Mitchell Stein - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Mitchell Stein

Research paper thumbnail of Transparency' in Accounting and Corporate Governance: Making Sense of Multiple Meanings

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2015

Calls for greater transparency of accounting information were consistent in media discourse after... more Calls for greater transparency of accounting information were consistent in media discourse after the accounting crisis early this century. Our analysis of the media suggests different emergent meanings were associated with these calls of transparency and an underlying 'taken for grantedness'. We examine how this 'taken for grantedness' contributed to preserving the status quo rather than greater accountability. We posit that for many observers a loss of meaning of accounting information led to attempts to make sense of what actions are necessary to construct a meaning of accounting information. We find that academic accounting research's response had a narrow focus relating to representation and accessibility of information to permit decision making, the ocular metaphor of transparency. In contrast, the social science research literature highlights the 'invisible' in transparency or the construction of meaning through sensemaking. By extending sensemaking to the macro level we show how stakeholders construct meanings of transparency to rationalize events around the crisis. We find that senior management engaged in high levels of sensegiving via dominant media accounts of vague pledges and actions to increase transparency that provide a plausible story of events and the belief that the necessary actions have been taken, but effectively maintains the status quo. Accountants and regulators provided low and fragmented levels of sensegiving, offering little direction over the discourse of transparency. Our analysis suggests that accountants and regulators need to provide higher forms of sensegiving to create richer accounts and more coherent actions that could provide alternatives to senior management's accounts.

Research paper thumbnail of Beyond the boardroom: governmental perspectives on corporate governance

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 2008

PurposeThis paper aims to examine corporate governance and consequences of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act... more PurposeThis paper aims to examine corporate governance and consequences of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act (SOX) in the US from a socio‐political perspective.Design/methodology/approachThe author employs neo‐liberalism and its related mentality of governmentality to develop an analysis of how corporate governance and reforms such as SOX are socially constructed through autonomous agents, including managers and accountants, and various power relationships that comprise government.FindingsThis paper theorizes that legislative reform, such as SOX, represents pervasive mechanisms of disclosure, surveillance and power, and an insurance rationality designed to manage the new and significant risks of corporate governance. A framework is established which conceptualizes SOX as the intersection of neo‐liberalism, political rationalities and governmental techniques, and accounting practices which lead to the elements of security, quantification and shareholder value. Through this framework a model of ...

Research paper thumbnail of Pulling at the Boundaries: Boundary Work and the Auditing of Government Advertising in Ontario

Research paper thumbnail of Auditing and the Development of the Modern State

Contemporary Accounting Research, 2019

Previous research has highlighted the crucial roles that accounting plays in both the constructio... more Previous research has highlighted the crucial roles that accounting plays in both the construction and development of the State. However, only limited attention has been paid to how accounting is both conceived and implemented as a technology of government. Taking a historical perspective, and through extensive archival analysis of the Canadian experience, we explore here the ways in which accounting practices were significantly expanded and elaborated over time. Progressively, accounting was successful in increasingly infiltrating the machinery of the State, resulting in greater power and influence being accorded to State accounting professionals. We contribute to existing governmentality research on accounting in two principal ways. Firstly, we demonstrate how the territorializing power of accounting has transnational dimensions. The Canadian initiative was galvanized by simultaneous initiatives taking place in the United Kingdom, the United States and a range of other Commonwealth nations. The similar trajectories of these various initiatives leads to a view of accounting as something that is co-constructed across borders, a process we refer to here as transnational territorialization. Secondly, we demonstrate the crucial role played by key individuals in this transnational territorialization. Auditors-General worked both individually, and in concert, to skillfully sell the evaluative potential of accounting to key power brokers in the State apparatus, thereby creating advantageous positions for themselves. This highlights the crucial role required by skillful and reflexive social agents in the elaboration of accounting technologies, something that hitherto has been under-appreciated in extant literature on government auditing.

Research paper thumbnail of Professional repositioning during times of institutional change: The case of tax practitioners and changing moral boundaries

Accounting, Organizations and Society, 2018

If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination... more If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.

Research paper thumbnail of Elmer G. Beamer and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants: The Pursuit of a Cognitive Standard for the Accounting Profession

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2015

This article investigates Elmer G Beamer's (1909-2000) activities at the American Institute of Ce... more This article investigates Elmer G Beamer's (1909-2000) activities at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) during a 30-year period beginning in the 1950s, using a theoretical lens from the sociology of professions literature. Beamer was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1909 and trained as an accountant with Haskins & Sells after graduating from high school. He stayed with the same firm throughout his career and rose to the position of partner. While in public practice, Beamer gave unselfishly of his time to the profession. As a member of the AICPA, Beamer chaired the Committee on the Common Body of Knowledge of CPAs (Certified Public Accountants), Committee on Education and Experience Requirements, and the Ad Hoc Committee on Continuing Education. The goal of the three committees was to establish a common body of knowledge for accountants in public practice. Beamer's efforts resulted in the 150 credit-hour requirements for CPAs and the mandate for yearly continuing professional education for accountants to maintain an active CPA license in the United States. The article draws on archival material from the Elmer G. Beamer Papers Collection at the University of Florida. The collection contains over 500 items of Beamer's personal correspondence, committee memorandums, and writings. The article concludes with a discussion of the empirical narrative and Beamer's role in the larger context of the professionalization of the accounting discipline in the United States.

Research paper thumbnail of Alvin R. Jennings: Managing Partner, Policy-Maker & Institute President

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2014

ABSTRACT

Research paper thumbnail of The Governance of Corporate Governance: the Discourse of Publicity in the Early Twentieth Century

... Vaughan Radcliffe * Crawford Spence ** Mitchell Stein * ... corporations remained just as vir... more ... Vaughan Radcliffe * Crawford Spence ** Mitchell Stein * ... corporations remained just as virulent beyond the progressive era right through to the post-depression Roosevelt years. Indeed, Merino (2011) suggests that the concerns of the progressives ...

Research paper thumbnail of The Impotence of Accountability: The Relationship Between Greater Transparency and Corporate Reform

Contemporary Accounting Research, 2016

This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Condition... more This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving." A note on versions: The version presented here may differ from the published version or, version of record, if you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the 'permanent WRAP URL' above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription.

Research paper thumbnail of Boundary Work at the Margins of Politics and Auditing: Rationalising Advertising Probity in Ontario

PurposeThe authors examine how political players attempt to rationalise arguments for and against... more PurposeThe authors examine how political players attempt to rationalise arguments for and against the expansion of auditing into governmental affairs, and how state audit authorities respond to politically motivated boundary work. This study is motivated by growing evidence of political involvement in attempts to both expand and undermine state audit oversight of government affairs.Design/methodology/approachThe authors present an interpreted history (covering relevant events from 1995 to 2016) of political rationales and associated boundary work that led to the expansion of the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario's (OAGO) mandate to audit government advertising campaigns for partisanship as well as attempts to modify this new audit remit over time.FindingsThe authors reveal substantive, formal and practical ways in which political players sought to rationalise/counter-rationalise expanding the OAGO's authority to the unfamiliar territory of advertising probity. The authors show how such justification claims ebb and flow in accordance with changeable political interests, and how state auditors react to the fraught nature of politically motivated boundary work.Originality/valueThe authors conceptualise important forms of rationalising rhetoric (which cannot be reduced to expressions of neoliberal government) that can be mobilised to deem state auditor authority legitimate in overseeing otherwise novel, unfamiliar and controversial government affairs. The authors also reveal a hitherto unrecognised resolve in state auditor responses to political intervention and shed further light on generalised forms of rationale that can underpin boundary work at the margins of accounting.

Research paper thumbnail of Transparency' in Accounting and Corporate Governance: Making Sense of Multiple Meanings

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2015

Calls for greater transparency of accounting information were consistent in media discourse after... more Calls for greater transparency of accounting information were consistent in media discourse after the accounting crisis early this century. Our analysis of the media suggests different emergent meanings were associated with these calls of transparency and an underlying 'taken for grantedness'. We examine how this 'taken for grantedness' contributed to preserving the status quo rather than greater accountability. We posit that for many observers a loss of meaning of accounting information led to attempts to make sense of what actions are necessary to construct a meaning of accounting information. We find that academic accounting research's response had a narrow focus relating to representation and accessibility of information to permit decision making, the ocular metaphor of transparency. In contrast, the social science research literature highlights the 'invisible' in transparency or the construction of meaning through sensemaking. By extending sensemaking to the macro level we show how stakeholders construct meanings of transparency to rationalize events around the crisis. We find that senior management engaged in high levels of sensegiving via dominant media accounts of vague pledges and actions to increase transparency that provide a plausible story of events and the belief that the necessary actions have been taken, but effectively maintains the status quo. Accountants and regulators provided low and fragmented levels of sensegiving, offering little direction over the discourse of transparency. Our analysis suggests that accountants and regulators need to provide higher forms of sensegiving to create richer accounts and more coherent actions that could provide alternatives to senior management's accounts.

Research paper thumbnail of Beyond the boardroom: governmental perspectives on corporate governance

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 2008

PurposeThis paper aims to examine corporate governance and consequences of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act... more PurposeThis paper aims to examine corporate governance and consequences of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act (SOX) in the US from a socio‐political perspective.Design/methodology/approachThe author employs neo‐liberalism and its related mentality of governmentality to develop an analysis of how corporate governance and reforms such as SOX are socially constructed through autonomous agents, including managers and accountants, and various power relationships that comprise government.FindingsThis paper theorizes that legislative reform, such as SOX, represents pervasive mechanisms of disclosure, surveillance and power, and an insurance rationality designed to manage the new and significant risks of corporate governance. A framework is established which conceptualizes SOX as the intersection of neo‐liberalism, political rationalities and governmental techniques, and accounting practices which lead to the elements of security, quantification and shareholder value. Through this framework a model of ...

Research paper thumbnail of Pulling at the Boundaries: Boundary Work and the Auditing of Government Advertising in Ontario

Research paper thumbnail of Auditing and the Development of the Modern State

Contemporary Accounting Research, 2019

Previous research has highlighted the crucial roles that accounting plays in both the constructio... more Previous research has highlighted the crucial roles that accounting plays in both the construction and development of the State. However, only limited attention has been paid to how accounting is both conceived and implemented as a technology of government. Taking a historical perspective, and through extensive archival analysis of the Canadian experience, we explore here the ways in which accounting practices were significantly expanded and elaborated over time. Progressively, accounting was successful in increasingly infiltrating the machinery of the State, resulting in greater power and influence being accorded to State accounting professionals. We contribute to existing governmentality research on accounting in two principal ways. Firstly, we demonstrate how the territorializing power of accounting has transnational dimensions. The Canadian initiative was galvanized by simultaneous initiatives taking place in the United Kingdom, the United States and a range of other Commonwealth nations. The similar trajectories of these various initiatives leads to a view of accounting as something that is co-constructed across borders, a process we refer to here as transnational territorialization. Secondly, we demonstrate the crucial role played by key individuals in this transnational territorialization. Auditors-General worked both individually, and in concert, to skillfully sell the evaluative potential of accounting to key power brokers in the State apparatus, thereby creating advantageous positions for themselves. This highlights the crucial role required by skillful and reflexive social agents in the elaboration of accounting technologies, something that hitherto has been under-appreciated in extant literature on government auditing.

Research paper thumbnail of Professional repositioning during times of institutional change: The case of tax practitioners and changing moral boundaries

Accounting, Organizations and Society, 2018

If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination... more If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.

Research paper thumbnail of Elmer G. Beamer and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants: The Pursuit of a Cognitive Standard for the Accounting Profession

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2015

This article investigates Elmer G Beamer's (1909-2000) activities at the American Institute of Ce... more This article investigates Elmer G Beamer's (1909-2000) activities at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) during a 30-year period beginning in the 1950s, using a theoretical lens from the sociology of professions literature. Beamer was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1909 and trained as an accountant with Haskins & Sells after graduating from high school. He stayed with the same firm throughout his career and rose to the position of partner. While in public practice, Beamer gave unselfishly of his time to the profession. As a member of the AICPA, Beamer chaired the Committee on the Common Body of Knowledge of CPAs (Certified Public Accountants), Committee on Education and Experience Requirements, and the Ad Hoc Committee on Continuing Education. The goal of the three committees was to establish a common body of knowledge for accountants in public practice. Beamer's efforts resulted in the 150 credit-hour requirements for CPAs and the mandate for yearly continuing professional education for accountants to maintain an active CPA license in the United States. The article draws on archival material from the Elmer G. Beamer Papers Collection at the University of Florida. The collection contains over 500 items of Beamer's personal correspondence, committee memorandums, and writings. The article concludes with a discussion of the empirical narrative and Beamer's role in the larger context of the professionalization of the accounting discipline in the United States.

Research paper thumbnail of Alvin R. Jennings: Managing Partner, Policy-Maker & Institute President

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2014

ABSTRACT

Research paper thumbnail of The Governance of Corporate Governance: the Discourse of Publicity in the Early Twentieth Century

... Vaughan Radcliffe * Crawford Spence ** Mitchell Stein * ... corporations remained just as vir... more ... Vaughan Radcliffe * Crawford Spence ** Mitchell Stein * ... corporations remained just as virulent beyond the progressive era right through to the post-depression Roosevelt years. Indeed, Merino (2011) suggests that the concerns of the progressives ...

Research paper thumbnail of The Impotence of Accountability: The Relationship Between Greater Transparency and Corporate Reform

Contemporary Accounting Research, 2016

This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Condition... more This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving." A note on versions: The version presented here may differ from the published version or, version of record, if you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the 'permanent WRAP URL' above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription.

Research paper thumbnail of Boundary Work at the Margins of Politics and Auditing: Rationalising Advertising Probity in Ontario

PurposeThe authors examine how political players attempt to rationalise arguments for and against... more PurposeThe authors examine how political players attempt to rationalise arguments for and against the expansion of auditing into governmental affairs, and how state audit authorities respond to politically motivated boundary work. This study is motivated by growing evidence of political involvement in attempts to both expand and undermine state audit oversight of government affairs.Design/methodology/approachThe authors present an interpreted history (covering relevant events from 1995 to 2016) of political rationales and associated boundary work that led to the expansion of the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario's (OAGO) mandate to audit government advertising campaigns for partisanship as well as attempts to modify this new audit remit over time.FindingsThe authors reveal substantive, formal and practical ways in which political players sought to rationalise/counter-rationalise expanding the OAGO's authority to the unfamiliar territory of advertising probity. The authors show how such justification claims ebb and flow in accordance with changeable political interests, and how state auditors react to the fraught nature of politically motivated boundary work.Originality/valueThe authors conceptualise important forms of rationalising rhetoric (which cannot be reduced to expressions of neoliberal government) that can be mobilised to deem state auditor authority legitimate in overseeing otherwise novel, unfamiliar and controversial government affairs. The authors also reveal a hitherto unrecognised resolve in state auditor responses to political intervention and shed further light on generalised forms of rationale that can underpin boundary work at the margins of accounting.