Harmonising intergroup relations within a professional body: The case of the ICAEW

Abstract

The leadership of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), from about 1948 onwards, began to transform its basic mission from representation of the interests of ‘public accountants’ to representation of the interests of ‘chartered accountants’. This paper explains why and how chartered accountants in business achieved better recognition and representation within the ICAEW. It is known that the ICAEW's Taxation and Financial Relations (T&FR) Committee was the first committee in the history of the British accounting profession to take responsibility for drafting technical documents in general and Recommendations on Accounting Principles in particular. This paper examines the dynamics surrounding the creation of this key Institute committee on which business members were for the first time represented. It reveals that the T&FR Committee played a fundamental role in improving the level of integration between practising and business members by: (1) providing an effective mechanism for promoting contact and collaboration between practising and business members; (2) demonstrating the contribution that business-based accountants could make to the resolution of important technical issues of relevance to the accounting profession; and (3) creating a mechanism from which members with an enhanced perception of the role of business members could be elevated to positions on the ICAEW's ruling body, the Council.