Institutional work and regulatory change in the accounting profession

Independent oversight bodies pervade the international accounting regulatory environment. Their existence has been hailed as marking an end to self-regulation of the accounting profession. However, regulatory authority does... [ view full abstract ]

Independent oversight bodies pervade the international accounting regulatory environment. Their existence has been hailed as marking an end to self-regulation of the accounting profession. However, regulatory authority does not necessarily grant automatic legitimacy to regulators and enacting regulatory change requires constant, considerable effort. Despite this, we have limited understanding of the micro-level efforts of regulators seeking to instigate regulatory change in accounting. This paper examines how, and with what effect, individuals within a newly formed regulatory oversight body sought to reconfigure the regulatory field of accounting in Ireland. We mobilise the concept of institutional work to theorise the interrelated nature of the forms of institutional work these individuals engaged in as they sought to realise regulatory change. The paper advances prior theorisations of the recursive relationship between different forms of institutional work and patterns of institutional change and stability. We unveil a more refined, nuanced categorisation of institutional work within efforts to instigate regulatory change. We show how specific forms of institutional work interact and mutually reinforce or displace one another as regulators seek to establish power and legitimacy in the regulatory field. The role and nature of work rejection – whereby regulators initially reject certain forms of work but later embrace them – is unveiled within a change process where shifting regulatory logics both shape and are shaped by the forms of institutional work undertaken. The paper provides a counterpoint to prior research by illustrating how socio-political factors enabled more than constrained the impact of the institutional work undertaken by regulatory body members. It concludes with a call for research focusing on how targets of regulation in accounting engage in institutional work as they respond to efforts to restrict their autonomy.

regulatory change, independent oversight bodies, accounting profession, institutional work [ view full abstract ]

regulatory change, independent oversight bodies, accounting profession, institutional work