Dila Agrizzi

Professionalizing Claims and the State of UK Professional Accounting Education: Some Evidence

Abstract In advancing the ‘professionalizing’ claims, the UK accountancy bodies emphasise that their members have command of practical and theoretical education, engage in ethical conduct, serve the public interest and act in a socially responsible way. However, such claims are routinely problematized by scandals that highlight the highly partisan role of accounting and accountants and failures of accounting education. Rather than undertaking a radical review of accounting education, the professional bodies seek to rebuild confidence in accounting and their jurisdictions by (re)affirming that accounting education is or will be devoted to producing reflective accountants through educational processes focussing on sound education principles, ethics, professional scepticism, lifelong learning opportunities, distinguishing between private and public interest and serving the public interest. These promises presuppose that students on professional accounting courses are exposed to such values. To advance the debate, this paper examines a number of financial accounting, auditing and management accounting books and finds that, beyond a technical and instrumental view of accounting, there is little discussion of theories, principles, ethics, public interest, globalization, scandals or social responsibility to produce socially reflective accountants.

Assessing English hospitals: contradiction and conflict

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the micro effects of performance measures introduced in England to control hospitals, following the changing context in the policy directing the delivery of healthcare introduced by the Labour Government. The legislative framework established in 1999 reflected a discontinuity in the way that hospitals are controlled in this country.Design/methodology/approach – This exploratory case study is a result of a deep empirical investigation. It draws on some aspects of Laughlins and Broadbent and Laughlins analysis of organisational change.Findings – This study indicates that, in seeking to change to meet the demands of a particular control device, this organisation pursued both proactive and reactive strategies. However, it was deflected from its intended pathway of change and, as a result, it failed to meet the intended outcomes. The pressure exerted by such a demand impacted on the hospitals activities in a conflicting way.Research limitations/implications – The paper e...

Conforming to accreditation in Iranian hospitals

Abstract This paper examines the operation of an accreditation programme for hospitals in Iran. It explores the process of accreditation as a regulatory control system and analyses hospitals’ responses to this type of control. We draw on the notion of steering and argue that the accreditation system is transactional in nature. Our findings show that hospitals conform to the scheme, although they also resist some of its requirements. On a wider policy level, we suggest that accreditations offer the accreditor the opportunity to impact on how activities are undertaken, but hospitals require incentives in order to make the necessary organisational changes.