Accounting in Identity Regulation: Producing the Appropriate Worker

Abstract

It is acknowledged that identity regulation in organizations relies on discursive resources. This study moves beyond discourse – illustrating how discourse and accounting measurements are mobilized together in revising identity. Measurement produces persistence, clarity, transparency and comparability, as well as direction: Accounting’s quantitative knowledge ‘amplifies’ discourse. We explain the Great Alliance between words and numbers in a case study addressing events in an organization’s transformation. This extends our understanding of what takes place on the interface between identity and accounting.

Keywords:

• Identity regulation
• Discourse
• Management control
• Performance measurement

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of the study have been presented in many conferences and workshops; we sincerely acknowledge the numerous constructive comments and suggestions we have received on these forums. We are also indebted to Teemu Malmi, Seppo Ikäheimo, Jari Huikku as well as Jan Mouritsen for their suggestions on how to proceed with our argument. Further, we thank the two anonymous reviewers for their feedback and suggestions. Finally, we wish to thank Teppo Sintonen for his insights and his valuable input on a previous version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The nine categories discussed by Alvesson and Willmott (2002, pp. 629–632) are: (1) defining the person directly, (2) defining a person by defining others, (3) providing a specific vocabulary of motives, (4) explicating morals and values, (5) knowledge and skills, (6) group categorization and affiliations, (7) hierarchical location, (8) establishing and clarifying a distinct set of rules of the game and (9) defining the context.