This article examines the role of accounting in the manufacture of consensus. Consensus building is often considered a central value for rational decision-making and management. However, more than a democratic confrontation of vantage points, the quest for consensus is a way to discourage conflict and resistance. Our main argument is that accounting and consensus play central roles in processes of definition and the social reproduction of dominant interests. Accounting acts to promote some stakes and strategies (and silence others), as if they were collective and disinterested, which makes them more powerful in debates that deny struggles and asymmetries in positions of power, as well as increases legitimacy by creating an illusion of participation. We illustrate these processes through a case study in which we document the intersection between two fields of knowledge, marketing and accounting, that compete for a monopoly on the definition of value and the ability to speak for the organisation. This analysis draws on Bourdieu's conceptualisation of symbolic domination to highlight how powerful actors secure influence while avoiding contestation. Accounting produces symbolic violence that consolidates asymmetries in positions of power by shaping what is consensual and what is not so that dominant interests are reproduced with the consent of those who have most to lose in the process

This article aims to explore the behavioural differences between male and female auditors with respect to professional ethics rules. We used factorial correspondence analysis to study disciplinary rulings issued against French statutory auditors between June 1989 and December 2008. Our results highlight significant gender-related behavioural differences between auditors regarding professional ethics. Male statutory auditors are more likely to exhibit behaviour that harms the image of the profession, while their female counterparts principally commit disciplinary offences relating to audit quality and to obstruction of professional peer-review controls. This study therefore shows that gender offers a relevant perspective for investigating differences in statutory auditor professional ethical behaviour. It is also a useful source of information for the profession in terms of increasing the effectiveness of its disciplinary processes.

No abstract