ABSTRACT
Until recently it has been rare for accounting to be interrogated in the name of either its organizational functioning or its precise organizational effects. Accounting discourse has remained a purely technical one. Little effort has been invested in exploring the ways in which it intersects with other organizational processes, the actual consequences which it has, and the implications of these for organizational performance. The justifications given for accounting practice, both contemporary and prospective, not only have continued to reside in the technical domain but also have been content to draw on presumptions of its organizational desirability rather than a more pragmatic concern with its actual effects. The result is that accounting, although undoubtedly an influential part of organizational practice, nevertheless has remained an isolated craft, with its normative presuppositions only rarely tested against the very practical contexts that its practitioners somewhat paradoxically continue to emphasize.
