Accounting and Emotion:A Case Study of a Financial Institution

This paper examines how accounting is implicated in strategizing practices at a financial institution. We investigate micro processes of strategizing in which proclaimed abstract concepts in the formally disclosed middle range plan are given concreted shape through everyday practices at local divisions, and examine the way in which accounting plays in the strategizing processes. In order to understand the relationships between strategy and accounting, we draw on a practice theory perspective (Ahrens & Chapman, 2007; Jorgensen & Messner, 2009 cf. Schatzki, 2005), which is helpful in picturing roles of accounting in micro processes of strategizing. In particular, this paper examines emotional aspects of accounting in everyday practices that give shape to the proclaimed strategic concepts in its middle range plan. This paper contributes to the existing literature on accounting and strategy by shedding lights on the way in which emotional aspects drive micro-processes of strategising and accounting.