ABSTRACT

This study explores the rhetorical strategies underlying the discursive construction of the German controller social-identity in the mid-1970s. Previous research has shown how management accounting professionals struggle with different role models for the management accountant. This study complements this work by using the case of the German controller to investigate how broader ideas about the management accounting professional are discursively constructed. Based on qualitative interviews with contemporary witnesses as well as an in-depth analysis of articles published in the first practitioner controlling journal, we illustrate how metaphors enabled an interpretive viability and a process of professional inclusion. This, we argue, linked the emerging social-identity of the controller to both the macro-level discourse as well as to the situated experiences of individuals at the organizational level. In this way, we show how the social-identities of management accounting professionals can be constructed without traditional elements of codification regimes. Specifically, we uncover how metaphorical representations of a professional mission can foster the creation of an imagined community among a set of heterogeneous individuals, ideas, and concepts, which helps establish a sense of belonging, and ultimately, institutionalized legitimacy.

摘要

本研究探讨了 1970 年代中期德国控制者社会身份话语建构背后的修辞策略。先前的研究表明，管理会计专业人士如何与管理会计师的不同角色模型作斗争。本研究通过使用德国控制者的案例来调查关于管理会计专业人士的更广泛的想法是如何被话语构建的，从而对这项工作进行了补充。基于对当代证人的定性访谈以及对第一本从业者控制期刊上发表的文章的深入分析，我们说明了隐喻如何实现解释的可行性和专业包容的过程。我们认为，这将控制者新兴的社会身份与宏观层面的话语以及个人在组织层面的情境体验联系起来。通过这种方式，我们展示了如何在没有编纂制度的传统元素的情况下构建管理会计专业人员的社会身份。具体来说，我们揭示了专业使命的隐喻表征如何促进在一组异质的个人、想法和概念之间创建一个想象的社区，这有助于建立归属感，并最终建立制度化的合法性。