A Cultural Analysis of Management Accounting Practices: An Introductory Work

As an introductory work of a PhD research project, this paper is about methodological choice. It is argued that hermeneutics or interpretive philosophy is proper for studying how accounting is practiced in its cultural contexts. This paper then introduces Geertz's conception of interpretive culture. It is argued that Geertz' s interpretive cultural thought suggests an alternative perspective for an attempt to understand how management accounting is implicated in its organisational cultural context. Thereafter a research agenda for the research project is determined.