The Changing Role of Accounting Professionals in Business in Sri Lanka with the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This explanatory case study unravels the changing role of accounting professionals in business in Sri Lanka from a ‘scorekeeper’ to a ‘business consultant’, with the COVID-19 pandemic. In accounting research relevant to professional work outside the regulatory realm of accounting, which evolved as accounting for business, has been largely neglected. However, this study contributes to it by focusing on the changing role of accounting professionals in business in a particular territory; Sri Lanka, with the crisis; of the COVID-19 pandemic. Adopting a qualitative methodological approach, data was collected from multiple sources and was analysed by thematic analysis. The theoretical framework was developed by drawing from Abbott’s (1988) writings in the sociological analysis of professions on how external forces and events occurring in the political, economic, and social spheres bring in autonomous shifts in cultural values and thereby change the demand for professional work. This paper concludes that during the COVID-19 crisis prevailed in Sri Lanka, accounting professionals in business were required to perform work as internal business consultants in multidisciplinary teams, with a business sense, and understanding of the business processes. The paper has significant practical implications in requiring accounting professionals in business to adapt their knowledge base to contextual changes with the events occurring during a crisis when performing work to bring about resilience within the business. This paper contributes to the literature by focusing on the work of accounting professionals in business.