Beyond the objectivist and the subjectivist: Learning to read accounting as text

Abstract

Accounting research, especially that focused on understanding accounting inits organizational context, is increasingly recognizing the “subjective” as a realm of interest distinct from the “objective” realm that previously had been its predominant concern. This paper argues that although it is a step forward for accounting research to recognize both the “subjective” and the “objective” as valid concerns, it is a mistake to pose a dichotomy between the two or to suggest that there are two different kinds of researchers (objectivist and subjectivist) who appropriately focus on one realm of experience or another. The hermeneutic turn which is taking place in the broader social sciences and which is reflected in the appearance of subjectivist accounting research, is properly understood as a rejection of the subjective-objective dichotomy. The hermeneutic turn appreciates that our knowledge of accounting and organizations is not guaranteed by a method that separates the objective from the subjective in order to penetrate to the “laws” of the social universe. Instead, our knowledge of accounting and organizations is constructed through a social practice in which such distinctions are not meaningful. Morgan's recent book, Images of Organization (Morgan, 1986), goes beyond the false dichotomy between the subjectivist and the objectivist and present eight image-based readings of organization. In this paper I give a reading of his text that relates it to the hermeneutic turn in the social sciences and explores its implications for understanding accounting in its organizational context as well as for doing accounting research.