ABSTRACT
Recently I have become ever more aware of how little we know about the actual functioning of accounting systems in organizations. We certainly have had numerous pleas for either a behavioural or an organizational awareness of the accounting craft and a good number of scholarly reviews of the potential of past, present and emergent psychological and sociological insights. Moreover there is still a growing number of laboratory simulations of situations inspired by our prevailing understandings of the accounting mission. Yet as valuable as all these endeavours may have been in stimulating interest in the area, it has to be admitted that as yet we have precious few descriptions, let alone understandings of accounting systems as they operate in organizations.
