What is it about?
The literature on accounting for intellectual capital (IC) and, in particular, IC reporting suggests a preoccupation with measurement. While foundational for a calculative practice, this may eclipse the socially embedded facets of this accounting technology. The consequences include bringing into question the usefulness of IC reporting. Accordingly, we argue for a reflexive analysis of IC as a material, social phenomenon facilitating organisational change. In this paper we examine and reflect on how IC practices influence individual understanding of organisational change, developing insights into how social relations are identified, communicated and transformed. The overall contribution of the paper is to highlight how calculative practices, such as accounting for IC, are balanced with judgment in understanding and managing IC during periods of organisational change.
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Why is it important?
Helps understand how people and organizations develop "accounts"
Perspectives
How one creates an account is important, and thus by understanding how we account helps us to reflect about how others see the world, because everyone sees it from a different perspective.
Dr John C Dumay
Macquarie University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Intellectual capital, calculability and qualculation, The British Accounting Review, March 2016, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.bar.2015.07.002.
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