Managing the Boundary: How Accounting Is Implicated in Maintaining the Organization

Abstract

Accounting research has traditionally been concerned with how accounting enables the organization of production. In contrast, raises the issue of how accounting is implicated in the production of the organization. Organizations are embedded in wider society, but a crucial element in their formation is that they become (and remain) differentiated from their environments. Uses the idea of boundary maintenance is used to understand how this differentiation is achieved. Boundaries are conceptualized in two ways, first, as thresholds and, second, as binding structures. Considers accounting, as information, as a system of accountability, as a moral order and as a legitimating institution in the context of the production and re‐production of the organization through the management of boundaries.

Citation

Llewellyn, S. (1994), "Managing the Boundary: How Accounting Is Implicated in Maintaining the Organization", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 7 No. 4, pp. 4-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513579410069821