ABSTRACT

The different forms evident in management accounting practice in the real world and the way in which practice evolves over time have attracted varied research interest. Given the centrality of participants' behaviour, pragmatic constructivism holds considerable potential as a research framework in these areas. Its focus is on how people relate to the reality to which they are exposed before they engage in meaningful action. Action is derived from the multiple pathways that facts and their possibilities create. The choice of actions from the array of possibilities that confronts people depends on the values they hold. Communications over the ascertainment of facts, possibilities and values are necessary. In an information supply practice such as management accounting, communication is a central feature of practice. Accountants have to communicate with those responsible for providing data to them and with those who will use the information that they generate.