Looking through the kaleidoscope: exploring literature on management accountants using the becoming, doing, relating and making sense perspectives

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the extant research on management accountants (MAs) to unravel the complexity and intricacies of this kaleidoscopic occupation and identify avenues for future research. Design/methodology/approach A literature review of 154 papers focusing on MAs was carried out. The analysis primarily adopted the “becoming”, “doing”, and “relating” perspectives suggested by Anteby et al.’s (2016) framework on occupations. However, an additional perspective, labeled “making sense”, was added and used to review the extant research on MAs, given the pivotal role played by the cognition–action processes that individual MAs undertake and their influence on occupational dynamics. Findings The study analyzes how MAs enter the occupational community and the challenges they face (“becoming”), the intricacies of their tasks and their struggles for jurisdiction over both traditional and emergent activities (“doing”), and opportunities relating to the establishment of relationships with other occupational groups (“relating”). This social perspective on the MAs’ occupation is underpinned by a cognitive approach through which the ways in which MAs scan and interpret the environment in which they operate influence their actions (“making sense”) – that is, how MAs become part of the occupation, how MAs perform their tasks and how MAs relate to other occupations. Originality/value This paper disentangles the major challenges to MAs’ occupation and encourages the adoption of a meta-framework that integrates cognitive and social approaches to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of MAs. The proposed meta-framework may also be used to explore other occupational groups, including established staff functions such as IT and HR, as well as nascent occupations like data scientists and sustainability managers.