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Understanding accounting through conceptual metaphor: ACCOUNTING IS AN INSTRUMENT?

Joel Amernic
a, ,
,
Russell Craig
b

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DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2009.06.004
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Abstract
This paper extends the conversation about metaphors in accounting that were presented in this journal by
McGoun et al. [McGoun EG, Bettner MS, Coyne MP. Pedagogic metaphors and the nature of accounting
signification. Critical Perspectives on Accounting 2007a;18:21330; McGoun EG, Bettner MS, Coyne MP. Money n
motionborn to be wild. Critical Perspectives on Accounting;2007b;18:34361.]. Our aim is to promote further
critical conversations about how metaphor is implicated in accounting. We assemble and review some of the
empirical evidence we have gathered from close readings of discourse about accounting over the past decade.
Based on this empirical grounding, we propose that the fundamental conceptual metaphor, ACCOUNTING IS AN
INSTRUMENT, has been deployed commonly to describe the essence of accounting. We contend that such
deployment has insidious, distortive and confounding outcomes because it encourages belief that accounting is
incapable of reporting other than with representational faithfulness; and that it confounds the (alleged) primary
qualitative characteristics of accounting information (relevance and reliability) outlined in the Financial Accounting
Standards Board's SFAC 2 Qualitative Characteristics of Accounting.
Keywords
Accounting;
Entailments;
Metaphor;
Conceptual;
Instrument

1. Aims, scope, motivation
We respond to a lament by Cornelissen (2005, p. 751) that works on metaphor are still falling short in
offering an informed and grounded account of metaphor's workings [italics applied]. As with McGoun et al.
(2007a), our objective is to improve understanding of the way metaphors are implicated in accounting. However,
we differ from McGoun et al. (2007a) in two important ways. First, we focus on the workings of metaphor in
accounting, as revealed by empirical evidence. Second, we conceive the ACCOUNTING IS A LENS metaphor as an
element of a broader, more encompassing conceptual metaphor: ACCOUNTING IS AN INSTRUMENT.
We adopt the view that accounting is a language-like discipline involving figurative expressions and other elusive
and perplexing modes of communication. As such, it is ideological, and an important means of persuasionit is a
form of writing which yields no access to reality other than through structures of representation
(Robson, 1992, p. 690). One such structure of representation is metaphor. Critical examination of accounting
knowledge should involve not only the employment of literary, rhetorical and discursive analyses, but require[s]
interpretation of the consequences that flow from the operation of metaphors (Robson, 1992, pp. 7034).
We draw on a widely accepted theory of metaphor (Lakoff, 1993) and the cognitive semantics paradigm (Lakoff
and Johnson, 1980, Lakoff and Johnson, 1999, Gibbs, 1994 and Gibbs, 1996) to contend that the metaphors
accounting lives by are worthy of further investigation. We maintain that awareness of the metaphorical
structure of accounting (as revealed in use) is essential to an understanding of how metaphors define
phenomena, how they structure concepts and how they generate inferences (Fernandez-Duque and Johnson,
1999, p. 112). Just as Miller (2001, p. 379) directs attention to the ways in which accounting shapes social and
economic relations, we direct attention to the ways metaphor shapes understanding of the essence of
accountingwhat we refer to here as accounting itself. Not surprisingly, some penetrating considerations of
metaphor have appeared in the scholarly accounting literature (for example, Thornton, 1988, Moore,
1994, Walters-York, 1996, Young, 2001, Nrreklit, 2003, Walters, 2004, McGoun et al., 2007a,McGoun et al.,
2007b and Walters and Young, 2008). These are insightful studies, but they largely ignore metaphors
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for accounting itself, which is the focus of the present paper. How accounting itself is conceptualized, as evidenced
by metaphor, has importance for the ways accounting is deployed, and for accounting reform.
Of the many general reasons for paying attention to metaphors identified by Hart et al. (2005, pp. 478), the
following two related reasons seem most salient for accounting itself.
First, metaphors signal ideological commitments and signal latent values. The metaphors that are used
regarding something of interest can provide insight into beliefs hidden within us ( Hart et al., 2005, p. 48).
Assume we regard accounting, metaphorically, as a sort of scientific instrument; and that if used properly, that
instrument would reveal a natural and unchallengeable truth in ways similar to a chemical analysis of water yields
(almost) unwavering proportions of hydrogen and oxygen. This metaphor would reflect our commitment to a
particular worldview and value set, such as the latent values we have about observedphenomena (economic affairs
in general and business in particular), the observer (accountants, and also management), and the user. Such
commitment presumes separate categories of scientific instrument, observed, observer, and user
, and little, if any, interaction among such categories or differentiation within them.
Second, metaphors signal cultural change. If the metaphors used in talking and writing about a phenomenon
change over time, this reflects and sustains evolution in how that phenomenon is amenable to change.
Alternatively, if the metaphors do not appear to change, then the potentially subversive role of metaphors in
making it hard to think in old ways ( Hart et al., 2005, p. 47) will have little effect. In accounting, we argue that
the mechanistic metaphor ACCOUNTING IS AN INSTRUMENT dominates. Thus, accounting language tends not to
be conceived as [a] language of inference and interpretation, resting on the discernment that comes with true
expertise ( Porter, 1995, p. 91).
Our intent is to elicit heightened understanding of how metaphors generate inferences in accounting, and to
develop understanding of how we conceive the essence of accounting (or what we refer to as accounting itself)
though metaphor. In Section 2 we explain the significance of metaphors in (and about) accounting. In Section 3, we
indulge in some proto-theorising to present three presumptions. In Section 4, we explore the fundamental
conceptual metaphor, ACCOUNTING IS AN INSTRUMENT, which is conceived widely to reside in accounting itself.
Our analysis is grounded principally in empirical evidence assembled as compact case vignettes drawn from five
case studies in our published and unpublished close readings of text containing accounting metaphors.
We assess this empirical evidence to develop some propositions and explanations. In particular, we highlight
whether the inferences and concept structuring flowing from the ACCOUNTING IS AN INSTRUMENT metaphor
confirm or confound the essence of accounting that is promoted as the FASB's primary qualities of financial
information in SFAC 2 Qualitative Characteristics of Accounting Information. These primary qualities are relevance
(which the FASB maintains is reflected by predictive value, feedback value andtimeliness); and reliability (reflected
by verifiability, representational faithfulness, and neutrality). In Section 5we reflect upon the inferences of the
conceptual metaphors identified, and then outline the potential of these conceptual metaphors to influence
thought. We conclude by discussing how these conceptual metaphors might affect behaviour and subsequent
accountings.
2. The significance of metaphors in (and about) accounting
Textbook writers, accounting scholars and business journalists refer to accounting phenomena and concepts in
metaphor-laden ways. This is very conspicuous in references to net profit as the bottom line, to accounting as
the language of business, and to accounting disclosure as opening the books. Generally, in the world of
commerce, metaphor in accounting-related discourse is deployed for strategic purposes (albeit oftentimes
inadvertently).
Thornton (1988) discussed the unavoidable metaphorical nature of accounting concepts and language such as
costs attach, the richness that metaphors endow upon accounting, and the attendant need to introduce
students to the metaphorical nature of accounting as early as possible (p. 8). Walters and Young (2008, p.
805) explored the particular metaphors engaged within the stock options discourse over time through reference
to dialogues appearing in the professional and popular business press and related hearings. Although their study
(and those by Moore (1994), Walters-York (1996), Young (2001), Nrreklit (2003),Walters (2004) and McGoun et
al., 2007a and McGoun et al., 2007b) offers good insight to metaphors embedded in accounting discourse, the
focus is not about the essence of accounting (what we callaccounting itself).
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Metaphors about accounting are important because they affect what people understand to be accounting
phenomena and accounting concepts.
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Such a view is consistent with the idea that metaphor is an organ of
perception ( Postman, 1996, p. 174). To understand how accounting fashions perception in a particular context,
we need to be sensitive to the inferences (or entailments) of the metaphors deployed. (Such an argument has
been put, in the context of economics, by Boers (2000, p. 140)). To lack such sensitivity invites being misled
dangerously into regarding accounting as merely a technical practice that principally involves observable and
mundane activities such as bookkeeping, preparation of financial statements and taxation returns, budgeting, and
cost estimation. Greater awareness of important non-technical or abstract aspects of accounting (such as the
resonances of metaphors used in accounting) has ample instructive potential. To regard accounting as purely
technical suggests acquiescence with a representational perspective by which accounting reports are considered
to depict an objective reality. Such a perspective, though still dominant ( Lee, 2006), seems wholly deficient
( Hines, 1988).
There is an abundant and oftentimes controversial literature on metaphor (for example, see Holme
(2003),Cameron and Low (1999), and Gibbs and Steen (1997)). Metaphor is alleged to strongly influence thought
and theorizing, and how people engage with their world (Fernandez-Duque and Johnson, 1999, Schn,
1993/1979 and Lakoff, 1993). Postman (1996, p. 174) captures the importance of metaphor acutely when he asks:
Do I exaggerate in saying that a student cannot know what a subject is about without some understanding of
the metaphors which are its foundation? We should ask a similar question regarding metaphor and accounting
and not just about accounting students, but about accounting practitioners, users, standard-setters, researchers,
and others, as well. We should encourage alertness to the idea that accounting is a linguistic symbol system and a
language, and that it is inevitably metaphorical (Walters-York, 1996 and Walters, 2004).
We encourage understanding of the significance of the metaphors used in accounting by presenting observations
of metaphor in accounting that we have gathered over the past decade in a wide variety of contexts and settings.
Some of this evidence has been published in this and other scholarly journals, and some is presented here for the
first time. We analyse metaphors in context, consistent with Eubanks (1999)and Cameron (2003); and we develop
some rudimentary theoretical propositions that are grounded in our applied study of metaphor. We also draw
upon metaphor theory and literature on cognitive linguistics to develop the notion that metaphors have the
potential to structure thought ( Lakoff, 1993); and that observed metaphors-in-use suggest underlying conceptual
mappings ( Lakoff and Johnson, 1980). The more that some metaphors are used in particular discourses, the more
that the seemingly natural and uncontroversial entailments of such metaphors are apparent ( Gramm, 1996). The
underlying metaphor-assisted conceptual mappings that people have thus assume a default role in structuring
thought. This is salient since, as Rorty contends (1979, p. 12), it is metaphors which determine most of our
convictions.
3. Analytical framework
We propose that analysis of metaphor in accounting be based on three presumptions. First, that accounting is a
language. We agree with Ferraro et al. (2005, p. 9) that language affects what people see; how they see it, and
the social categories and descriptors they use to interpret their reality. Accounting, the putativelanguage of
business, serves as a means of comprehending some important aspects of the world. Lavoie (1987, p.
579) articulates this position as follows:
Accounting, as it is often said in elementary textbooks, is the language of businessThe methodological approach
that is proper for the study of any language including, I will argue, that of scientists is not a positivistic search
for falsifiable statements, but an interpretive search for intelligible meanings. Accounting theory and practiceare
matters of interpretation.
Accounting is alleged widely to be the language of business and thus a language. This is evidenced from
the prevalence of the allegation in the following two examples:

From the website of Jacksonville University's accounting program description
(http://cirrus.ju.edu/academics/undergrad_accounting.asp; visited May 22, 2009).
Accounting is the identification, measurement, and communication of financial information about economic
entities to interested parties. Simply put: Accounting is the language of business. An understanding of this
language can enhance one's performance in the business world as management decisions are made within the
company or financial decisions about the company are made by outside parties.
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From the website of Midwestern State University's Accounting Department
(http://business.mwsu.edu/accounting/; visited May 22, 2009):
The accounting major prepares students for entry into the accounting profession. Accounting is the language of
business and is important in every type of organization.
Second, we presume that language unavoidably involves metaphors ( Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, Lakoff and
Johnson, 1999 and Gibbs, 1994). Such a presumption holds, not just for everyday language, but rather for all
language, including the language of accounting and the language of science ( Fernandez-Duque and Johnson, 2002,
p. 153). Gibbs (1994, p. 5) conclusion that Recent advances in cognitive linguistics, philosophy, anthropology,
and psychology show that not only is much of our language metaphorically structured, but so is much of our
cognition leads to our next presumption.
Third, we presume that the use of metaphors involves cognitive processes which structure thought and
behaviour. We subscribe to the view that How we think about a topic is partly a product of the metaphors
through which it is conceptualized ( Holme, 2003, pp. 134). Such potential influence of metaphor is raised in
the management literature, for example, through admonitions that It would be extremely helpful if all readers
of academic work were to develop an awareness of the effects of metaphors on their perceptions (Ramsay,
2004, p. 154). Gibbs (1994, p. 5) contends that People conceptualize their experiences in figurative terms via
metaphor Although this cognitive linguistics paradigm has been both challenged and defended ( Pinker and
Lakoff, 2007), and adapted ( Kvecses, 2008), it has broad influence on the study of metaphor and language.
Consistent with Lakoff and Johnson (1980), Lakoff (1993), and Gibbs (1994), we regard a metaphor as consisting of
two conceptual domains. One domain is understood in terms of another where part of the structure of a more
concrete or clearly organized domain (the source domain) is used to understand and talk about another, usually
more abstract or less clearly structured, domain (the target domain) ( Slingerland et al., 2007, p.56). So, the
conceptual metaphor paradigm attempts to show how metaphor is used to enhance a conceptual (target) domain
(here, accounting) in terms of another conceptual (or source) domain.
Accounting is a source of metaphors used in many non-accounting contexts too. Johnson (1993), for example, has
analyzed the moral accounting metaphor. He contends that it defines procedures for determining what we
owe others and what they owe us under various conditions, based upon the concept that well-being
is understood as wealth (p. 44). In similar vein, accounting has given life to the metaphoric use of ledger
account and its constitutive entailments of plus items, minus items and an ensuing balance.
The OED (1989) cites several examples of ledger(s) being used metaphorically in non-accounting domains:
Coleridge is cited in Friend (1818) as referring to the ledgers of calculating self-love; and Hamerton is cited
in Intelligent Life (X. viii, 1875; p. 379) as likening the mind to a merchant's ledger. Thus, trade in metaphor is
a two-way street between accounting and other areas of interest. This makes the understanding of the metaphors
about accounting itself even more important, since such metaphors may flow back, perhaps modified, to their
original domains.
4. A conceptual metaphor of accounting itself
We propose a conceptual metaphor for accounting itself. In examining the resulting implications, we are consistent
with Morgan's (1986) method of multiple metaphor, in which a variety of metaphors (of machine, organism,
and culture, among others) were applied experimentally to reveal the partial features of a truth and to obtain a
holistic understanding of an organization. In similar vein, our aim is for a richer understanding of metaphor in
accounting to emerge from discussion of the conceptual metaphor proposed.
We do not catalogue all of the conceptual metaphors that could be associated with accounting itself. Rather,
like McGoun et al. (2007a), we aim to pique intellectual awareness of the diversity, richness and inferences of the
conceptual framing ( Llewelyn, 2003, p. 699) that is provided by plausible conceptual metaphors in
accounting. Importantly, we direct attention to how conceptual metaphors help define accounting phenomena,
structure accounting concepts and generate inferences for those who read accounting text, such as financial
reports, CEO letters and a myriad of other internal and external corporate documents and reports that refer to
accounting. Such texts are embedded within a web of social relations, and are historically situated, and intertextual
(see Chalaby, 1996, Hardy, 2001, Alvesson and Karreman, 2000 and Amernic and Craig, 2000a).
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Based on our readings of Lakoff and Johnson, 1980 and Lakoff and Johnson, 1999, Gibbs (1994), Cameron and Low
(1999), and Steen (2002); and our understandings of the applications of metaphor analysis in a wide variety of
settings (including education [Cameron, 2003]; mergers [Vaara et al., 2003]; policy [Schn, 1993/1979]; news
discourse [Kitts and Milapides, 1997], economics for English as a second language users [White, 2003]); and our
empirical observations, we assign the following conceptual metaphor to accounting itself:
ACCOUNTING IS AN INSTRUMENT
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This conceptual metaphor infers that accounting is a mechanical device, gauge or similar apparatus; and that it is
capable of measuring objectively the effect of an accumulation of economic transactions, recorded in respect of an
accounting entity, on financial performance. An important inference is that accounting itselfis an accurate truth
telling gauge of financial performance and an inanimate and adept depicter of some underlying financial truth, free
from human interference. Because it is conceived as a directing instrument, a guiding device, and a decision tool,
this invites observers to conceive accounting as unbiased, dispassionate, ethically sound, and a natural indicator of
success.
Such a metaphoric conception of accounting was used to strong rhetorical effect in the testimony given by former
SEC Chief Accountant, Lynn Turner, to the US Congress's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on
October 7, 2008 in a hearing into aspects of the US government's financial bailout of America's largest insurance
company, AIG. In response to argument from senior executives of AIG that AIG's financial ills had been due to
accounting rules requiring assets to be marked to market, Turner invoked the ACCOUNTING IS AN
INSTRUMENT metaphor to respond acerbically and perceptively that such an excuse was like blaming the
thermometer, folks, for a fever (Turner, 2008).
However, as a reviewer of this paper has observed, it would be nave to presume that this metaphor has a
common inference which is free of contradictory inferences or implications; indeed, part of the utility of metaphor
rests upon its malleability in extension and (often selective) interpretation. For example, although ACCOUNTING IS
AN INSTRUMENT implies precision, it can also imply occasional imprecision, intermittent malfunction, and
dependence on accurate calibration. So, if Turner's thermometer [accounting rules] had malfunctioned or been
poorly calibrated, then perhaps it does deserve the blame, in part, at least?
Further, we need to be mindful that perhaps some instruments (such as the speed detection instruments used by
traffic police) are inherently biased in the way they are designed, operated and calibrated. Instruments based upon
basic physical measurements are susceptible to physical and perceptual biases. They are subject also to ideological
biasessuch as the German use of the Cephalic Index in race classification during the Nazi-era. Instruments based
upon paper and pencil tests, such as those allegedly measuring intelligence in psychology, may result in inapt
categorization of humans (Flynn, 1997). In accounting, does ideological bent or social conditioning lead to an
instrument's indicated measure being read (and conceived) differently by different readers? We need to be
mindful of the close relationship between ethics and instruments. For example, the Nazi-era use of the Cephalic
Index, based upon highly precise basic physical measurements of the human head (the ratio of the maximum
width of the head to its maximum length), was morally bankrupt. Inapt social engineering has resulted from the
abstract conception of human intelligence as a limited number of functional behaviours constitute[ing] reality for
psychologists working in social eugenics and mental hygenics over the 20th century (Flynn, 1997, p. 240). In
similar vein, the layers of construction of even the simplest accounting report serve to highlight that ethics and the
ACCOUNTING IS AN INSTRUMENT metaphor are bound tightly to each other.
5. Empirical grounding
The conceptual metaphor we propose for accounting itself (ACCOUNTING IS AN INSTRUMENT) is grounded
principally in the empirical evidence, assembled here, from a variety of settings (including in annual letters to
shareholders, corporate websites, corporate communications with employees, an arbitrator's report, and a special
investigator's report) and in a variety of accounting entities (including Enron, IBM, Woolworth, Canadian National
Railway, Microsoft, and General Electric). We assess this metaphor against the backdrop of the two desired
primary qualities of accounting information enunciated in the FASB's SFAC 2Qualitative Characteristics of
Accounting Information, and outlined earlier.
5.1. Example 1: IBM corporation: representational faithfulness?
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In analysing IBM's use of its website to teach accounting, Amernic and Craig (2000b) explored the metaphors in the
website's Guide to Understanding Financials (hereafter the Guide) and speculated about their entailments.
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They
highlighted the potential influence of these metaphors on the perceptions of financial accounting that might ensue
for the Guide's target audience of accounting neophytes. They found that the metaphor FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
ARE A LENS was pervasive in the Guide, consistent with the conceptual metaphor proposed here, ACCOUNTING IS
AN INSTRUMENT. Just as a lens is presumed to give a faithful portrait of any subject, the Guide advises that
financial statements can report the company's financial status accurately and reliably; and that the
statement of financial position is like a snapshot (and snapshots are created by an instrument, the
LENS of a camera). Although McGoun et al. (2007a) allude to the inherent dangers in reliance on this
metaphor, they seem much more sanguine about it than we are. We contend that this metaphor is insidious and
distortive because it encourages belief that accounting is incapable of reporting other than with representational
faithfulness. Through the uncritical adoption of this metaphor, financial accounting is regarded as a LENS or as an
unimpeachable portrayer of the reality scores thus revealed. What this prompts is the distorting inference
that
LIKE A CAMERA LENS, FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING GIVES AN OBJECTIVE VIEW OF FINANCIAL REALITY
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But even simple camera (converging) lenses distort to some extent. And when the subject of a photograph is
selected (which always occurs) and posed (which often occurs), notions of objectivity dissolve.
5.2. Example 2: Enron: neutrality?
Accounting language (including metaphor) was used in the prelude to the demise of Enron in 2001 to structure
thought and behaviour (Craig and Amernic, 2004b). The metaphor
ACCOUNTING IS A TRUTH TELLING LENS
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was deployed in the annual letter to shareholders of Enron for the year 2000, as reflected, for example, in the
phrase Enron is laser-focused on earnings per share. This metaphor was a powerful rhetorical device in
which the lens is fickle and sensitive to the interests and sustainability of capitalism (Craig and Amernic,
2004b, p. 535) and suggested that accounting, as a truth telling LENS, was deployed selectively in the interests of
sustaining capitalism:
when reported profits and stock prices are good, accounting is seen as a lens by which an underlying reality may
be discerned and CEOs and corporations are compelled to be laser-focused on earnings per share. But on the
other hand (after companies collapse?), the view is that accounting should assume a persona non grata status;
that accounting is something not for the chattering masses and the common herd of stockholders and
stakeholders. Rather, it is something for the cognoscenti, and should be marginalized on the periphery of popular
debate because of its technical incomprehensibility. ( Craig and Amernic, 2004b, p. 835)
So, whereas ACCOUNTING IS A TRUTH TELLING LENS is consistent with our proposed conceptual metaphor, it was
deployed selectively, making a mockery of the inference that accounting is neutral and free from human-induced
bias. And indeed, the announced focus of Enron and its leadership on earnings per share, served perverse ends.
The accounting measure, imperfect as it was, became (at least in the rhetoric of the company's leadership) the
ends, further eroding any possibility of the neutrality of this putative measure and the accounting instrument more
broadly.
5.3. Example 3: Canadian National Railway: neutrality?
Craig and Amernic (2004a) addressed the discursive struggle surrounding the privatization of Canadian National
Railway [CN] in 1995. They analysed how accounting language, concepts and information were deployed by Paul
Tellier, CEO of CN in the prelude to the privatization of CN. The principal source data were Tellier's articles in 25
issues of CN's monthly tabloid employee news magazine, Keeping Track between 1992 and 1995.
CN (through Tellier) was found to have used accounting arguments as part of an arsenal of rhetoric to condition
employees to behave in a way that would properly position CN for any proposed privatization.Craig and
Amernic (2004a) highlighted the accounting metaphors that were important rhetorical devices in the process of
constructing a privatization mentality and in persuading employees to accept a change in organizational
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orientation and culture. In particular, they drew attention to Tellier's recurring and far fromneutral use of the
metaphor PROFIT IS A DIAGNOSTIC BAROMETER OF WELL-BEING. This metaphor conceived accounting measures
of profit as emerging from an instrument (a barometer) in a way that is supportive of the conceptual metaphor
advanced here, ACCOUNTING IS AN INSTRUMENT.
In a later paper, Craig and Amernic (2008) examined the rhetorical life course of accounting performance measures
at CN after privatization: the operating ratio (defined as operating expenses divided by operating revenues) and a
free cash flow measure. They concluded that the narrative framing of success is made rhetorically potent by
deploying accounting performance measuresaccounting is not an innocent bystander in the political and
narrative manoeuvrings associated with a privatization. (p. 1085). Their conclusions reinforced the contention
of Miller and Simmons (1998, p. 529) that privatization is a language game, and that the well from which
these performance measures were selectively drawn was consistent with the metaphor ACCOUNTING IS AN
INSTRUMENT in ways similar to the non-neutral deployment of intelligence measures so despised by (among many
others) Flynn (1997).
5.4. Example 4: Woolworth Corporation: reliability and verifiability?
In 1994, a Special Committee set up by the Board of Directors of Woolworth Corporation investigated alleged
accounting irregularities in the company's interim 8K and 10K reports for the fiscal year 1993. Senior financial
officers within a subsidiary company alleged they had been directed to manipulate interim quarterly financial
results. One outcome of the special investigation was that the quarterly earnings (loss) per share data for 1993
were amended to remedy inaccurate reporting (as described on p. 4 of the Special Committee's resulting
report, hereafter the Report). The Report, issued on May 18, 1994 is laden with metaphor. The principal root
metaphor coursing through it is that
ACCOUNTING (OR 8K OR 10K REPORTING) IS A TRUTH TELLING LENS WHICH IS (OR SHOULD BE)
ACCURATE
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This metaphor is consistent with our proposed conceptual metaphor, and is reinforced by powerful rhetoric. For
example, in the Report's 670 word summary (pp. 46) the word inaccurate (as in inaccurate reporting or
inaccurate numbers) is used nine times. The repetition seems directed to encourage readers to concur with
the committee's conclusion about the quality of the financial reporting. But there are many potentially misleading
entailments of this metaphor, including those of reliability and verifiability.
By its use, the authors of the Report propagate a persistent mischief. They infer that there is a finite, singular set of
financially related numbers that represent truth and accuracy, with alternative sets of financial
representations being untruthful or inaccurate. Such an entailment is at odds with the multiplicity of
GAAP; the wide-ranging assumptions underlying financial representations; the imprecise art of cost allocation; and
the crude methods invoked to reflect the time value of money. The authors of the Report regard inaccurate
reporting as arising from figures other than those contained in general ledger balancesimplying that general
ledger balances are the epitome of virtue. Such an implication is misplaced. There is little precision in many general
ledger account balances (e.g., in respect of depreciation, bad debts, future tax benefits). These balances are the
subject of arbitrary processes which often lead to dubious financial representations.
5.5. Example 5: Grant Forest Products Corporation and the Canadian Paperworkers Union [13 CLRBR
(2d), 1992, pp. 115146]: timeliness and predictive value?
The metaphorical structure of the language in accounting-related labour relations discourse harbours important
evidence about how labour relations participants conceive accounting. In the arbitrators decision in a first
contract arbitral award of Grant Forest Products by the Ontario Labour Relations Board [OLRB] in 1992, the
company argued it had inability to pay increased wages because of financial difficulties. The accounting
information it relied upon was criticized strongly by the arbitrators. The following excerpt from the arbitrators
decision is consistent with the proposed conceptual metaphor, ACCOUNTING IS AN INSTRUMENT.
nor was there any balance sheet. This last fact is significant because the statement of income merely shows
whether the vehicle is going backwards or forwards, while the balance sheet provides a view of what it looks like.
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To determine if the company's wage offer was reasonably justified by its losses, we needed to know the complete
financial picture. [paras 57 and 58]
The main metaphor adopted by the arbitrators is that FINANCIAL STATEMENTS ARE A TRUTH TELLING LENS. This is
consistent with our proposed conceptual metaphor, ACCOUNTING IS AN INSTRUMENT. The metaphoric
conceptualisation of accounting is that it is an instrument, mechanical device, or tool; the numbers in financial
reports provide an objective snapshot of some physical economic reality; and accounting is some type of machine.
The main metaphor builds upon the following subordinate metaphors:
A COMPANY IS A VEHICLE
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AN INCOME STATEMENT IS A DETECTOR OF FORWARD MOTION [PROFIT] OR BACKWARD MOTION [LOSS]
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A BALANCE SHEET IS A PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGE OF THE FINANCIAL SITUATION OF A COMPANY
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This metaphorical representation profoundly affects perceptions of the apparatus which allegedly measures
important features of the company. The mental model a person has of a company influences the conceptualization
of the devices used to measure (some property of) that company ( Holland and Quinn, 1987). Indeed, a mental
model also influences the selection of those properties and perhaps their creation, as well. Thus, the arbitrators
had a mental model of A COMPANY IS A VEHICLE. Accordingly, it is unsurprising that they (subconsciously)
regarded the technology of financial measurement (accounting) as manifest in phenomena used to observe and
measure various aspects of a vehicle.
Like the eye observing whether a vehicle is traveling forward or backward, an accountant's income statement can
at least according to this (metaphorical) cognitive model do the same thing for a company. And like a picture
can be taken of a vehicle to show what it looks like, an accountant's balance sheet allegedly is a picture which
does the same thing for a company. But this metaphorical edifice leads to self-delusion, and most likely to poor
decisions by arbitrators and other users of accounting information. A COMPANY IS A VEHICLE is a dangerously
deficient metaphor (or mental model) of a complex, rich human setting ( Morgan, 1986). Financial statements are
incapable of reliably indicating movement forward or backward. They are prepared according to accounting
standards that are socially constructed ( Hines, 1988), ideologically biased ( Tinker, 1985 and Estes, 1996), and
often technically unfit for the purposes to which they are applied (Benston, 1982 and Clarke et al., 1990). They are
therefore incapable of providing an accurate, discernible picture.
6. Implications
The cases cited provide empirical support for the view that the metaphor, ACCOUNTING IS AN INSTRUMENT,
conveys what appear to be understandings of accounting. Evidence from accounting-in-use was adduced of the
facility for this metaphor to define phenomena (e.g., financial truth), structure concepts (e.g., objectivity),
generate inferences (e.g., about the accuracy and reliability of accounting), and to be accompanied by a rich set of
associated metaphors and entailments (e.g., PROFIT IS THE BOTTOM LINE).
The preponderant view people have of accounting is structured and reinforced by metaphor. But that view can be
misleadingas McGoun et al. (2007a) point out. Metaphor encourages us to conceive accounting as a phenomenon
that is accurate, objective and a faithful and complete teller of the truth. Even if we were inclined to regard
accounting AS IF it were an instrument, there ought to be wider recognition that it cannot be so in any simple
sense. We should recognize that the calculative technologies of accountancy are complex machines for
representing and intervening in social and economic life ( Miller, 1994, p. 256). Even if there are seemingly
attractive (social) reasons for regarding accounting as if it were an instrument, there might also be reasons which
are not so attractive, since they support particular ideological commitments and power structures. That is
why Lakoff and Johnson (1999, p. 537) urge that metaphor be interrogated: Cognitive science has something of
enormous importance to contribute to human freedom: the ability to learn what our unconscious conceptual
systems are like and how our cognitive unconscious functions.
9

Examining how metaphors are used in various accounting contexts can be productive and illuminating. Further
analysis and conversations about metaphor promise to be rewarding. For example, metaphor can be an entry
point into theorizing about accounting, and can help focus attention on the crucial role that power and strategy
play in creating the financial portrait of the firm (Delaney, 1994, p. 514).
If accounting is likened to an INSTRUMENT, conceptually and ideologically, by those who learn accounting, teach it,
participate in its preparation, use it, and are affected by it, then the many entailments accompanying such a
metaphor are in play. The most foundational of these entailments has strong potential to create mischief in both
accounting academe and accounting practiceand should be recognised as such. This is the presumption that
accounting can represent some pre-existing, objective corporate financial reality. There is considerable benefit in
maintaining alertness to the entailments of fundamental conceptual metaphors in accounting.










































10






Acknowledgements
We thank Sue Llewelyn, Dennis Tourish and two anonymous referees for very helpful comments on earlier versions
of this paper.
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Corresponding author.
1
Accounting, in turn, plausibly affects how people regard their world. Espeland and Hirsch (1990,
p. 93)contend that accounting has been central in facilitating and legitimating important
transformations in business. More generally, Fitzgibbon and Seeger (2002, p. 40) examine how
metaphors were deployed by the management of Chrysler and Daimler to help construct a
favorable meaning for the merger. One of the metaphors recruited was a marriage of equals,
which supported the pooling method of accounting for the combination of the two companies.
21

2
We say speculated because entailments are likely to differ from person to person, depending on
their different social construction as individuals. Our interpretations of the entailments of specific
metaphors are unaccompanied by any other authority. Since A rich set of entailments can be
drawn from any metaphor (Gibbs, 1994, p. 117), the issue of the plausibility and also the
authorial intention regarding entailments is nontrivial. In this paper we draw upon the experience
provided by Amernic and Craig, 2000a, Amernic and Craig, 2000b and Amernic and Craig, 2006,
and Craig and Amernic, 2004a and Craig and Amernic, 2004b.
Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.