The Sociology of Enterprise, Accounting and Budget Rules: Implications for Organizational Theory

The sociology of organizations has ignored the evolution of and variation in enterprise rules, budget sys. terns and accounting rules. This paper takes a broad approach to accounting rules, arguing that they are related to large variations in enterprise forms and in industry problen~s. The rule making and enforcement apparatus of modern society is described. Both external and internal aspects of accounting rules and budget systems are explored. Every manager spends a good deal of his t ime w o r r y i n g abou t budge t a l locat ions and the applica t ion of specific rules. The overall b u d g e t syst em and the specific a l locat ion pol ic ies are for the individual manager an a c c o u n t i n g b u d g e t ing regime. For m a n y purposes , and at mos t t imes, they are t rea ted as f rom God t imeless and unchangeab le , possibly arbitrary, bu t determinat ive. Even if the manager tries to evade t hem or man ipu la t e them, he does so wi th a sense of tes t ing the fates. Moreover , sovereigns, s u p r e m e authori t ies , spend m u c h t ime c rea t ing budgets , r ev iewing a c c o u n t i n g informat ion, c rea t ing and th ink ing abou t a c c o u n t i n g systems, and p rocess ing in fo rmat ion der ived from these