Transforming or re-branding: whither management accounting?

Abstract

This paper critically reviews the accountancy profession’s strategies of managing the debate on the transformation of management accounting to management. It examines professionally generated literature on the new role of management accountants as enablers, creators of value, value-adding and business partners. It utilises insights from discourse theory, alliance networks and social closure to analyse how the accountancy profession is managing the transformation process, and particularly, illuminates the role of specialist recruitment agencies in perpetuating social closure. It finds that job specifications as stated in advertisements indicate that the roles of management accountants at lower levels have not changed, however at senior level a few companies demand the new roles. The paper concludes that literature from professional accountancy bodies, and the role of the specialist recruitment agents both foster closure thereby enabling the profession to manage the transition while at the same time reproducing itself.