Goffman's theory of frames and situated meaning-making in performance reviews. The case of a category management approach in the French retail sector

Abstract

Following the scholarly view of accounting as a social practice, this research explores the role of accounting in managers' ongoing efforts to effectively understand and influence organizational change in the course of a series of review meetings. To study the role of accounting in meaning-making processes - i.e. collective processes of ascribing meanings to experienced social situations - we develop a processual and semiotic view of Goffman's theory of frames. Central to the paper's argument is the concept of framing, defined as an ongoing social process of context production in an unfolding situation. In this perspective, accounting numbers are viewed as signs mediating situated interactions. This theoretical framework is applied to complex situations of negotiation between a retailer and sixteen suppliers, under a category management approach. The crucial finding of our research, illustrated empirically, is the plurality of competing frames and the occurrence of frame-shifting episodes, the process by which one frame is suddenly replaced with another frame that has a deeply different way of narrating the situation: this process is triggered by a specific event, and the frame shift has potentially significant effects on practices. The case study highlights the mediating role of frames, and the plasticity and vulnerability of framing processes. It exemplifies the dual nature of accounting numbers in situated meaning-making: they can be viewed simultaneously as generic models - parts of social frames - and singular events - parts of the current situation. Due to this dual nature, they can act as mediators between a singular situation and socially-constructed, generic classes of meaning.