Janine Nahapiet

The roles of accounting in organizations and society

Abstract The paper seeks to contrast the roles that have been claimed on behalf of accounting with the ways in which accounting functions in practice. It starts by examining the context in which rationales for practice are articulated and the adequacy of such claims. Thereafter consideration is given to how accounting is implicated in both organizational and social practice. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for accounting research.

Taking strategy seriously:responsibility and reform for an important social practice

Strategy is a pervasive and consequential practice in mostWestern societies. We respond to strategy’s importance by drawing an initial map of strategy as an organizational field that embraces not just firms, but consultancies, business schools, the state and financial institutions. Using the example of Enron, we show how the strategy field is prone to manipulations in which other actors in the field can easily become entrapped, with grave consequences. Given these consequences, we argue that it is time to take strategy seriously in three senses: undertaking systematic research on the field itself; developing appropriate responses to recent failures in the field; and building more heedful interrelationships between actors within the field, particularly between business schools and practitioners.

The rhetoric and reality of an accounting change: A study of resource allocation

Abstract This paper presents a case study of health service resource allocation as a basis for exploring how organizational members come to understand the meanings and implications of accounting change within the enterprise. The analysis describes how the significance of a new calculative process emerges over time, during which accounting both shapes and is in turn shaped by organizational reality. The paper concludes with a discussion of the interplay between the rhetoric and reality of accounting, reviewing the ways in which, as an expressive order, accounting provides a language for discourse, rules for guiding action and a way of establishing legitimacy in an institutionalised organization.

A comparison of contractual arrangements for building projects

This paper considers contracts from an organizational perspective, comparing the major forms of contracts available for building projects and examining the factors influencing their selection. The analysis is based on the finding of a study of ten building projects, six in the USA and four in the UK, together with the results of a survey of those prominent in the industry. A comparison of five different contractual arrangements indicates that they establish different patterns of responsibilities and relationships between clients and the various parties involved in building projects: In so doing, they are regarded as offering clients differing combinations of expertise, risk, flexibility and costs. For the projects studied, three factors were found to be related t o contract selection: the characteristics of clients, particularly their experience and expertise in construction, the level of performance required by clients and the construction complexity of projects. These findings, together with previous re...

Towards a framework for the study of the antecedents and consequences of information systems in organizations

Abstract Researchers and practitioners are increasingly emphasizing the need for the development of new forms of information systems to meet the changing requirements of their organizational users. If changes in information systems are to occur, they will need to be based on a comprehensive understanding of the antecedents and consequences of such systems within organizations. By focussing on the relationship which exists at the interface between information systems and their organizational context, the paper presents a framework within which systems can be studied and their consequences explained. In so doing, considerable importance is attached to the part played by the beliefs and expectations of those involved with both the development and use of information and control systems.