The paper examines the contribution of inscriptions, in particular new accounting measures, to a process of transforming the ethos and operations of ‘Britech', a high-tech division of a major British manufacturer. Focusing upon the increased and changing use of inscriptions at this site, we...

This paper examines the role of accounting in management–labour relations within the context of contemporary moves to re-conceptualise and reorganise manufacturing processes. We explore how new manufacturing and accounting discourses are received by employees, and how their (more or less...

'Management' - as practiced in modern corporations as well as the social position ascribed to its exponents - is today comparatively well established and institutionalized. For Berle and Means, '[m]anagement' may be defined as that body of men who, in law, have formally assumed the duties of...

‘Management' is widely and deeply embedded in ‘corporations'. Yet in many studies of management and organization the corporation is an influential but shadowy and largely unaccountable presence. Rarely is the modern, capitalist corporation thematized. This article contributes to remedying...

In an assessment of Lawson’s social ontological analysis of the modern corporation, we consider what is marginalized: the significance of the status and the effects of the separate legal entity (SLE). The SLE is conceived as a specific type of construct that is ascribed particular properties...

This paper explores some trajectories in the relationship between the state and accounting firms. When, in the mid-1990s, major firms considered the UK state to be insufficiently responsive to their lobbying for a limitation of their liability, pressures were exerted on the UK government by...

We identify limits of ‘reflexive governance' by examining the UK Code of Corporate Governance that is celebrated for its ‘reflexivity'. By placing the historical genesis of the Code within its politico-economic context, it is shown how its scope and penetration is impeded by a shallow,...