Based on the acceptance of the importance of clear definitions and concepts, we explore conventional definitions of accounting and chart their change and development. While accounting's definitions have evolved, they do not, in our view, adequately reflect accounting as social and moral practice but rather continue to position accounting as a technical practice, despite the valuable work of key accounting scholars particularly over the last four decades. We highlight the social and moral aspects of accounting and propose a new definition of accounting for the 2020s to stimulate discussion, debate and improvement. In our opinion, accounting has a way to go to reach its true potential.
The paper reports on research undertaken in three organisations seeking to explore anomie at work. This research explores whether a distinction in the levels of anomie between people’s perception of the work and non-work contexts exists in three organisations, that is whether people are more likely to feel more hopeless and helpless in their work or non-work life. It also looks at whether people in different organisations have significantly different levels of anomie. A significant difference in the non-work anomie between organisations, but no significant difference in work anomie between organisations, was found. In the three organisations researched, the anomie score in the non-work context is lower than in the work context, indicating that respondents perceive the work context as more anomic. The work anomie for the total sample was found to be significantly higher that the non-work anomie. The implications for ethical behaviour at work and business ethics are discussed. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006Anomie, morality, business ethics, work anomie,
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