Accountants in organisational networks

Abstract

Using four case studies carried out in the UK clothing and textiles industry, this paper explores how accounting might be differentially implicated in the co-ordination of activity as organisations face higher or lower degrees of uncertainty. It is argued that one of the difficulties faced by many of the contingency studies that have addressed this problem is their conceptualisation of accounting. The present study suggests that accounting, as a tool for organisational control, exists not as a collection of techniques, but as on-going processes. As such, the individuals involved with such processes might be expected to play a substantial role in shaping them. Social network analysis forms the basis of an attempt to understand these issues.