Gender, the state and the audit profession: evidence from Spain (1942–88).

Extant knowledge on gender and auditing overwhelmingly relies on evidence gathered from a limited group of Anglo-Saxon countries. It is widely admitted, however, that gender issues are affected by the institutional contexts of the investigation. The Anglo-Saxon settings, we contend, embrace a number of idiosyncratic, institutional characteristics that advise caution in the generalizability of results. Our study addresses the role of gender in Spanish audit practice during the period 1942 to 1988. The environment of the Spanish audit profession witnessed the peaceful transition from a dictatorship to a full-fledged democracy as well as the emergence of a free market economy from a system characterized by stiff economic autarchy and an overriding intervention of the state in the economy. We found that the dominant role of the state in Spanish society affected the structure of the audit profession and made impossible the emergence of an autonomous project. In particular, our findings reveal that the audit profession did not have an independent strategy about the role of women at work, but mimicked the attitudes deployed by the state during our observation period.

Founding brothers: Leland, buck, and cappon and the formation of the archives profession (session 404)

This session on archives history examines the role of three individuals-Waldo G. Leland (1879-1966), Solon J. Buck (1884-1962), and Lester J. Cappon (1900-1981)-in the formation of the archives profession in the United States in the first three-quarters of the twentieth century. These "founding brothers" published extensively, but they also created and maintained personal manuscript collections that reflect how they viewed themselves and how they wanted to be remembered. Four archivists/historians track through the lenses of the papers of the "founding brothers" the emergence of professional history to the beginnings of public history with their alliance and tension with archival science as a distinct profession

Beyond Theoretical Orientations: The Emergence of a Unified Scientific Framework in Professional Psychology

Psychology has been remarkably successful as both a basic and applied science despite serious and persistent conflict between its many theoretical camps and schools of thought. By far the most influential approaches to conceptualizing clinical practice in psychology have been the traditional theoretical orientations, even though they are widely viewed as inadequate and incomplete. This article reviews the underlying reasons for these conflicts and then discusses the emergence of a unified scientific framework that moves the profession beyond these problems. Outmoded conceptual frameworks are not appropriate for a science-based profession, and professional psychology needs to consider making a systematic transition to a comprehensive scientific approach to understanding human development, functioning, and behavior change

Creating a Canadian profession: the nuclear engineer, c. 1940-1968

Canada, as one of the three Allied nations collaborating on atomic energy development during the Second World War, had an early start in applying its new knowledge and defining a new profession. Owing to postwar secrecy and distinct national aims for the field, nuclear engineering was shaped uniquely by the Canadian context. Alone among the postwar powers, Canadian exploration of atomic energy eschewed military applications; the occupation emerged within a governmental monopoly; the intellectual content of the discipline was influenced by its early practitioners, administrators, scarce resources, and university niches; and a self-recognized profession coalesced later than did its American and British counterparts. This paper argues that the history of the emergence of Canadian nuclear engineers exemplifies unusually strong shaping of technical expertise by political and cultural context

Professionalization and the Accounting Profession

This Chapter reviews the critical literature on the emergence, development and demise of the professional model in accounting and auditing. While the critical accounting literature is broad and amorphous, in this Chapter the focus is on those studies that present an “immanent critique” of professionalization (i.e. an analysis of the contradictions of this institutional form) or which place the accounting profession within a political economy framework that examines its position at the nexus of the economy, civil society and the state. The Chapter is structured as a stylized history of the accounting profession beginning with the emergence of professional associations, the closure of the profession through the use of ascriptive criteria for membership, the profession’s engagement with the power of the state and the embedding of accounting expertise in regulation, the globalization of the profession and the rise of a commercial model of accounting practice. The Chapter ends by identifying pressing research issues that arise from the emergence of accounting as a “post-professional” occupation. This perspective assumes that the commercial model of accounting does not simply replace the professional model but rather generates diverse hybrid institutions with emergent features that will require empirical and theoretical work to fully appreciate

Career Resourcing and the Process of Professional Emergence

We theorize a career resourcing process that explains how individuals can create a new profession. Using historical archives, we trace the emergence of health services research as a new research profession through the career actions of early practitioners. We find that career resourcing can lead to the institutionalization of a new profession by: 1) a process of accretion, where people pursuing fulfilling careers generate resources that contribute to institutionalization, or 2) institutional work to deliberately build the professional community and infrastructure. We contribute to research on institutional change by specifying career actions that can lead to the institutionalization of a new profession, and by developing theory that accounts for the motivations and the means of individuals to act in ways that result in the institutionalization of a new profession

William Godwin and the puritan legacy

This essay’s analysis of Godwin’s engagement with his (and Britain’s) puritan and Dissenting legacy is significant in two respects. First, it offers a reading of two of Godwin’s lesser known, later writings and thus contributes to our appreciation of a thinker whose activity and influence in the nineteenth century is still poorly understood. Second, this topic offers a unique point of entry into the bewildering complex of religious, political and historiographical tensions comprising the intersection of Britain’s long eighteenth and long nineteenth centuries. This pivotal period saw the emergence of a radically reformed British polity, an important element of which addressed long-standing issues of religious profession and allegiance. In this context, it is surely helpful to engage the extensive historical reflections of one of English letters’ most productive and generically versatile practitioners

The Accounting and Auditing Profession in Jordan: Its Origin and Development

This study reviews the historical development of accounting the auditing profession in Jordan. It investigates the social, economic, and political factors which have affected the accounting and auditing profession in Jordan. In addition, this study tracks the development of the accounting and auditing profession themselves and the related commercial legislations since the beginning of the twentieth century to the current era, with the aim of providing a general background about the development of accounting and auditing in Jordan. The findings indicate that the Anglo-American model was adopted in accounting as a result of social, political, and economical factors. Also, Jordan is currently committed to financial reporting standards and international auditing standards. Keywords: Accounting; Auditing profession, Emergence, Development, Financial reportin

Actuarial versus Financial Pricing of Insurance

This paper grew out of various recent discussions with academics and practitioners around the theme of the interplay between insurance and finance. Some issues were: The increasing collaboration between insurance companies and banks The emergence of finance related insurance products, as there are catastrophy futures and options, PCS options, indexed linked policies... The deregulation of various (national) insurance markets The discussion around risk management methodology for financial institutions The evolution from a more liability modelling oriented industry (insurance) to a more global financial industry involving asset-liability and risk-capital based modelling The emergence of financial engineering as a new profession, its interplay with actuarial training and research. Rather than aiming at giving a complete overview of the issue at hand, the author concentrates on some recent (and not so recent) developments which from a methodological point of view offer new insight into the comparison of pricing mechanisms between insurance and finance. The author views this paper very much as work in progress. This paper was presented at the Financial Institutions Center's May 1996 conference on "