The use of accounting numbers in temporary organising : evidence from artist-funded record production projects

Abstract

The primary aim of this thesis is to further our understanding of the use of accounting numbers by knowledgeable agents who are operating beyond permanent organisational settings. To study the functioning of accounting in such settings, this thesis adopts an agency-centred structuration approach to examine how accounting numbers are used in the continual, reflexive process of temporary organising. Prior accounting studies using structuration theory have prioritised describing the structural features of social systems, denying the reader the opportunity to examine the role that knowledgeable agents play in simultaneously drawing upon and reproducing these structural features. The current study addresses this imbalance by drawing upon strong structuration theory, which brings to the fore the conduct and context of agents to produce a more nuanced approach to the study of structuration processes. Specifically, this thesis extends strong structuration theory by adopting a praxis perspective to highlight how the use of accounting numbers is implicated in the active agency of knowledgeable agents. This approach is applied in this thesis to highlight the day-to-day processes in which the temporary structures of short-term artistfunded record production projects are continually (re)produced. The outcome of these processes is a fluid temporary form of organising that is flexible enough to allow the creative and musical activities of record production to take place, but provides the necessary minimal structures to guide such activity. Contrary to prior research in the field of temporary organisational settings, this thesis finds accounting numbers to be at the centre of this process.