MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING RESEARCH 315
the mental aspects of production incorporated into management’’ (Hopper and
Armstrong 1991, 419).
The labor process perspective has illuminated not only historical issues but
also has been successfully applied to contemporary times. For example, Knights
and Collinson (1987) found that British workers in one factory were unable to
contest management’s accounting reports, even when these reports led to worker
layoffs. They suggested that accounting has inherent characteristics which make
it difficult for workers to challenge these numbers, thus accounting information is
not contested by labor on the grounds that its cultural values of ‘‘objectivity’’ and
‘‘hard facts’’ mirror the ‘‘masculine values’’ on the shop floor. Similarly, Oakes
and Covaleski (1994) examined organized labor’s involvement with accounting-
based incentive plans, and the role this involvement played in labor-management
relations. This study involved cases studies of profit-sharing plans implemented
at three firms, Parker Pen, Kaiser Steel, and American Motors, in the 1950s and
early 1960s, suggesting that ‘‘accounting takes on characteristics or is constructed
in ways that make it more or less likely that it will be contested at certain periods
of time’’ (Oakes and Covaleski 1994, 595). Bougenet al.(1990) (see also Bougen
1989) documented the appearance and disappearance of accounting in British coal
industry labor debates. Their study showed the partisan nature of the disclosure
of financial reports to trade unions, the contested and sometimes self-defeating
results of such disclosures, and of the many alternative managerial mechanisms
(joint consultations committees and profit-sharing schemes) that attempt to gain
cooperation by persuasion and cooperation.
In summary, labor process theory is consistent with the other organizational
sociological perspectives such as contingency theory and interpretive work in the
sense that it embeds management accounting in a wider context than more ortho-
dox approaches. However, labor-process theory departs from these alternative
approaches by focusing on the structural antagonism between classes inherent
in capitalist societies. Also consistent with other organizational and sociological
perspectives, labor-process theory offers a relatively non-technical understand-
ing of management accounting in that management accounting appears within
the context of a class-divided society to aid economic expropriation. Finally, the
labor-process perspective moves towardsconsidering accounting as a social prac-
tice rather than merely a technique, arguing that political events and ideologies,
status, class, trust and technological changes impel people to act in certain ways,
all potentially impinging on the roles served by management accounting.
The Foucaultian Perspective
Michel Foucault (1926 – 1984) was both a philosopher and historian who used his-
tory to raise philosophical questions.^6 A central motif that runs through his work
and one which has also been productive for accounting scholarship is perhaps best
(^6) A solid entry into the work and thought of Michel Foucault is the Paul Rabinow, ed. (1984)
Foucault Reader. The introductory essay is an especially good and clear statement while the
selection of readings is representative.