Principal Researcher:

David Albert Newman, DBA Candidate dnewman1@learn.athabascau.ca                                                 

1 (204) 330-4292 / 1 (204) 667-4023     

 

Supervisor: 

Dr. Kai Lamertz  kai.lamertz@fb.athabascau.ca                                                 

                 THE SHOW MUST GO ON: A CANADIAN HETERODOX ACCOUNTANT’S STORY

David Albert Newman, DBA Candidate, Athabasca University

 

Abstract

Focus

My proposed research intertwines phenomenological autoethnography, critical discourse analysis, content analysis, and thematic narrative analysis to investigate self-presentation challenges and idealization images, mental illness, stigmatization, harassment, and discrimination.

 

The Canadian accounting profession (CAP) is the focal frame for the study of these potentially rational and irrational interpersonal interactions and perceptions.  Foucault’s critical discourse analysis and thematic narrative analysis will be applied to examine institutionally preferred emergent discourses in CPA Canada archival text data (CPA Magazine, Pivot Magazine, and CPA profession news releases) and individual narratives from Canadian Professional Accountant (CPA) interview data.

 

The discourses and narratives will be compared to the autoethnography of my lived experience applying NVivo to understand the phenomenon. Theoretical benefits arise from uniquely integrating Goffmanian social constructionism and Foucauldian critical discourse analysis (Hacking, 2004; Lieb, 2017).  We see ourselves how we interpret how others see us through a looking-glass self (Cooley, 1902).  Practically, my thesis research may help minimize mental illness, stigmatization, harassment (bullying, mobbing, and online stalking), discrimination, and social ostracism in the CAP and beyond from dissemination of the phenomenon (van Manen, 2016).    Blumer’s (1969) social interpretivism will be applied to the research entire research corpus by my ethnographic lived experience survivor status in the Canadian public accounting profession to address the research gap of theoretical complementarity wherein “Goffman meets Foucault” where one once said that “All the World’s a Stage” (Shakespeare, 2016).

 

The rational accounting profession has been understudied compared to other rational professions such as medicine and law (Anderson-Gough et al., 1998).  The CAP workplace is useful for studying CPA interpersonal interactions concerning self-presentation, mental illnesses, and stigmatization given the current context and historical account (Goffman, 1959; Goffman, 1963; Goffman, 1967; Foucault, 1965; Foucault, 1995; Leary, 1995, Heatherton et al., 2000; Falk, 2001; Porter, 2002; Hinshaw, 2007; Corrigan, 2014) since professionals are publicly regarded as having high status and perceive themselves as such (Duff et al., 2007; Duff and Ferguson, 2007; Duff and Ferguson 2011; Anderson-Gough et al., 1998).

 

Research Questions

The research questions are:

1.     What is the Canadian accounting profession message about mental health issues, stigmatization, and wellbeing?

2.     What are Canadian accounting professionals’ individual experiences concerning mental health issues, stigmatization, and wellbeing when interpersonally interacting?

3.     In what ways do Canadian accounting professionals’ individual experiences and the accounting profession message align and differ?

 

Format

For Conferences / Summits, I will disseminate my main ideas as a PowerPoint presentation.

 

Intended Outcomes

My goal is to prevent suffering from scathing judgements enacted as stigmatization, harassment, and discrimination toward mental illness—often occurring in the ever-seeing Panopticon (Bentham, 1995; Foucault, 1995)—as applied to the universal yet diverse human being thus exacerbating mental illness in the first place contributing to declining performative productivity and appearance.  All human beings should enjoy human rights.

 

References

Anderson-Gough, F., Grey, C., & Robson, K. (1998).  Making up accountants: the organizational and professional socialization of trainee chartered accountants.  Vermont, USA: Ashgate Publishing Company.

Bentham, J. (1995).  The Panopticon Writings.  Brooklyn, NY: Verso.

Blumer, H. (1969).  Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc.

Cooley, C. H. (1902). Human nature and the social order. New York, NY: Scribner’s.

Corrigan, P. W. (2014).  The Stigma of Disease and Disability: Understanding Causes and Overcoming Injustices.  Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Duff, A., & Ferguson, J. (2007). Disability and accounting firms: Evidence from the UK. Critical Perspectives On Accounting, 18, 139-157.

Duff, A., & Ferguson, J. (2011). Disability and the socialization of accounting professionals. Critical Perspectives On Accounting, 22, 351-364.

Duff, A., Ferguson, J., & Gilmore, K. (2007). Issues concerning the employment and employability of disabled people in UK accounting firms: An analysis of the views of human resource managers as employment gatekeepers. The British Accounting Review, 39, 15-38.

Falk, G. (2001).  Stigma: How We Treat Outsiders.  New York, NY: Prometheus Books.

Foucault, M. (1965).  Madness & Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason.  New York, NY: Vintage Books, Random House, Inc.

Foucault, M. (1995).  Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York, NY: Vintage Books, Random House, Inc.

Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. New York, NY: Doubleday.

Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.

Goffman, E. (1967).  Interaction Ritual.  New York, NY: Pantheon Books, Random House Inc.

Hacking, I. (2004). Between Michel Foucault and Erving Goffman: between discourse in the abstract and face-to-face interaction. Economy and Society, 33(3), 277–302.

Heatherton, T.F., Kleck, R. E., Hebl, M. R., Hull, J. G. (2000).  The Social Psychology of Stigma.  New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Hinshaw, S. P. (2007).  The Mark of Shame: Stigma of Mental Illness and an Agenda for Change.  New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Leary, M. R. (1995). Self-presentation: Impression management and interpersonal behavior. Madison, WI: Brown & Benchmark.

Leib, R. S. (2017).  Spaces of the Self. Philosophy Today, 61(1), 189-210.

Porter, R.  (2002).  Madness: A Brief History.  New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Shakespeare, W. (2016).  William Shakespeare: The Complete Collection.  Chicago, Illinois: FB Publishing, based on the Riverside Edition (1974).

van Manen, M.  (2016).  Phenomenology of Practice: Meaning-Giving Methods in Phenomenological Research and Writing.  New York, NY: Routledge.