Connecting the accounting past and present: scientific management and office management control

The purpose of this paper is to examine the accounting historiographic relationship between past, present and future as a potential input to the profession’s forward looking decision-making. This is presented as a foundation for better investigating and managing many issues that accounting discipline and profession must address today. The study draws upon the general and accounting historiographic literature analysing the relationships between past, present and future and applies these concepts to the examination of two accounting related case studies. These are first, the history and persistence of scientific management in today’s accounting thought and practice and second, the history and present manifestation of office design and processes with their evidence of ongoing scientific management influence. The study demonstrates the persistence and influence of historical predecessors upon contemporary accounting and management control concepts and practices, even when some of those evident today may appear manifestly new. Scientific management, while developed and championed from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, emerges as continuing its influence on accounting related thought and practice today. Researchers need to account for the historical environment and prior literature that may still significantly condition and explain present day phenomena. Such understanding may need to be incorporated into research designs for examining contemporary issues. The accounting profession can benefit from close attention to historical precedents for issues it is addressing, by way of policy and practice decisions for future accounting concepts, conventions and standards. This may include both more informed critiques of current policies and practices as well as more innovative approaches to future potential solutions. This study offers a focussed analysis of past-present-future interrelatedness and applies it to two accounting and management control related cases affected by such relationships over time. It demonstrates the persistence of historical concepts and practices and their impact on contemporary accounting and management control related phenomena.