The Common Body of Knowledge for CPAs: Some Problems in Analysis

Abstract

Someday someone must undertake a sociological analysis of the role of the study report in American society. Community leaders commission reports or conduct self studies on the extent and adequacy of community services. Corporations hire management consultants, some of whose reports are buried in dusty files. Government agencies conduct, or have conducted for them, surveys of their operation. Professions set up study commissions to examine all manner of things-their relation to government, their salary and fee scales, their ethics, and the adequacy of their training and performance. In a few cases, these surveys disclose gross mismanagement: usually when a crisis in an organization has been widely known. However, more often the survey reports little that was not known before-at least by the well informed. The sociology of the study report would not question whether a given set of recommendations was right or wrong. Instead it would examine the social process of the report. Who sponsored and promoted the study? What functions-manifest or latent-does it serve for them? Does it function to educate the elite or to postpone action? Or does it function to promote the special point of view of a radical minority? What are the preconceptions, the special strengths and short-comings of the views of the preparers and of the methodology employed by the study? And finally, are the report's findings buried, partially and slowly adopted, or used as a program for radical change? These questions are raised because of the appearance of Horizons for a Profession: The Common Body of Knowledge for Certified Public Ac-