University Accounting Essay: Contemporary Issues Analysis and Review

This essay delves into contemporary issues within the field of accounting, focusing on the arguments presented in an article criticizing the objectivity and representational accuracy of accounting practices. The essay examines the author's perspective, which challenges the notion that accountants provide a complete and unbiased view of an organization's financial reality, particularly concerning the exclusion of qualitative information. The student agrees that accounting often presents a one-sided perspective due to its reliance on quantifiable data, but disagrees with the view that accounting representations are entirely a myth, asserting that quantitative data provides a valuable, albeit limited, representation of an organization's performance. Furthermore, the essay evaluates the article's effectiveness in conveying the culture of accounting, concluding that it primarily critiques accounting methods rather than fostering a deeper understanding of its practices. The student provides a summary of the references used in the assignment.

Running head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING
Contemporary Issues in Accounting
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF ACCOUNTING
Part one
B. The main argument of this article is that the accountants claim to represent the reality the way
it is, is not true. According to Morgan the accountants are not objective appraisers of reality.
Whatever they represent is always one sided. It does not show the reality because the
representations of the accountants are mostly objective and not subjective. Accountants only
represent the information that can be quantified. They only give account of those activities that
can be written in numerical form. Some of the information of the organization cannot be
quantified as they are qualitative in nature. Those activities of any enterprise are generally not
represented in the books of accounts so the argument is very valid that only the Accountants
often represent one sided perspective.
Part Two
I agree with the writer of the article that a single sided perspective of the activities and occurring
of an enterprise are represented by the accountants while most of the information that are
qualitative in nature is not being included in accounting books. Many activities occur in an
organization that are left. Accountants show in the books of accounts that the enterprise has
incurred loss in a particular month but they do not to provide the reasons behind the loss faced by
them. I agree to this very fact but what I do not like about the article is that according to the
writer, the reality of accountant is a myth and accountant do not provide the real information. I
believe that accountant might provide one sided perspective only about the quantitative
information but whatever they represent is reality. It cannot be called a myth. Representation of
the activities in terms of numbers makes it easier for people to judge whether the organization is
in good position or not. This kind of representation does not include information that are

2CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF ACCOUNTING
unimportant. It provides short and to the point representation of all the activities and the
transactions. I do not agree to that accountants do not represent the reality as it is because I
believe yes they do represent the reality as it is. Descriptive representation is quite time
consuming for both the accountant and the ones who would be seeing it. Quantitative
representation is to the point and less time consuming.
Part three
I do not think that this particular article has been able to make the readers understand the culture
of accounting. The article is basically criticizing the method of accounting. The practice of
accounting involves quantifying the activities that take place within an organization. All the
monetary transactions are reported in accounting books. The article does not help in
understanding the accounting culture rather it diverts the readers to other aspects of the enterprise
that are qualitative in nature. It talks about the subjective nature of the activities and information
in an organization. After reading this article, I could hardly find any information that would
suggest anything about the accounting culture.

3CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF ACCOUNTING
References
Berry, A. J., Capps, D., Cooper, D., Ferguson, P., Hopper, T & Lowe, E. A., Management
Control in an Area of the NCB: Rationales of Accounting Practices in Public Enterprise,
Accounting, Organizations and Society ( 1985) pp. 3-28.
Davis, S. W., Accounting for the Hospital Patient as a Product: The Changing Reality of Health
Care, unpublished Working Paper, Queen's University, Canada (1986).
Morgan, G. (1988). Accounting as reality construction: towards a new epistemology for
accounting practice. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 13(5), 477-485.
Gambling, T., Magic, Accounting and Morale,Accounting, Organizations andSociety ( 1977) pp.
141-151. Littleton, A., The Structure ofAccounting Theory (American Accounting Association,
1953).
Morgan, G., Paradigms, Metaphors and Puzzle Solving in Organization Theory, Administrative
Science Quarterly ( 1980) pp. 605--622. Morgan, G., Beyond Method: Strategiesfor Social
Research (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1983). Morgan, G., Images ofOrganization (Beverly Hills: Sage,
1986).