Accountingization of the pandemic multiple: enactments of perceived completeness in accounting representations

Abstract

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to add to knowledge regarding the role of accounting in managing a crisis, specifically to show the emergence of multiple and contesting accountings and their roles in governing crises.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical case concerns management of the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey. The analysis is qualitative and based on documents.FindingsThe analysis reveals different enactments of the pandemic multiple: scientific, business, political, patient and household. Within these, accounting representations were used in contention with each other. On the one hand, efforts were made to control the pandemic by testing, quarantines, curfews and other restrictions, supported by the accounts of managerial, political and economic calculations. On the other hand, these accounts were challenged by counter accounts using medical professional calculations.Originality/valueThis study adds new knowledge about the role of calculations in crises by elaborating on the emergence, persistence, transformation and proliferation of accounts that enabled accountingization of the crisis. By understanding the pandemic as an object multiple, I unpack the multiplicity of accounting representations in different enactments. The study also provides new insights into discussions regarding the (in)completeness of accounting. More specifically, different enactments of the pandemic multiple were supported by the perception of completeness among the actors in their accounting representations. The study explored how accounting sustains different versions of objects that existed before accounting while simultaneously trying to relate the different versions: there were both flows and closures between the different enactments of pandemic. In contrast to the argument that the relative completeness of accounting can resolve multiple tensions and that absences trigger innovation, I observed differing interactions among accounting representations while perceived completeness became the source of managing and coordinating the object multiple. That is, accounting is not only used for coordination but also for maintaining the closeness of each enactment of the pandemic.