The article shows how secrecy – defined as the purposeful revelation of information to some and not others – is used by management accountants to pursue their roles as independent business controllers and nurture the social proximity required to be sought-after business advisers. The paper examines management accountants’ retentive and communicative strategies in reporting practices in a subset of a large multinational company. It conceptualizes systems of secrecy as the purposeful articulation between two types of revelations (confidences and gossip). It shows how confidences and gossip can be successive steps that structure informal reporting information flows and close social interactions helpful in dealing with tensions arising from attempts to manage interdependencies and to achieve individually specified targets. The article contributes to the literature on the dynamics of management accountants’ dual role by showing how they overcome the tensions between conflicting expectations through tactful and judicious distribution of information. It shows how the articulation of confidence and gossip creates a specific format of accounting talk which facilitates compromise through the succession of private one-on-one discursive spaces. It also complements the literature on management control systems (MCS) by giving a nuanced account of the virtues of secrecy in order to mitigate some of the unanticipated adverse effects of performance evaluations.

本文显示了管理会计师如何使用秘密（定义为向某些人而非其他人有目的的信息披露）来行使其作为独立业务控制者的角色，并培养所需的社会影响力，以寻求受追捧的业务顾问。本文研究了大型跨国公司子集中管理会计在报告业务中的保持性和沟通策略。它将保密系统概念化为两种类型的启示（置信和八卦）之间的有目的的表达。它显示了信心和八卦如何成为构成非正式报告信息流和密切社会互动的连续步骤，有助于应对因试图管理相互依存和实现个别指定目标而引起的紧张局势。本文通过展示如何通过机敏而明智的信息克服了相互矛盾的期望之间的紧张关系，为有关管理会计双重角色的动态发展做出了贡献。它显示了信心和八卦的表达是如何创建一种特定的会计谈话格式的，该格式通过一系列连续的私人一对一话语空间促进妥协。它还通过细化了保密的优点来补充有关管理控制系统（MCS）的文献，以减轻绩效评估的某些意料之外的不利影响。它显示了信心和八卦的表达是如何创建一种特定的会计谈话格式的，该格式通过一系列连续的私人一对一话语空间促进妥协。它还通过细化了保密的优点来补充有关管理控制系统（MCS）的文献，以减轻绩效评估的某些意料之外的不利影响。它显示了信心和八卦的表达是如何创建一种特定的会计谈话格式的，该格式通过一系列连续的私人一对一话语空间促进妥协。它还通过细化了保密的优点来补充有关管理控制系统（MCS）的文献，以减轻绩效评估的某些意料之外的不利影响。