Purpose – This paper offers a critique of the sacred and secular dichotomy, a theoretical framework recently introduced into the accounting and accountability literature primarily by Laughlin and Booth. The divide has been used to interpret the ambiguous roles of accountants and accounting...

Purpose – To examine control and accountability in an expressive organisation. Design/methodology/approach – The paper was based upon a longitudinal case study of events in the Church of England from 1994 to 2001 and was based on documents, debates in the governing body, conversations and...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the construction of the meanings of auditor independence (AI) in an oil‐rich autocratic state with an ideology straddling liberal market capitalism and Shari'ah (Islamic teachings). Design/methodology/approach – The concept of AI was...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Buddhist and Hindu people in non‐Western societies perceive rational accountability practices in religious organizations, through their respective religious “spirit” and “beliefs” and in combination with broader structural...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine financial management in the Pre‐Reformation church in Aberdeen, Scotland during the bishopric of Bishop William Elphinstone (1488‐1514). Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs a combination of literature‐based analysis,...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to draw attention towards how religious beliefs are linked to today's accounting principles and legitimating exploitation. Design/methodology/approach – The poem is a critical thought. Findings – Religious concepts have been widely used to justify...

Purpose – Focusing on Sanitarium, a commercial‐charity operating as a department of a church, the paper aims to use Mashaw's taxonomy to examine this organisation's informal reporting in the context of accountability. Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts a case study approach and...

Purpose – Informed by the work of Laughlin and Booth, this paper aims to analyze the role of accounting and accountability practices within the fifteenth century Roman Catholic Church, more specifically within the Diocese of Ferrara (northern Italy), in order to determine the presence of a...

Islamic banks are subject to religious audit in addition to the ormal financial auditing process which is carried out in other business organisations. The former type of audit is conducted by in‐house religious advisers who are employed by the bank. These advisers issue a special report to...

Argues that there is a significant lacuna in the accounting literature resulting from our lack of knowledge of how and why accounting is used in churches as one form of religious organization. After reviewing the limited extant accounting literature, proposes a skeletal research framework for...