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the substance of the research still bedevils the area, although in this
respect it certainly is not unique.
As should be quite clear, I have adopted a specific stance in
commenting on the views articulated by Burgstahler and Sundem. My
rationale for doing this is an internally orientated one for the
behavioral and organizational accounting area, although not a
defensive one. It is important for behavioral and organizational
researchers in accounting to receive, ponder on and, on suitable
occasions, act on the views of outsiders. The field should not be
isolated. Nor should it be seen as being isolated. Equally, however, I
think that it is extremely important for behavioral and organizational
researchers to be conscious of the nature and specificity of their own
endeavors, of the intellectual traditions upon which they draw and of
the positions which they occupy or should attempt to occupy within
the spectrum of the diverse human sciences. Indeed, if I am critical of
behavioral accounting researchers it is that they do not live up to this
ideal. Too many appear to be unaware of their own intellectual
position. Too few can relate their research interests to substantive
developments in the human sciences. Insufficient attention is given to
increasing at least their awareness of their epistemological position
and the roles which can be attributed to the research endeavor.
If behavioral accounting research were to invest more in appreciat -
ing its own nature and position, I think that it would be a stronger
field. It could then listen with sympathy and understand ing to the
views of outsiders. It could have a sounder appreciation of their
relevance or not for its own endeavors. It even might be able to extend
its own appreciations to complement and intersect with those
emanating from w ithout, in the process even developing some
understandings of the organizational and social preconditions that
give rise to an interest in the economic and its translation into mo des
of economic calculation, such as accounting.