“Seeing Without Being Seen”

Abstract

What is the relationship between current German management accounting techniques (referred to as “Controlling “ in German-speaking areas), Taylorism, and an eighteenth-century prison design by Jeremy Bentham, the Panopticon? Using a Foucauldian “archaeological” approach combined with “genealogical” concerns, we argue that panopticism as a disciplinary instrument and as an organizing metaphor can still be discerned in current German management accounting concepts as well as in one of its conceptual ancestors, Taylorism. Our analysis constitutes a critical reflection of the impacts of panopticism as an underlying metaphor for present-day German management accounting, especially with regard to the “successful” implementation of management accounting tools and their organizational consequences.