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Accounting and the social: A pedagogic perspective
British Accounting Review (1992) 24, 219-233
A C C O U N T I N G A N D THE SOCIAL: A PEDAGOGIC PERSPECTIVE LINDA LEWIS University of Manchester
CHRISTOPHER HUMPHREY University of Manchester
DAVID OWEN University of Leeds The following paper provides an account o f a university course which attempts to emphasise the reflexive nature of accounting and society. To be more precise the course is designed to introduce students to notions of accounting and the social which may not be so apparent in other accounting courses which they have studied. This paper recounts the motivation for offering the course, the range o f material covered, the way the course is conducted and the way it has progressed dunng the last 5 years. Asjustificatxon for the exxstence of the course the pedagogical aims and benefits are interwoven and explained throughout the text.
INTRODUCTION Interest in social accounting, or at least the environmental dimension of the subject area, is undergoing a dramatic resurgence at the present time following a largely barren period during the Thatcher (and Reagan) era of the 1980s. Academic exploration of the theoretical and practical implications of the 'greening' of accountancy (Gray, 1990; 1992a; Gray & Laughhn, 1991; Owen, 1992) has been accompanied by exhortations from the highest levels within the UK accounting profession for accountants to respond to the environmental challenge (Lickiss, 1991). ~Furthermore, the international dimensions of a more socially and environmentally aware accounting are becoming increasingly apparent (International Institute for Sustainable Development et al., 1991; Roberts, 1990; 1991; 1992; United Nations, 1990; 1991). Unfortunately for advocates of a more socially relevant accounting, recent work by Gray (1992b) suggests that the above initiatives are eliciting little response from accountants at the level of the organisation in terms of developing 'environmentally related' accounting systems. For Gray, in Address correspondence to: Ms Lmda Lewis, Department of Accounting and Finance, Umverslty of'Manchester, Roscoe Braiding, Manchester M13 9PL, UK 0890-8389/92/030219 + 15 $08 00/0
© 1992 Academic Press Limited
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the development of organisational sensitivity, ' . . . accountants are clearly part o f the problem and practical, ethical and professional reasons argue that accountants should be part o f the solution' (p. 40). Significantly, there are worrying echoes here of a previous period, during the 1970s, when academic, and indeed professional (ASSC, 1975), advocacy o f socially aware accounting had a similarly minimal practical impact. It is perhaps apposite to recall here Mathews' (1986) argument, that further research and scholarly publications will achieve little in terms of the development of a socially responsible and relevant accounting, unless they are accompanied by the production o f professionals with a basic knowledge and acceptance o f the issues and claims made for social accounting. In our view, for 'green' accounting in the 1990s to avoid the fate of 'social' accounting in the 1970s there is a clear need for the subject and all its relevant issues to be explored m the context o f the teaching function. Initially, one would assume, this would take place at undergraduate level (Mathews, 1986), as researchers overcome their reluctance to allow research interests to inform teaching practice, and subsequently within professional accounting curricula (Adams, 1992). This paper seeks to contribute to such an educative agenda by analysing the authors' own experiences m introducing social accounting into accounting education, via the development o f an undergraduate course option in Public Sector and Social Accounting at the University of Manchester. BACKGROUND The Public Sector and Social Accounting course is available to final year BA (Econ) students, who may, or may not, be specialising in accounting. Addit~onally, the option can also be taken by joint honours students studying either computer science and accounting or law and accounting. The course was started in 1986 and has therefore, at the time o f writing, operated for 5 years. Students from all three degrees have taken the course though most students have tended to be accounting specialists, w~thm the degree of BA E c o n . 2 As the title of the course suggests there are two parts to the syllabus, with two lecturers each takmg one term (10 h) o f lectures. While being taught as two distinct parts, the course remains an integrated one, with both parts of the course discussing a number of c o m m o n themes concerning varying notions of social responsibility and performance measurement. C H O O S I N G T O DEVELOP A PUBLIC SECTOR A N D SOCIAL A C C O U N T I N G C O U R S E The course was developed for a number o f reasons. O f greatest impetus was the belief that there was a general lack o f coverage m undergraduate
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accounting teaching of a number of key issues wbach were being examined and debated in academic research. These issues relate to the social aspects o f accounting and address notions of social responsibility and accountability. They are concerned with the relevance and importance of accounting for the non-financial in both the public and the private sectors. There was, and, arguably, in the main still is within accounting degree curricula, a continuing privileging of the private sector, and o f the financial over the social, together with a reluctance to explore the ethical dimension of the current economic and political structures underpinning accounting practice (Tinker, 1985; Lehman, 1988). Furthermore, the social or the public sector has tended to be portrayed as the exception to the norm, as additions to, rather than inherent elements of, processes of accountability. It was noticeable that if social issues were mentioned in accounting courses they tended to be given only a cursory treatment, largely as an adjunct to an examination of the typical marginalist corporate model, with its assumptions of profit seeking organisations and maximisation of shareholder wealth. As such, issues that might be raised in social accounting were predominantly assumed by undergraduate students to be largely peripheral (or in some cases irrelevant), confined to the 'dead end' world of the public sector. We were aware that such a state of affairs was by no means unique to Manchester. However, what proved to us to be increasingly disconcerting was that the maintenance of such a position seemed to be facilitated by a seemingly schizophrenic attitude among accounting academics. Alternative perspectives on accounting which were being discussed in research arenas generally appeared to be given little coverage by those same academics in their teaching. The existence of such research material helped frame the basic focus of our course in social and public sector accounting. A key aim was to rectit~ the then existing failure to fully acknowledge the stakeholder approach (ASSC, 1975) and its numerous implications concerning the social responsibilities of orgamsations. O f equal concern was to help students appreciate more the extent to which accounting is implicated in society and h o w it can be used to maintain and reinforce the status quo (see, for example, Cooper and Sherer, 1984; Tinker, 1991; Tinker, Lehman & Neimark, 1991). It was felt that a fuller or deeper analysis of the issues raised in social accounting would allow students to develop a more critically evaluative insight into the discipline of accounting itself. In particular, it was hoped that the course would make students more aware of h o w tightly controlled accounting is in defining what can and what cannot be 'accounted' for (Hines, 1988; 1989). In this way a better understanding of accounting as a social science would be obtained rather than the perception that accountlng is a collection o f diverse and technical skills. In other words, it was not intended that students would be learning about social accounting
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per se but rather come to understand and appreciate accounting's position in the social fabric o f which it is part (Laughlin, Lowe & Puxty, 1986). In order to enhance students' understanding o f the functioning of accounting in society, it was felt to be particularly important for the course to give detailed consideration to the role o f accounting and accountants in the public sector. In recent years this has proved to be an area o f signifcant development for accounting, with all public sector organisatlons bearing some witness to the dictates and pressures for value for money, efficiency, indicators of cost-effectiveness and the like. Such pressure has brought traditional, quantitative, cost-based accounting systems into the realms o f the qualitative and the non-financial. In so doing, it has provided a rich source o f material for enhancing understanding o f the forces giving motion to accounting change, the particular functioning of accounting systems in action, the intended and unintended consequences they produce and the interests they serve (see, for example, Hopwood, 1984; 1985; Pollitt, 1986; Colville, 1989; Jones, 1991; Humphrey, 1991; Broadbent, Laughlin & Read, 1991). As was the case with social accounting and social responsibility, such insights from the public sector were most notable by their absence from existing accounting courses while achieving increasing recognition in the research literature. SELECTING C O U R S E TEXTS A N D READINGS A useful starting point for the social accounting part of the course was the emergence o f a new text on social accounting jointly authored by one o f the course developers (Gray, O w e n & Maunders, 1987). This closely followed the publication o f Paper Prophets by Tinker (1985) which was seen to have helped to popularise a growing area of academic interest, and to have presented the issues in a manner readily understandable by undergraduate students. The choice of a public sector accounting text proved to be far more problematic. Ultimately, it was decided to structure this part of the course largely around journal articles and assign only background reading to textbooks. Accounting texts on the public sector (such as Glynn, 1987; Butt & Palmer, 1985; Henley, Holtham, Likierman & Perrin, 1986; Jowett & Rothwell, 1988; Rutherford, 1983) did not provide the depth o f critical analysis required for an adequate understanding o f the subject area. Rather, they largely provided descriptive summaries o f developments that had taken place in the arena o f public sector accounting and management, and listed the various elements o f systems o f accountability and control. In so doing, they failed to take account o f a growing literature which was highly sceptical o f the kind of scxentific management techniques being advocated within the public sector and did not distinguish between the acclaimed potential and practical
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possibilities of accounting-based reform (see Hopper, 1986; H o p w o o d , 1984; Humphrey, 1991). The adoption o f a textbook for the social accounting section o f the course did not prevent the use o f an extensive reading list. Students were referred to a variety of academic journals to ensure that they received as thorough a grounding as possible in varying notions of accountability and the role o f accounting in society. The social, o f course, is not an uncontested domain in the realm o f accounting (e.g. see Tinker, Lehman & Neimark, 1991; Benston, 1982; Schreuder & Ramanathan, 1982; and the 'debate' between Solomons (1991) and Tinker (1991) for an illuminating overview of the differing perspectives that can be adopted). Therefore, in developing the course our intention was to promote debate rather than lay down an alternative perceived 'wisdom'. In particular, while exploring various theoretical and applied social accounting models, the contribution of critical theorists w h o at root tend to classify both traditional and social accounting discourse as mere exercises in imminent legitimation (Puxty, 1986) received detailed consideration. A notable development in the construct~on of course readings was to refer students to a number o f papers • m the Accounting, Organizations and Society journal, which, despite their significance in the realms o f research, were, at that time, distinctly underutilised in accounting teaching. 3 Extensive reading lists were, and are still, used to encourage students to become selective and discriminating--to learn h o w to learn and to be able to form, and substantiate, their o w n views. This, however, has not always been achieved. Students taking the course have, at times, been too readily accepting of critiques of traditional perspectives of accounting, in much the same w a y as they had been perceived to be unwilling to challenge those same traditional notions of accounting put forward in other courses. Consequently, at one stage in the development of the social accounting course, it became noticeably difficult to generate class discussion and to stimulate appropriate critiques o f 'alternative' perspectives. This failing has been resolved to some extent by the introduction o f formal debates in tutorials. If, as implied earlier, other courses taken by students are imbalanced, such an attempt to encourage students to form substantiated views may not appear necessary. Yet there are strong pedagogical reasons to support the notion that students should be able to argue a case for or against the 'alternatives'. This helps the students develop their analytical skills and engenders a deeper understanding of the subject. S T R U C T U R E OF ASSESSMENT Course assessment has consisted o f a substantial project (of approximately 10,000 words) and an examination, with equal weighting being given to
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each. T h e project is designed to e n c o u r a g e creativity and serious study, therein facilitating a better understanding o f the course themes. Students have a great deal o f f r e e d o m in choosing a topic for their projects. T h e topic selected can be a n y t h i n g w h i c h is o f interest to the student as long as relevance to the course can be d e m o n s t r a t e d . T h e diversity o f projects chosen b y the students (shown in T a b l e 1) serves to indicate that this has not been a particularly binding constraint. Indeed, this v e r y diversity serves to indicate the pervasiveness o f accounting's role in society. A perceived benefit o f the project has been the w a y in w h i c h it has helped to bring to life, and personahse for the students, m a n y o f the issues that the course is dealing with. This p o i n t m a y be r e g a r d e d as being o f particular significance in v i e w o f Blundell & B o o t h ' s (1988) study, based on their experiences in i n t r o d u c i n g a social accounting course into a traditional degree p r o g r a m m e . Blundell and B o o t h suggested that a m a j o r obstacle to student acceptance o f such material lies in a general lack o f relevance to extant practice. In this respect, it has often b e c o m e clear to students during the course o f their project h o w the use o f a c c o u n t i n g in society is s y m b o l i c yet p o w e r f u l . T h e y see for themselves the w a y in w h i c h it can be used to rationalise and legitimise decisions and actions. In
TABLE 1 List of projects undertaken 1989-1991
The social responsibility of multinauonal corporations in less well developed countries Accountability no smaple solution: A focus on the probation service and the development of FMIS Local management in schools Influences on the fuller disclosure of company reformation for the purposes of collective bargaining The use of social rcportmg m the nuclear power industry Will pnvatlsatlon of the British Coal Corporation benefit Its stakeholders? The granting of self-governing trust status: A forcgone conclusion? Pursmt of the 3 E's. Myth or rcahty Charitable concerns or accounting concerns Applying measures of efficiency and effectiveness m the police force Operauon Granby: Cost or benefit~ Current funding problems m umversmes Accounting and the environment The role of accounting in the development of a sustainable economy Safety matters" Accounting for consumer safety The social responslbihty of banks towards developing countries Local authority reporting What the user needs? Will thc NHS whltc paper really work for pauents? The devclopment and impact of the UK Garden Festival movement
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other words the learning objective, that students understand and appreciate the role of accounting in society, can be achieved. THE USE OF LECTURES A N D T U T O R I A L S For the public sector, one particular problem has been the number of organisations and the wealth o f material. A way round this mass for a 10-week course has been to raise general issues, themes and principles in the lectures, providing broad reviews of material, and to present case studies of various organisations in the tutorials. This ties in with an emerging theme of the course which is the way that accounting theory can be developed through action-based research (see Scapens, 1990). 4 If anything, the course has gradually moved away from a perspective rooted in public administration to one in which the development of accounting theory through the perspectives and experiences of the public sector is more central. This part of the course has quite noticeably developed in a manner which mirrors developments in research with the growth of public sector case studies opening up the course as a venue for a discussion of recent developments in critical accounting theory (or whatever label is given to the problemisation o f the accounting function). As a result, we believe the course has become more theoretical and better integrated between theory and practice than when it first started out as a review of developments in different public sector organisations. The disadvantage of that initial approach was that many of the experiences of various organisations seemed to convey similar themes, which tended to make the course lectures somewhat repetitive. Focusing explicitly on such themes has heightened the level of analysis, and allowed room for a more serious questioning of the nature of the changes taking place within processes of public sector management and accountability. Such developments in the public sector accounting input help to ensure integration of the two parts o f the course by discussing, among other things, varying notions of social accountability and control and contrasting financial and non-financial performance measurement. Social accounting for the most part has to be considered from a similarly theoretical perspective. A reasoned portrayal of the subject is attempted by exploring the polemical philosophical debates which attempt to justify its existence or indeed to suggest w h y it has no relevance in accounting. The common themes of societal values and social concerns and the role of accounting in upholding or suppressing those concerns are examined through an analysis of the history o f social accounting in the UK, and internationally. Again, the growing availability o f research papers examining critically the practice o f accounting in organisations has helped to open up developments within the course, allowing particularly for a consideration of social responsibility
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Issues both within the organisation and also in terms o f its 'external' accountability. In relation to the material that is covered in the social accounting lectures, this has tended to be conveyed by showing the way that accounting in its traditional forms has impacted, often negatively, on society-both through its treatment or lack o f recognition o f 'externalities' and by the dominance o f a notion of'financial accountability to investors' which traditional financial accounting promulgates. The early part of the course sets the scene for a critique o f accounting based on examining differing conceptual bases for social accounting and exploring alternatives to the 'accounting' norm. Delving more deeply into the notion oforganisational stakeholders provides a wealth o f material which can be used to debate, discuss and question the belief that organisations have social responsibilities other than the maximisation o f shareholder wealth. It also means that the concept o f accountability can be analysed at a greater depth than may have been the case in earlier accounting courses taken by the students. Tutorials have tended to be more problematic. The theoretical and often philosophical nature o f the course means that a large amount o f reading by the students is necessary. Tutorials are usually discursive and tend to dwell on very similar themes. The problem o f balance was referred to above and was becoming increasingly evident in tutorials with the students all apparently holding very similar views. The aforementioned use o f debates In tutorials has served to reduce such tendencies and helped students to enhance their analytical skills and to become more confident in expressing their own (competing) views. We would see the continually developing nature of the course as one of its particular strengths in that such development is tied closely with advances m relevant accounting research. Such developments have enabled the public sector part o f the course to be much more concerned with analyses o f public sector management, accountability and matters o f accounting theory and less with describing the particular accounting functions within public sector organisations. The course analyses the results o f the attempts that have been, and are still being made, to change the public sector. From this analysis, deeper understandings of the role o f accounting in social change processes can be gained which, in turn, helps the student to develop a better appreciation o f the significance o f different accounting theory perspectives. A continuing analysis of the historical development o f social accounting has similar benefits, covering changes in social attitudes and values and examining the development o f competing notions as to where accounting stands in being able to influence or at least be a part of social change. For example, the last 2 years have seen the introduction o f a specific component
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on accounting for the environment in the social accounting section of the course as a means of highlighting the relationship between developments in accounting and changes in societal values. This is consistent with the course theme seeking to emphasise the reflexive nature of accounting and society. Debate on green issues and the general increase in society's awareness o f the environment and concern for the quality of life have served to focus on the issue of externalities resulting from corporate activity. This, in turn, has been useful in raising questions of corporate social responsibility, how social impact and social performance can be measured and accounted for and the role o f accountants. Significantly, students have commented in lecture questionnaires that studying green issues and the debate on the importance of the quatity of life in today's society has made the course relevant and topical to what they themselves perceive to be going on in the 'real world'. A brief indication of the current course content is provided in Table 2, which details the course syllabus and outline.
TABLE 2 Course outline No. of lectures 2
Social accounting
The role of accounting in society and introductxon to the concept of social accounting; accountability and corporate social responsibility International and domesuc developments in social reporting Corporate social reporting and accounting theory Pubhshed socml reports: Financial vs non-financial reporting, internally produced reports vs. externally produced reports-the social au&ts Accounting for the enwronment Accountability to the workforce--employee reporting. The use of informatxon in collective bargaining Pubhc sector
Accounting, accountabihty and the 'new' pubhc sector: structures of accountability and control Notions of orgamsational effectiveness Concepts of management Case study methodology and the development of accounting theory Understanding accounting in acuon In pubhc sector orgamsatlons Reflections and scenarios for the 1990s
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O N E STEP F O R W A R D A N D T W O STEPS B A C K - P R O B L E M S IN O P E R A T I N G T H E C O U R S E W h e n the course was first developed, the only realistic place for experiment was the final year o f BA Econ, where the vast bulk of accounting options were made available. Such a structure implicitly reflected the dominant departmental view that students in their first 2 years o f undergraduate study should receive a sufficient grounding in mainstream accounting concepts, and would then be able to apply such an understanding to more detailed and specialist areas o f study. Clearly, therefore, in this form, public sector and social accounting was not regarded as a core element o f the syllabus but rather as a bolt-on extra. Within thxs context, the course suffered initially from low student enrolment. The material had not been introduced in earlier years and the course consequently had no direct connection with prior accounting courses. This meant that students were largely judging the worthiness of studying social accounting on the basis o f their received accounting education and their preconceptions as to the function o f an accounting degree. The predominant emphasis on shareholder wealth maximisauon, the well-known, general preference o f accounting students for technical material and a practical relevance to professional accounting practice all served to portray a social accounting course in a distinctly unattractive light. Some of these problems were temporarily rectified when one o f the lecturers began to teach on the second-year Financial Accounting course, and dealt at an introductory level with issues of social accountability and accounting. The third year numbers increased considerably and it appeared that awareness had aroused interest in the topics to be covered an the course. Such a respite proved to be only temporary when in 1989/90 a change in lecturing personnel led to the second-year Financial Accounting course being taught from a predominantly agency, capital market perspective and material on social accounting being notably downscaled. Student numbers fell dramatically (see Table 3). Students w h o still chose to take the social and public sector course noticeably struggled to make requisite transitions in their perceptions o f accounting, n o w firmly rooted in a managerial and finance capital perspective, and were less open to accept and understand alternative perspectives. The decline in student numbers might, o f course, be seen as a reflection o f a poorly taught, or extensively difficult, course. Some evidence that this was not the case can be obtained from questionnaires distributed to students taking the course. While producing the usual low response rate, the responses received generally support the notion that whale students found the course difficult, they also viewed it as being both Interesting and stimulating. The topical nature o f the course's subject
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TABLE 3 Student numbers 1986-1991
Year
Number of students takmg the course
Single and joint honours accounting students
1986/87 1987/88 1988/89 1989/90 1990/91
12 15 25 32 19
118 133 138 132 128
matter was seen as having had a key motivating role, allowing students to apply their academic knowledge to what they saw as real life problems and matters of public concern. The student questionnaires gave no indication that the course was perceived as being taught in a less competent manner than other courses. The above discussion raises a critical point regarding the nature and structure of academic accounting education. The type of material and alternative perspectives being covered in the Social and Public Sector Accounting course are of such a nature that, given the nature of development o f accounting knowledge, surely cannot be left out of a mainstream accounting degree. It can hardly be acceptable to have students entering their final year admitting that they did not know there was such a thing as public sector accounting until they enrolled on the course. This point becomes increasingly important given the growing acceptance of the notion o f multi-disciplinary influences on the nature of accounting, with accountants and accounting techniques pervadmg various aspects of social hfe. To fail to reflect such perspecuves and influences arguably runs the danger o f turning accounting academic departments into proxy vocational training grounds for the accounting profession with future practitioners thereby coming to behave more as servants of authority than leaders of change (Baxter, 1981). Such fears have been forthrightly expounded by Zeff (1989) in the context of US educational developments and have indeed evoked a growing response at institutional levels (see Accounting Education Change Commission, 1990; Patten & Williams, 1990; Williams, 1991). A trend towards more rigorous enforcement of professionally led accreditation standards, consequent upon a perceived need to 'train the business professional' (ICAEW, 1987) has been apparent recently in the U K (see Gray, 1991). However, the recent retreat by the professional accounting bodies on the issue of 'specially relevant' degrees perhaps signifies a similar acceptance of the need for experimentation and renovation in accounting degree curricula if graduates are to be suitably
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equipped to face the demands being placed on accounting in a rapidly changing social and economic environment. Recent discussions at Manchester as to the nature and content o f 'core accounting' material gave due notice to such concerns. These discussions have resulted in the incorporation o f social and public sector accounting as a core component o f all first- and second-year accounting courses (financial accounting, management accounting and finance). It was hoped that such a development (operational from October 1991) would help to restore the numbers on the final year Public Sector and Social Accounting course and, more fundamentally, help to ensure that undergraduate accounting students gain an adequate appreciation o f the ever emerging 'alternative perspectives' on the role and functioning o f accounting in society. W e await the day when such perspectives are no longer regarded as 'alternative', although that may make redundant a specialist public sector and social accounting course. CONCLUDING
COMMENTS
The last 10 to 15 years in accounting research have seen a tremendous growth in analysis and understanding o f the socially constituted nature of accounting. It is no longer seen as a neutral, technical device, with an almost natural rationality but rather as a subjective, diverse and interested phenomenon, related to and not separate from the social and political context. This paper has sought to analyse the attempt at one U K university to introduce such research developments into mainstream accounting undergraduate teaching through the development of a social and public sector accounting course. Each area has served as a fruitful focal point of analysis m that they have witnessed both normative discussion as to the nature and content o f accounting systems and reports, and theoretically informed analyses of the functioning o f accounting in practice. Such an inter-related mix of theory and practice has been accommodated in the course through a variety o f teaching methods, from thematic lectures to case-based tutorials, from class debates to individually prepared projects. The course has served to open up a whole variety o f new agendas and perspectives on accounting and processes o f accountability for students. The contemporary nature o f many o f the issues covered in the course has proved to be particularly helpful in that students have been able to analyse issues o f personal concern. The course has had a mixed history in terms o f student uptake, and has at times struggled to overcome prejudices rooted in traditional, technical notions of the accounting craft. It is hoped that recent curricula changes at Manchester have helped to secure the immediate future o f the Public Sector and Social Accounting course. In
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o u r o p i n i o n it r e m a i n s n o less t h a n o u r r e s p o n s i b i l i t y as a c c o u n t i n g t e a c h e r s to p r o m o t e s u c h m a t e r i a l a n d to e n s u r e , at least, t h a t it f o r m s a p a r t o f u n d e r g r a d u a t e a c c o u n t i n g t e a c h i n g p r o g r a m s . A s D i l l a r d (1991, p. 25) points out: 'If we appreciate the power of accounting knowledge to influence resource allocauons and sustain control of dominant power g r o u p s . . , within the current socioeconomic environment, we can no longer ~gnore the moral, ettucal and political consequences of our trade. If we do so, we wdl continue as accessories, albe~t unwittmg/unwdling, m facilitating and perpetuating the ahenatlon of vast numbers of human beings. We can no longer be satisfied with only interpreting the world; we must behave as an active catalyst for change'.
NOTES 1 See Owen (1992) chapter 4, for an overview of the initial responses from the major UK professional bodies towards current trends in environmental awareness. 2. BA Econ accounting specialists will have stud~ed accounting as one of five courses in their first year (the other compulsory courses being from the dlsclphnes of economics, government, sociology and econometrics). In the second year, of their five courses, such students are reqmred to study at least two of the available accounting courses (these being financial accounting, management accounting and finance). In their five final-year courses, accounting speclahsts have to include a m i n i m u m of three further accounting courses (one of winch can comprise an accounting course not taken in the second year), chosen from a range of courses building on the 'core' material taught m the first 2 years. 3. Since the inception of the course, a number of new journals have been launched which seek to explore the interaction of accounting and the social, Including Advances m Public Interest Accounting (1986), Accounting, A u d m n g and Accountability Journal (1988) and Crmcal Perspectives m Accounting (1990). Addmonally, the journal Financial Accountabdity and Management (1985) has provided a forum to facilitate challenging analyses of accounting developments m the public sector. 4 Interestingly, such an 'Inductive' teaching style has been championed by other academics seeking to achieve acceptability of innovative material (see Blundell & Booth, 1988).
REFERENCES Accounting Education Change Commission (1990). 'Ob3ecuves of education for accountants" position statement' Issues in Accounting Education, 5, pp. 307-312. Accounting Standards Steering Committee (1975). The Corporate Report, London, ASSC. Adams, R (1991) ' W h y is the environmental debate of interest to accountants and accountancy bodies?, m D. Owen (ed.), Green Reporting: Accountancy and the Challenge of the Nineties, London, Chapman and Hall. Baxter, W. T. (1981). 'Accounting standards--boon or curse?', Accounting and Business Research, Winter, pp. 3-10. Benston, G J. (1982). 'Accounting and corporate accountability', Accounting, Organizations and Society, 7, pp. 87-105.
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Blundell, L. & Booth, P. (1988). 'Teaching mnovauve accounting topics: student reaction to a course m social accounting', Accounting and F, nance, May, pp. 75-85. B roadbent, J., Laughlin, R. & Raed, S. (1991). Recent financial and administrative changes m the NHS: A critical theory analysis, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 2, pp. 1-29. Butt, H. & Palmer, R. (1985). Value for Money m the Public Sector--The Decision-Maker's Guide, Basd Blackwell, Oxford. Colvllle, I. (1989). 'Scenes from a budget Helping the pohce with their accounting enquiries', Financial Accountability and Management, Summer, pp. 89-106. Cooper, D., Sherer, M. (1984). 'The value of accounting reports: Arguments for a political economy of accounting', Accounting, Organizations and Society, 9, pp. 207-232. Ddlard, J. (1991). Accounting as a critical social science, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 4, pp. 8-28. Glynn, J. J. (1987). Public Sector Financial Control and Accounting, Oxford, Basil Blackwell. Gray, R. H., Owen, D. L. & Maunders, K. T. (1987) Corporate Social Reporting: Accounting and Accountability, London, Prentice Hall International. Gray, R. H. (•990). The Greening of Accountancy: The Profession After Pearce, London, ACCA Gray, R. H. (1991). The Accounting Profession and the Environmental Crisis, Inaugral Lecture, University of Dundee. Gray, R. H. (1992a). 'Accounung and env,ronmentalism: An explorat,on of the challenge of gently accounting for accountabdlty, transparency and sustamablhty', Accounting, Organizations and Society, 17, pp. 399-425. Gray, R. H (1992b). The Greening of Enterprise. An Exploratwn of the (Non) Rule of Environmental Accounting and Environmental Accountants in Orgamsational Change, paper presented to British Accounting Association Annual Conference, University of Warwick, Aprd. Gray, R. H. & Laughhn, R C (1991). 'The coming of the green and the challenge of envlronmentahsm', Accounting, Auditing and Accountability (special issue on green accounting), pp. 5-8. Henley, D., Holtham, A., Llklerman, A. & Perrin, J. (1986). Public Sector Accounting and Financial Control, London, Van Nostrand Reinhold. Hines, R. (1988). Financml accounting: In communicating reality, we construct reahty, Accounting, Orgamzations and Society, 13, pp. 251-262. Hines, R. (1989). The soclopoimcal paradlgm m financial accounting research, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 2, pp. 52-76. Hopper, T. M. (1986). Private sector problems posing as public sector solutions, Public Finance and Accountancy, October, pp. 11-13 Hopwood, A. G. (1984). Account,ng and the pursmt of efficiency. In: A. G. Hopwood & C. Tomkms (eds), Issues m Public Sector Accounting, London, Phdlp Allan. Hopwood, A. G (1985). Accounting and the domain of the public: Some observations on current developments, The Price Waterhouse Public Lecture on Accounting, Umvers,ty of Leeds, November, 1985. Humphrey, C. G. ~1991). Accountable management m the pubhc sector In: D.J. Ashton, T M. Hopper & R. W. Scapens (eds), Issues in Management Accounting, London, Prentice Hall. International Institute for Sustainable Development/Business Council for Sustainable Development/DRT International (1991). Frameworkfor Corporate Reporting on Sustainable Development, Toronto, Deloltte and Touche/DRT International. Institute of Chartered Accountants m England and Wales (1987). Training the Business Professional, London, ICAEW. Jones, C S. 'Power, polmcal and theJarratt proposals for accounting m Brmsh umversmes' (1991). Financial Accountability and Management, Autumn, pp. 143-158.
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Jowatt, P. & RothweU, M. (1988). Performance Indicators in the Public Sector, London, MacMillan Press Ltd. Laughlin, R. C., Lowe, E. A. & Puxty, A. G. (1986). 'Designing and operating a course in accounting methodology: Philosophy, experience and some preliminary empirical tests', British Accounting Review, 18, pp. 17-42. Lehman, C. R. (1988). 'Accounting ethics: Solving survival of the fittest', Advance in Public Interest Accounting, 2, pp. 71-82. Llsklss, M. (1991). Measuring up to the environmental challenge, Accountancy,January, p. 6. Mathews, M. R. (1986). A tentative teaching programme for social accounting, paper presented at the American Accounting Association Annual Convention, New York. Owen, D. L. (1992). Green Reporting: Accountancy and the Challenge of the Nineties, London: Chapman and Hall. Patten, R. J. & Wrlhams, D. Z. (1990). 'There's trouble--right here in our accounting programs: The challenge to accounting educators', Issues re,Accounting Education, 5, pp. 175-179. Pollltt, C. (1986). 'Beyond the managerial model. The case for broadening performance assessments in government and the public service, Financial Accountability and Management', Autumn, pp. 155-170. Puxty, A G. (1986). 'Social accounting as immanent legitimation: Critique ofa techniclst ideology', In: M. Nelmark (ed.), Advances in Public Interest Accounting, 1, Connecticut, JAI Press Roberts, C. B. (1990). International Trends m Social and Employee Reporting, Occasional paper No. 6, London, ACCA. Roberts, C. B (1991). 'Environmental disclosures: A note on reporting practices in mainland Europe', Accounting, Auditing and AccountabilityJournal, 4, pp. 62-71 Roberts, C. B. (1992). Environmental disclosures in corporate annual reports in western Europe. In: D. L. Owen (ed.), Green Reporting: Accountancy and the challenge of the Nineties, London, Chapman and Hall. Rutherford, B. A (1983). Financial Reporting in the Public Sector, London, Butterworths. Scapens, R. W. (1990). 'Researching management accounting practice: The role of case study methods', British Accounting Review, 22, pp. 259-281. Schreuder, H. & Ramanathan, K. V. (1984). Accounting and corporate accountability-an external comment, Accounting, Organizations and Society, 9, pp. 409-415. Solomons, D. (1991) Accounting and social change: A neuralist view, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 287-295. Tinker, A. M. (1985). Paper Prophets: A Social Critique of Accounting, Eastbourne, Holt Saunders. Tinker, A M. (1991). 'The accountant as partisan', Accounting, Organizations and Society, 16, pp. 297-310. Tinker, A. M., Lehman, C. & Nelmark, M. (1991). 'Falling down the hole in the middle of the road: political quIetism m corporate social reporting', Accounting, Auditing and AccountabilityJournal, 4, pp. 28-54. Umted Nauons (1990) Economic and social council E/C 10/AC. 3/1990/5, Information Dzsclosure Relating to Environmental Measures, New York, U N United Nations (1991). Economic and social council E/C 10/AC. 3/1991/5, Accountingfor Environmental Protection Measures, New York, UN. Williams, D. Z. (1991). 'The challenge of change in accounting education', Issues in Accounting Education, 6, pp. 126-133. Zeff, S. A. (1989). 'Recent trends in accounting educauon and research in the USA" Some implicanons for UK academics', British Accounting Review, 21, pp. 159-176. Dates. Received 28 November 1991; final version received 1 June 1992
A C C O U N T I N G A N D THE SOCIAL: A PEDAGOGIC PERSPECTIVE LINDA LEWIS University of Manchester
CHRISTOPHER HUMPHREY University of Manchester
DAVID OWEN University of Leeds The following paper provides an account o f a university course which attempts to emphasise the reflexive nature of accounting and society. To be more precise the course is designed to introduce students to notions of accounting and the social which may not be so apparent in other accounting courses which they have studied. This paper recounts the motivation for offering the course, the range o f material covered, the way the course is conducted and the way it has progressed dunng the last 5 years. Asjustificatxon for the exxstence of the course the pedagogical aims and benefits are interwoven and explained throughout the text.
INTRODUCTION Interest in social accounting, or at least the environmental dimension of the subject area, is undergoing a dramatic resurgence at the present time following a largely barren period during the Thatcher (and Reagan) era of the 1980s. Academic exploration of the theoretical and practical implications of the 'greening' of accountancy (Gray, 1990; 1992a; Gray & Laughhn, 1991; Owen, 1992) has been accompanied by exhortations from the highest levels within the UK accounting profession for accountants to respond to the environmental challenge (Lickiss, 1991). ~Furthermore, the international dimensions of a more socially and environmentally aware accounting are becoming increasingly apparent (International Institute for Sustainable Development et al., 1991; Roberts, 1990; 1991; 1992; United Nations, 1990; 1991). Unfortunately for advocates of a more socially relevant accounting, recent work by Gray (1992b) suggests that the above initiatives are eliciting little response from accountants at the level of the organisation in terms of developing 'environmentally related' accounting systems. For Gray, in Address correspondence to: Ms Lmda Lewis, Department of Accounting and Finance, Umverslty of'Manchester, Roscoe Braiding, Manchester M13 9PL, UK 0890-8389/92/030219 + 15 $08 00/0
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the development of organisational sensitivity, ' . . . accountants are clearly part o f the problem and practical, ethical and professional reasons argue that accountants should be part o f the solution' (p. 40). Significantly, there are worrying echoes here of a previous period, during the 1970s, when academic, and indeed professional (ASSC, 1975), advocacy o f socially aware accounting had a similarly minimal practical impact. It is perhaps apposite to recall here Mathews' (1986) argument, that further research and scholarly publications will achieve little in terms of the development of a socially responsible and relevant accounting, unless they are accompanied by the production o f professionals with a basic knowledge and acceptance o f the issues and claims made for social accounting. In our view, for 'green' accounting in the 1990s to avoid the fate of 'social' accounting in the 1970s there is a clear need for the subject and all its relevant issues to be explored m the context o f the teaching function. Initially, one would assume, this would take place at undergraduate level (Mathews, 1986), as researchers overcome their reluctance to allow research interests to inform teaching practice, and subsequently within professional accounting curricula (Adams, 1992). This paper seeks to contribute to such an educative agenda by analysing the authors' own experiences m introducing social accounting into accounting education, via the development o f an undergraduate course option in Public Sector and Social Accounting at the University of Manchester. BACKGROUND The Public Sector and Social Accounting course is available to final year BA (Econ) students, who may, or may not, be specialising in accounting. Addit~onally, the option can also be taken by joint honours students studying either computer science and accounting or law and accounting. The course was started in 1986 and has therefore, at the time o f writing, operated for 5 years. Students from all three degrees have taken the course though most students have tended to be accounting specialists, w~thm the degree of BA E c o n . 2 As the title of the course suggests there are two parts to the syllabus, with two lecturers each takmg one term (10 h) o f lectures. While being taught as two distinct parts, the course remains an integrated one, with both parts of the course discussing a number of c o m m o n themes concerning varying notions of social responsibility and performance measurement. C H O O S I N G T O DEVELOP A PUBLIC SECTOR A N D SOCIAL A C C O U N T I N G C O U R S E The course was developed for a number o f reasons. O f greatest impetus was the belief that there was a general lack o f coverage m undergraduate
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accounting teaching of a number of key issues wbach were being examined and debated in academic research. These issues relate to the social aspects o f accounting and address notions of social responsibility and accountability. They are concerned with the relevance and importance of accounting for the non-financial in both the public and the private sectors. There was, and, arguably, in the main still is within accounting degree curricula, a continuing privileging of the private sector, and o f the financial over the social, together with a reluctance to explore the ethical dimension of the current economic and political structures underpinning accounting practice (Tinker, 1985; Lehman, 1988). Furthermore, the social or the public sector has tended to be portrayed as the exception to the norm, as additions to, rather than inherent elements of, processes of accountability. It was noticeable that if social issues were mentioned in accounting courses they tended to be given only a cursory treatment, largely as an adjunct to an examination of the typical marginalist corporate model, with its assumptions of profit seeking organisations and maximisation of shareholder wealth. As such, issues that might be raised in social accounting were predominantly assumed by undergraduate students to be largely peripheral (or in some cases irrelevant), confined to the 'dead end' world of the public sector. We were aware that such a state of affairs was by no means unique to Manchester. However, what proved to us to be increasingly disconcerting was that the maintenance of such a position seemed to be facilitated by a seemingly schizophrenic attitude among accounting academics. Alternative perspectives on accounting which were being discussed in research arenas generally appeared to be given little coverage by those same academics in their teaching. The existence of such research material helped frame the basic focus of our course in social and public sector accounting. A key aim was to rectit~ the then existing failure to fully acknowledge the stakeholder approach (ASSC, 1975) and its numerous implications concerning the social responsibilities of orgamsations. O f equal concern was to help students appreciate more the extent to which accounting is implicated in society and h o w it can be used to maintain and reinforce the status quo (see, for example, Cooper and Sherer, 1984; Tinker, 1991; Tinker, Lehman & Neimark, 1991). It was felt that a fuller or deeper analysis of the issues raised in social accounting would allow students to develop a more critically evaluative insight into the discipline of accounting itself. In particular, it was hoped that the course would make students more aware of h o w tightly controlled accounting is in defining what can and what cannot be 'accounted' for (Hines, 1988; 1989). In this way a better understanding of accounting as a social science would be obtained rather than the perception that accountlng is a collection o f diverse and technical skills. In other words, it was not intended that students would be learning about social accounting
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per se but rather come to understand and appreciate accounting's position in the social fabric o f which it is part (Laughlin, Lowe & Puxty, 1986). In order to enhance students' understanding o f the functioning of accounting in society, it was felt to be particularly important for the course to give detailed consideration to the role o f accounting and accountants in the public sector. In recent years this has proved to be an area o f signifcant development for accounting, with all public sector organisatlons bearing some witness to the dictates and pressures for value for money, efficiency, indicators of cost-effectiveness and the like. Such pressure has brought traditional, quantitative, cost-based accounting systems into the realms o f the qualitative and the non-financial. In so doing, it has provided a rich source o f material for enhancing understanding o f the forces giving motion to accounting change, the particular functioning of accounting systems in action, the intended and unintended consequences they produce and the interests they serve (see, for example, Hopwood, 1984; 1985; Pollitt, 1986; Colville, 1989; Jones, 1991; Humphrey, 1991; Broadbent, Laughlin & Read, 1991). As was the case with social accounting and social responsibility, such insights from the public sector were most notable by their absence from existing accounting courses while achieving increasing recognition in the research literature. SELECTING C O U R S E TEXTS A N D READINGS A useful starting point for the social accounting part of the course was the emergence o f a new text on social accounting jointly authored by one o f the course developers (Gray, O w e n & Maunders, 1987). This closely followed the publication o f Paper Prophets by Tinker (1985) which was seen to have helped to popularise a growing area of academic interest, and to have presented the issues in a manner readily understandable by undergraduate students. The choice of a public sector accounting text proved to be far more problematic. Ultimately, it was decided to structure this part of the course largely around journal articles and assign only background reading to textbooks. Accounting texts on the public sector (such as Glynn, 1987; Butt & Palmer, 1985; Henley, Holtham, Likierman & Perrin, 1986; Jowett & Rothwell, 1988; Rutherford, 1983) did not provide the depth o f critical analysis required for an adequate understanding o f the subject area. Rather, they largely provided descriptive summaries o f developments that had taken place in the arena o f public sector accounting and management, and listed the various elements o f systems o f accountability and control. In so doing, they failed to take account o f a growing literature which was highly sceptical o f the kind of scxentific management techniques being advocated within the public sector and did not distinguish between the acclaimed potential and practical
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possibilities of accounting-based reform (see Hopper, 1986; H o p w o o d , 1984; Humphrey, 1991). The adoption o f a textbook for the social accounting section o f the course did not prevent the use o f an extensive reading list. Students were referred to a variety of academic journals to ensure that they received as thorough a grounding as possible in varying notions of accountability and the role o f accounting in society. The social, o f course, is not an uncontested domain in the realm o f accounting (e.g. see Tinker, Lehman & Neimark, 1991; Benston, 1982; Schreuder & Ramanathan, 1982; and the 'debate' between Solomons (1991) and Tinker (1991) for an illuminating overview of the differing perspectives that can be adopted). Therefore, in developing the course our intention was to promote debate rather than lay down an alternative perceived 'wisdom'. In particular, while exploring various theoretical and applied social accounting models, the contribution of critical theorists w h o at root tend to classify both traditional and social accounting discourse as mere exercises in imminent legitimation (Puxty, 1986) received detailed consideration. A notable development in the construct~on of course readings was to refer students to a number o f papers • m the Accounting, Organizations and Society journal, which, despite their significance in the realms o f research, were, at that time, distinctly underutilised in accounting teaching. 3 Extensive reading lists were, and are still, used to encourage students to become selective and discriminating--to learn h o w to learn and to be able to form, and substantiate, their o w n views. This, however, has not always been achieved. Students taking the course have, at times, been too readily accepting of critiques of traditional perspectives of accounting, in much the same w a y as they had been perceived to be unwilling to challenge those same traditional notions of accounting put forward in other courses. Consequently, at one stage in the development of the social accounting course, it became noticeably difficult to generate class discussion and to stimulate appropriate critiques o f 'alternative' perspectives. This failing has been resolved to some extent by the introduction o f formal debates in tutorials. If, as implied earlier, other courses taken by students are imbalanced, such an attempt to encourage students to form substantiated views may not appear necessary. Yet there are strong pedagogical reasons to support the notion that students should be able to argue a case for or against the 'alternatives'. This helps the students develop their analytical skills and engenders a deeper understanding of the subject. S T R U C T U R E OF ASSESSMENT Course assessment has consisted o f a substantial project (of approximately 10,000 words) and an examination, with equal weighting being given to
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each. T h e project is designed to e n c o u r a g e creativity and serious study, therein facilitating a better understanding o f the course themes. Students have a great deal o f f r e e d o m in choosing a topic for their projects. T h e topic selected can be a n y t h i n g w h i c h is o f interest to the student as long as relevance to the course can be d e m o n s t r a t e d . T h e diversity o f projects chosen b y the students (shown in T a b l e 1) serves to indicate that this has not been a particularly binding constraint. Indeed, this v e r y diversity serves to indicate the pervasiveness o f accounting's role in society. A perceived benefit o f the project has been the w a y in w h i c h it has helped to bring to life, and personahse for the students, m a n y o f the issues that the course is dealing with. This p o i n t m a y be r e g a r d e d as being o f particular significance in v i e w o f Blundell & B o o t h ' s (1988) study, based on their experiences in i n t r o d u c i n g a social accounting course into a traditional degree p r o g r a m m e . Blundell and B o o t h suggested that a m a j o r obstacle to student acceptance o f such material lies in a general lack o f relevance to extant practice. In this respect, it has often b e c o m e clear to students during the course o f their project h o w the use o f a c c o u n t i n g in society is s y m b o l i c yet p o w e r f u l . T h e y see for themselves the w a y in w h i c h it can be used to rationalise and legitimise decisions and actions. In
TABLE 1 List of projects undertaken 1989-1991
The social responsibility of multinauonal corporations in less well developed countries Accountability no smaple solution: A focus on the probation service and the development of FMIS Local management in schools Influences on the fuller disclosure of company reformation for the purposes of collective bargaining The use of social rcportmg m the nuclear power industry Will pnvatlsatlon of the British Coal Corporation benefit Its stakeholders? The granting of self-governing trust status: A forcgone conclusion? Pursmt of the 3 E's. Myth or rcahty Charitable concerns or accounting concerns Applying measures of efficiency and effectiveness m the police force Operauon Granby: Cost or benefit~ Current funding problems m umversmes Accounting and the environment The role of accounting in the development of a sustainable economy Safety matters" Accounting for consumer safety The social responslbihty of banks towards developing countries Local authority reporting What the user needs? Will thc NHS whltc paper really work for pauents? The devclopment and impact of the UK Garden Festival movement
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other words the learning objective, that students understand and appreciate the role of accounting in society, can be achieved. THE USE OF LECTURES A N D T U T O R I A L S For the public sector, one particular problem has been the number of organisations and the wealth o f material. A way round this mass for a 10-week course has been to raise general issues, themes and principles in the lectures, providing broad reviews of material, and to present case studies of various organisations in the tutorials. This ties in with an emerging theme of the course which is the way that accounting theory can be developed through action-based research (see Scapens, 1990). 4 If anything, the course has gradually moved away from a perspective rooted in public administration to one in which the development of accounting theory through the perspectives and experiences of the public sector is more central. This part of the course has quite noticeably developed in a manner which mirrors developments in research with the growth of public sector case studies opening up the course as a venue for a discussion of recent developments in critical accounting theory (or whatever label is given to the problemisation o f the accounting function). As a result, we believe the course has become more theoretical and better integrated between theory and practice than when it first started out as a review of developments in different public sector organisations. The disadvantage of that initial approach was that many of the experiences of various organisations seemed to convey similar themes, which tended to make the course lectures somewhat repetitive. Focusing explicitly on such themes has heightened the level of analysis, and allowed room for a more serious questioning of the nature of the changes taking place within processes of public sector management and accountability. Such developments in the public sector accounting input help to ensure integration of the two parts o f the course by discussing, among other things, varying notions of social accountability and control and contrasting financial and non-financial performance measurement. Social accounting for the most part has to be considered from a similarly theoretical perspective. A reasoned portrayal of the subject is attempted by exploring the polemical philosophical debates which attempt to justify its existence or indeed to suggest w h y it has no relevance in accounting. The common themes of societal values and social concerns and the role of accounting in upholding or suppressing those concerns are examined through an analysis of the history o f social accounting in the UK, and internationally. Again, the growing availability o f research papers examining critically the practice o f accounting in organisations has helped to open up developments within the course, allowing particularly for a consideration of social responsibility
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Issues both within the organisation and also in terms o f its 'external' accountability. In relation to the material that is covered in the social accounting lectures, this has tended to be conveyed by showing the way that accounting in its traditional forms has impacted, often negatively, on society-both through its treatment or lack o f recognition o f 'externalities' and by the dominance o f a notion of'financial accountability to investors' which traditional financial accounting promulgates. The early part of the course sets the scene for a critique o f accounting based on examining differing conceptual bases for social accounting and exploring alternatives to the 'accounting' norm. Delving more deeply into the notion oforganisational stakeholders provides a wealth o f material which can be used to debate, discuss and question the belief that organisations have social responsibilities other than the maximisation o f shareholder wealth. It also means that the concept o f accountability can be analysed at a greater depth than may have been the case in earlier accounting courses taken by the students. Tutorials have tended to be more problematic. The theoretical and often philosophical nature o f the course means that a large amount o f reading by the students is necessary. Tutorials are usually discursive and tend to dwell on very similar themes. The problem o f balance was referred to above and was becoming increasingly evident in tutorials with the students all apparently holding very similar views. The aforementioned use o f debates In tutorials has served to reduce such tendencies and helped students to enhance their analytical skills and to become more confident in expressing their own (competing) views. We would see the continually developing nature of the course as one of its particular strengths in that such development is tied closely with advances m relevant accounting research. Such developments have enabled the public sector part o f the course to be much more concerned with analyses o f public sector management, accountability and matters o f accounting theory and less with describing the particular accounting functions within public sector organisations. The course analyses the results o f the attempts that have been, and are still being made, to change the public sector. From this analysis, deeper understandings of the role o f accounting in social change processes can be gained which, in turn, helps the student to develop a better appreciation o f the significance o f different accounting theory perspectives. A continuing analysis of the historical development o f social accounting has similar benefits, covering changes in social attitudes and values and examining the development o f competing notions as to where accounting stands in being able to influence or at least be a part of social change. For example, the last 2 years have seen the introduction o f a specific component
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on accounting for the environment in the social accounting section of the course as a means of highlighting the relationship between developments in accounting and changes in societal values. This is consistent with the course theme seeking to emphasise the reflexive nature of accounting and society. Debate on green issues and the general increase in society's awareness o f the environment and concern for the quality of life have served to focus on the issue of externalities resulting from corporate activity. This, in turn, has been useful in raising questions of corporate social responsibility, how social impact and social performance can be measured and accounted for and the role o f accountants. Significantly, students have commented in lecture questionnaires that studying green issues and the debate on the importance of the quatity of life in today's society has made the course relevant and topical to what they themselves perceive to be going on in the 'real world'. A brief indication of the current course content is provided in Table 2, which details the course syllabus and outline.
TABLE 2 Course outline No. of lectures 2
Social accounting
The role of accounting in society and introductxon to the concept of social accounting; accountability and corporate social responsibility International and domesuc developments in social reporting Corporate social reporting and accounting theory Pubhshed socml reports: Financial vs non-financial reporting, internally produced reports vs. externally produced reports-the social au&ts Accounting for the enwronment Accountability to the workforce--employee reporting. The use of informatxon in collective bargaining Pubhc sector
Accounting, accountabihty and the 'new' pubhc sector: structures of accountability and control Notions of orgamsational effectiveness Concepts of management Case study methodology and the development of accounting theory Understanding accounting in acuon In pubhc sector orgamsatlons Reflections and scenarios for the 1990s
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O N E STEP F O R W A R D A N D T W O STEPS B A C K - P R O B L E M S IN O P E R A T I N G T H E C O U R S E W h e n the course was first developed, the only realistic place for experiment was the final year o f BA Econ, where the vast bulk of accounting options were made available. Such a structure implicitly reflected the dominant departmental view that students in their first 2 years o f undergraduate study should receive a sufficient grounding in mainstream accounting concepts, and would then be able to apply such an understanding to more detailed and specialist areas o f study. Clearly, therefore, in this form, public sector and social accounting was not regarded as a core element o f the syllabus but rather as a bolt-on extra. Within thxs context, the course suffered initially from low student enrolment. The material had not been introduced in earlier years and the course consequently had no direct connection with prior accounting courses. This meant that students were largely judging the worthiness of studying social accounting on the basis o f their received accounting education and their preconceptions as to the function o f an accounting degree. The predominant emphasis on shareholder wealth maximisauon, the well-known, general preference o f accounting students for technical material and a practical relevance to professional accounting practice all served to portray a social accounting course in a distinctly unattractive light. Some of these problems were temporarily rectified when one o f the lecturers began to teach on the second-year Financial Accounting course, and dealt at an introductory level with issues of social accountability and accounting. The third year numbers increased considerably and it appeared that awareness had aroused interest in the topics to be covered an the course. Such a respite proved to be only temporary when in 1989/90 a change in lecturing personnel led to the second-year Financial Accounting course being taught from a predominantly agency, capital market perspective and material on social accounting being notably downscaled. Student numbers fell dramatically (see Table 3). Students w h o still chose to take the social and public sector course noticeably struggled to make requisite transitions in their perceptions o f accounting, n o w firmly rooted in a managerial and finance capital perspective, and were less open to accept and understand alternative perspectives. The decline in student numbers might, o f course, be seen as a reflection o f a poorly taught, or extensively difficult, course. Some evidence that this was not the case can be obtained from questionnaires distributed to students taking the course. While producing the usual low response rate, the responses received generally support the notion that whale students found the course difficult, they also viewed it as being both Interesting and stimulating. The topical nature o f the course's subject
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TABLE 3 Student numbers 1986-1991
Year
Number of students takmg the course
Single and joint honours accounting students
1986/87 1987/88 1988/89 1989/90 1990/91
12 15 25 32 19
118 133 138 132 128
matter was seen as having had a key motivating role, allowing students to apply their academic knowledge to what they saw as real life problems and matters of public concern. The student questionnaires gave no indication that the course was perceived as being taught in a less competent manner than other courses. The above discussion raises a critical point regarding the nature and structure of academic accounting education. The type of material and alternative perspectives being covered in the Social and Public Sector Accounting course are of such a nature that, given the nature of development o f accounting knowledge, surely cannot be left out of a mainstream accounting degree. It can hardly be acceptable to have students entering their final year admitting that they did not know there was such a thing as public sector accounting until they enrolled on the course. This point becomes increasingly important given the growing acceptance of the notion o f multi-disciplinary influences on the nature of accounting, with accountants and accounting techniques pervadmg various aspects of social hfe. To fail to reflect such perspecuves and influences arguably runs the danger o f turning accounting academic departments into proxy vocational training grounds for the accounting profession with future practitioners thereby coming to behave more as servants of authority than leaders of change (Baxter, 1981). Such fears have been forthrightly expounded by Zeff (1989) in the context of US educational developments and have indeed evoked a growing response at institutional levels (see Accounting Education Change Commission, 1990; Patten & Williams, 1990; Williams, 1991). A trend towards more rigorous enforcement of professionally led accreditation standards, consequent upon a perceived need to 'train the business professional' (ICAEW, 1987) has been apparent recently in the U K (see Gray, 1991). However, the recent retreat by the professional accounting bodies on the issue of 'specially relevant' degrees perhaps signifies a similar acceptance of the need for experimentation and renovation in accounting degree curricula if graduates are to be suitably
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equipped to face the demands being placed on accounting in a rapidly changing social and economic environment. Recent discussions at Manchester as to the nature and content o f 'core accounting' material gave due notice to such concerns. These discussions have resulted in the incorporation o f social and public sector accounting as a core component o f all first- and second-year accounting courses (financial accounting, management accounting and finance). It was hoped that such a development (operational from October 1991) would help to restore the numbers on the final year Public Sector and Social Accounting course and, more fundamentally, help to ensure that undergraduate accounting students gain an adequate appreciation o f the ever emerging 'alternative perspectives' on the role and functioning o f accounting in society. W e await the day when such perspectives are no longer regarded as 'alternative', although that may make redundant a specialist public sector and social accounting course. CONCLUDING
COMMENTS
The last 10 to 15 years in accounting research have seen a tremendous growth in analysis and understanding o f the socially constituted nature of accounting. It is no longer seen as a neutral, technical device, with an almost natural rationality but rather as a subjective, diverse and interested phenomenon, related to and not separate from the social and political context. This paper has sought to analyse the attempt at one U K university to introduce such research developments into mainstream accounting undergraduate teaching through the development of a social and public sector accounting course. Each area has served as a fruitful focal point of analysis m that they have witnessed both normative discussion as to the nature and content o f accounting systems and reports, and theoretically informed analyses of the functioning o f accounting in practice. Such an inter-related mix of theory and practice has been accommodated in the course through a variety o f teaching methods, from thematic lectures to case-based tutorials, from class debates to individually prepared projects. The course has served to open up a whole variety o f new agendas and perspectives on accounting and processes o f accountability for students. The contemporary nature o f many o f the issues covered in the course has proved to be particularly helpful in that students have been able to analyse issues o f personal concern. The course has had a mixed history in terms o f student uptake, and has at times struggled to overcome prejudices rooted in traditional, technical notions of the accounting craft. It is hoped that recent curricula changes at Manchester have helped to secure the immediate future o f the Public Sector and Social Accounting course. In
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o u r o p i n i o n it r e m a i n s n o less t h a n o u r r e s p o n s i b i l i t y as a c c o u n t i n g t e a c h e r s to p r o m o t e s u c h m a t e r i a l a n d to e n s u r e , at least, t h a t it f o r m s a p a r t o f u n d e r g r a d u a t e a c c o u n t i n g t e a c h i n g p r o g r a m s . A s D i l l a r d (1991, p. 25) points out: 'If we appreciate the power of accounting knowledge to influence resource allocauons and sustain control of dominant power g r o u p s . . , within the current socioeconomic environment, we can no longer ~gnore the moral, ettucal and political consequences of our trade. If we do so, we wdl continue as accessories, albe~t unwittmg/unwdling, m facilitating and perpetuating the ahenatlon of vast numbers of human beings. We can no longer be satisfied with only interpreting the world; we must behave as an active catalyst for change'.
NOTES 1 See Owen (1992) chapter 4, for an overview of the initial responses from the major UK professional bodies towards current trends in environmental awareness. 2. BA Econ accounting specialists will have stud~ed accounting as one of five courses in their first year (the other compulsory courses being from the dlsclphnes of economics, government, sociology and econometrics). In the second year, of their five courses, such students are reqmred to study at least two of the available accounting courses (these being financial accounting, management accounting and finance). In their five final-year courses, accounting speclahsts have to include a m i n i m u m of three further accounting courses (one of winch can comprise an accounting course not taken in the second year), chosen from a range of courses building on the 'core' material taught m the first 2 years. 3. Since the inception of the course, a number of new journals have been launched which seek to explore the interaction of accounting and the social, Including Advances m Public Interest Accounting (1986), Accounting, A u d m n g and Accountability Journal (1988) and Crmcal Perspectives m Accounting (1990). Addmonally, the journal Financial Accountabdity and Management (1985) has provided a forum to facilitate challenging analyses of accounting developments m the public sector. 4 Interestingly, such an 'Inductive' teaching style has been championed by other academics seeking to achieve acceptability of innovative material (see Blundell & Booth, 1988).
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