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Critical Perspectives on Accounting (1999) 10, 833 866 Article No. cpac.1998.0277 Available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on
THE THREAT OF ETHICAL ACCOUNTANTS: AN APPLICATION OF FOUCAULT’S CONCEPT OF ETHICS TO ACCOUNTING EDUCATION AND SOME THOUGHTS ON ETHICALLY EDUCATING FOR THE OTHER
KEN MCPHAIL
Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
There are an increasing number of papers within the accounting literature which are concerned with the relationship between accounting education and the ethics of accountants (see, e.g. Gray, 1994). This paper attempts to contribute to this literature. It draws on the work of Michel Foucault to argue that ethical accountants may pose just as great a threat to society as unethical ones. The paper initially explains Foucault’s work on power/ knowledge and delineates his novel perspective on how power may operate through an individuals sense of moral identity. It is argued that the way accountancy is taught may predispose accountants to discipline themselves in such a way that they behave in a manner which serves the interests of capitalism and subjugates opposition to it. However, the paper also draws on Foucault’s notion of resistance to explain how accounting education might be able to produce students who could represent a threat to this hegemony.
1999 Academic Press
This Is Not A Poem A Poem By David Hume Your corn is ripe today; mine will be so tomorrow. It is profitable for us both that I should labour with you today, and that you should aid me tomorrow. I have no kindness for you, and know that you have little for me. I will not, therefore, take pains upon your account; and should I labour with you upon my own account, in expectation of a return,
Address for Correspondence: Ken McPhail, Department of Accounting & Finance, 65-71 Southpark Avenue, Glasgow G12 8LE, UK. e-mail: k.mcphail@accfin.gla.ac.uk Received 10 June 1997; accepted 28 June 1998
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