The ’accounting Turn’ in Steering Media in Organisations and Society with Specific Reference to the Public Sector in the Uk

First draft only-please do not quote from the contents without the prior permission of the authors. Comments would be very welcome. Abstract The paper explores the nature of the regulatory process in both organisations and societies. It clarifies the commonalities and differences in these processes at these two levels tracing the way there is an increasing 'accounting turn' in the actual regulatory mechanisms. The paper draws from Jurgen Habermas' somewhat incomplete, yet powerful, theoretical appreciation of steering processes. These insights are refined and developed into a classification schema of steering media in both societies and organisations. This, in turn, leads to some initial evaluatory commentary, as befits the modernist perspective which comes from Habermasian thought, on the nature of any particular steering process which emanates from a society and affects an or a number of steering processes in organisations in that society. The empirical example developed in the paper, relates to the societal nature and organisational effects of the 'new public management' changes which have been occurring in the UK public sector over the last fifteen years or so with specific reference to the health and education changes. This example demonstrates the power of the somewhat abstract theoretical language developed in the first part of the paper to be grounded in an actual situation. In relation to this example what the analysis highlights is an empirical demonstration of the more general 'accounting turn' which the paper argues has been occurring in regulatory processes. It also shows that, based on the classification system developed in the paper, that there is considerable cause for concern in relation to the worth of these changes at both a societal and organisational level. The paper ends, therefore, with a specific appeal for a detailed evaluation of these public sector 'reforms' as they relate to the health and education sectors. This comes from the more general framework developed into analysing steering processes in both societies and organisations which is commended for application in understanding and evaluating other regulatory processes. effects of the 'new public management' changes in the UK public sector