INTERPRETIVE AND CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING 59
The functional paradigm relies on an ‘objectively knowable, empirically veri-
fiable reality’ (Boland and Pondy, 1983, p. 223), which has been described in
Chapter 4.
The interpretive paradigm and the social construction perspective
The interpretive view reflects a subjectively created, emergent social reality, which
Chua (1986) links to an understanding of ‘accounting in action’. The interpretive
approach offers ‘accounts of what happens as opposed to what should happen’
(Chua, 1988, p. 73).
Hopwood (1983) coined the termaccounting in actionto describe the ‘ways
in which accounting reflects, reinforces or even constrains the strategic postures
adopted by particular organizations’ (p. 302). Hopwood (1987) contrasted the
constitutive as well as reflective roles of accounting.
The aim of the interpretive perspective is:
to produce rich and deep understandings of how managers and employees in
organizations understand, think about, interact with, and use management
accounting and control systems. (Macintosh, 1994, p. 4)Preston (1995) described the social constructionist model of behaviour not as a
rational process but a product of the ‘creative individual’. Individuals act towards
things on the basis of themeaningthat things have for them. Preston described
the critical process that takes place between encountering a situation or event and
interpreting it, in which the individual constructs a meaning of the situation or
event and acts in accordance with that meaning. Meaning is not inherent, it is
brought to the situation by the individual. These meanings are derived through
social interaction, the ways in which people meet, talk, work and play together and
in doing so construct and share meanings. These meanings are socially constructed,
internalized and shared between individuals.
Preston (1995) added that the social constructionist perspective does not pre-
clude the existence of organizational structures and processes, but suggests that
these are symbolic representations of a particular view of organizational reality.
These meanings are also expressed symbolically through language. In this con-
text accounting information is a symbolic representation of reality. Individual
behaviour is guided by the meanings, values and beliefs that are constructed and
shared by organizational members. These symbols are then subject to interpreta-
tion by individuals, who act towards them on the basis of the meaning they have
for them. However, Preston recognized that these structures and processes may
influence the development of an organizational culture – the shared values, beliefs
and meanings that are collectively held by organizational participants.