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‘We are being Pilloried for Something, We Did Not Even Know We Had Done Wrong!’ Quality Control and Orders of Worth in the British Audit Profession
Author(s) -
Ramirez Carlos
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of management studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.398
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1467-6486
pISSN - 0022-2380
DOI - 10.1111/joms.12011
Subject(s) - injustice , equity (law) , feeling , accountability , audit , work (physics) , public relations , quality (philosophy) , sociology , set (abstract data type) , unit (ring theory) , control (management) , political science , business , social psychology , accounting , psychology , law , economics , management , epistemology , mechanical engineering , philosophy , mathematics education , computer science , programming language , engineering
This paper contributes to the analysis of institutional work by looking at situations of perceived injustice that institutional change can create. To this end, the paper mobilizes the work of B oltanski and T hévenot on orders of worth to analyse the consequences for a professional body of a shift in institutional logics towards more accountability. The feeling of injustice experienced – and voiced – by some members of the largest British institute of auditors, the ICAEW , after it set up and operated a quality monitoring unit, serves to illustrate how change can turn awry when equity in a community of peers is threatened, and how institutional work can remedy such a situation by restoring a sense of worth in the community.