with representation as its intention, this representation is always produced in the absence of its referent. Robson 1991 states that accounting techniques normally depend on measurement procedures, classification and recording that are normally applied to a domain of activities. There is also a tendency to overlook those events that are not easily rendered into financial quantities. The process of accounting where objects, relations, and exchanges are made equal to financial quantities is called translation, and this clearly shows the importance of the role of translation in accounting. The sociology of translation refers to the discursive process through which things that were previously different are made equivalent hence creating a system of convergences and homologies. This clearly shows how Robson 1991 emphasizes on accounting change as a translation process. To extent the arguments by Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985, Robson 1991 provides a framework that should be used in analyzing the arenas of accounting change in order to show the relationship that exists between accounting and its social context. The analysis will rely upon a set of political, theoretical or economic discourses and rationales, process of problematization and one or more accounting techniques. Problematization as a process of translation enables accounting techniques to be viewed in a new and problematical ways since translation is a product of the consciousness of accounting calculations and techniques. In accounting, specific discourses normally stress across an ensemble of organizations hence providing societal consensus. The link that exists between such rationales and discourses, as well as accounting technique, arises from the incorporation of accounting information in the representation and construction of the object domain of the discourse, that is, accounting techniques may contribute to the visibilities that are created by or incorporated into the discourse. The site of problematization derives from the relations that exist between particular discourses that normally contribute to the definition of a certain arena of accounting activities. To illustrate his discussions on the process of translation being common to many instances of accounting problematization and accounting change, Robson 1991 uses an arena in the inflation accounting event of the 1970s in the United Kingdom. That is; the author uses the genesis of the standard-setting program in the UK to illustrate the process of translation. During the inflation period, the accounting profession was deliberating about the problem of accounting for inflation. During this period, techniques of management decision making were set against by a section of the Department of Trade and Industry, a problem of the right type of information was used for the management of investment decisions and this was through a medium of routinized institutional relations between the accounting profession and its sponsoring departments. In this kind of problematization, the deficiencies that were perceived of the UK manufacturing investment translated into a problem of management investment decisions. The author uses the history of inflation in the UK to show the importance of translation process in accounting and by doing so advancing the arguments of Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985, Robson 1991. Robson 1991 advances the arena of functioning of the system of industrial relations into industrial policy and corporate merges and uses the arena to outline the relation that exists between a series of rationales and discourses that are centred upon the government industrial policy of growth in the UK. This is because accounting changes do arise at the intersection of non-accounting discourses and rationales as well as particular accounting techniques. On the other hand, Robson 1991 refines the analytical concept of arena that was formulated by Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985, Robson 1991 by criticizing and advancing their formulations. Robson does not entirely depend on the research by Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985, Robson 1991 but rather concentrates upon the discursive process of accounting change. The concept of arena provided by Burchell, Clubb and Hopwood 1985, Robson 1991 was a sophisticated and complex model of accounting change and suggested that the accounting change can only be interpreted through genealogical narrative of contingencies. However, Robson 1991 believes that the genealogical method of interpretation is consistent with a rejection of a supposed ‘essence to the accounting practice. The method also presupposes the rejection of a definite origin of historical development and also makes an examination of the surface relations as well as connections that exist between knowledges, events and practices including unintended consequences and accidents in the investigation in the ways through which specific changes are made possible. This is the reason behind the translation process as a way of interpreting the process through which accounting is called upon to change and elaborate the process through which accounting achieves a connectivity with its surrounding environment. The translation process in accounting change is the process through which the pre-existing accounting techniques, as well as their associated roles, are articulated discursively and in ways that construct the groups and individuals interest in those techniques and may provide motives for the production of accounting change. Therefore, to determine the link between the environment and accounting change, it is better to use the translation process. References Cooper D.J & Sherer M.LJ, 1984. The value of Corporate Accounting Reports. Accounting, Organizations and Society, pp 207-232 Gilling D.M, 1976. Accounting and Social change, International Journal of Accounting, pp 59-71 Hines R.D, 1988. Financial accounting in communicating reality, we construct reality, Accounting Organizations and Society, pp 251-262 Hopwood A, Burchell S & Clubb c, 1994. Value-Added Accounting and National Economic Policy. In P. Miller & A. Hopwood (Eds), Accounting as Social and Institutional Practice (PP. 211-236). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Robson K, 1991. On the Arenas of Accounting Change: The Process of Translation. Accounting, Organisations and Society, 16(5-6), 547-570 Wickramasinghe D & Alawattage C, 2007. Management Accounting Change: Approaches and Perspectives. Routledge Read More