What is shown, what is hidden: Compulsory disclosure as a spectacle

Abstract

Abstract Although the situationist theory of the spectacle has proved much influence in some cultural and intellectual areas, it is not yet recognized as a fundament of criticism in management and accounting. The latter trend relies either on neo-Marxist theory or on sociological analysis. Nevertheless, some authors have pointed out – sometimes explicitly – the potential contribution of the situationist theoretical corpus. But the spectacle has to be seen as a dialectic which often hides more than it shows. The present text, having run over the historical basics of the concept of the spectacle, reviews the disclosure material about internal control as it is reported by French CEOs. This lexical content analysis shows that the communication gap due to the legal obligation to communicate leads to a dialectic perspective where the essential stakes are camouflaged by organisational topics. Thus, the spectacular theory inherited from Debord might provide an interpretative framework for further research on these topics.