Double Entry

Résumé du livre

This thesis presents a sociological study of graduate accountants training in a major, international accountancy firm. The thesis locates accountancy training within a context of the wider occupational community, and within the organizational setting of the accountancy firm. The 'double entry' into a profession and an organisation is used as a theme, to explore the socialization of new recruits to accountancy. While the thesis is theoretically eclectic, the methodological approach does draw on an interactionist perspective. Fieldwork in the accountancy firm was conducted over a twelve month period. Ethnographic methods were employed and most of the data were collected using participant observation. The first two chapters of the thesis provide the occupational and sociological context of the study. An account of the fieldwork and the research process is given in the third chapter. The remaining seven chapters explore how graduate accountants receive and respond to accountancy training. Each chapter focuses on a different theme of the occupational socialization process. These include: the management of self presentation and of time; the process of evaluation; collective and individual responses to perceived problems; and the transmission and reproduction of accounting knowledge. The thesis demonstrates that accountancy students are not passive recipients of the training they receive. Rather, in responding to and evaluating their training experience, they are actively involved in creating their own versions of accounting reality.