5
Interpretive and Critical Perspectives
on Accounting and Decision-Making
In Chapter 4 we described the rational-economic perspective that underpins
management control systems in general and management accounting in particular.
There are, however, alternative perspectives. For example, Otley and Berry (1980)
questioned the usefulness of cybernetic control given the limitations of accounting
systems as a result of organizational and environmental complexity. The problem
with cybernetic control, they say:
is the apparently inevitable division of labour between controllers and
those who are controlled...the primary function ascribed to the task of
management is that of organization control. (p. 237)While Chapter 4 assumed a rational paradigm, this chapter explores alternative
conceptions of the role of accounting in management. We review the interpretive
paradigm and the social constructionist perspective and how organizational
culture is implicated in accounting. We then consider the radical paradigm and
how power is a major concern of critical accounting theory. These alternative
perspectives to the rational-economic one described in Chapter 4 are an important
focus of this book.
Alternative paradigms...................................
One non-rational approach to decision-making is the ‘garbage can’, which March
and Olsen (1976) described as the ‘fortuitous confluence’ whereby problems, solu-
tions, participants and choice opportunities somehow come together. Cooperet al.
(1981) detailed the rational model of financial and management accounting sys-
tems as planning and control devices that measure, report and evaluate individuals
and business units. In the bounded rationality model (see Chapter 4), accounting
systems are stabilizers, emphasizing consistency. By contrast, the garbage can
view recognizes that systems provide an appearance of rationality and create an
organizational history, but that ‘the sequence whereby actions precede goals may
well be a more accurate portrayal of organizational functioning than the more
traditional goal-action paradigm’ (p. 181) and ‘accounting systems represent an ex