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Communication that counts: A sociolinguistic ethnography of globalized accounting work

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posted on 2022-03-28, 19:21 authored by Pia Patricia Tenedero
This research explores the idea of 'good communication' in globalized accounting work. Accountants are widely stereotyped as poor communicators and significant training efforts are invested in improving accounting communication. Taking the occupational stereotype of shy quants who are good with numbers but bad with words as its starting point, this thesis examines language and communication practices and ideologies in accounting education and work in the Philippines. As an emerging global leader in offshore accounting, the Philippines provides an ideal context for this study as it allows for an exploration of multilingual, multimodal, and transnational workplace communication. Conceptually, the study draws on the literature related to language for specific purposes, commodification of communication, and the performativity of language in the workplace. Methodologically, the study takes a sociolinguistic ethnographic approach. In addition to participant observation in top-performing accounting schools and workplaces in Metro Manila, the study also uses corpus analytic methods to analyze how communication skills are constructed in curricular documents and employment ads. With regard to accounting education, the study finds that communication skills constitute an expected graduate attribute and are taught across the accounting curriculum. However, what is considered to constitute 'effective' communication varies considerably. The notion of 'accounting communication' includes the achievement of interpersonal goals, specific forms of spoken and written expression, the ability to communicate digitally, and proficiency in English and Filipino. The relationship of the latter is embedded in tensions between students' academic and professional aspirations, between conveying knowledge and building rapport, and between practitioner teachers and academic teachers. With regard to accounting workplaces, findings show that 'excellent communication' is considered a key criterion for employability. 'Excellent communication' is mobilized as a key criterion in recruitment rituals, often at the expense of technical skills. At work, 'effective communication' plays out on a digital global stage. In this context, 'effectiveness' of communication becomes embedded in yet another set of tensions: between accountants' linguistic performance of global competence and of local identity, between their compliance with workplace language policies and their individual agency, and between participation in and resistance to digital surveillance. Overall, the thesis argues that 'effective communication' ultimately proves an elusive target that is constantly shifting relative to factors such as the organization's desired corporate image, the power and rapport status between interactants, the mode of interaction, and the linguistic and cultural capital of clients, bosses, and co-workers onshore and offshore. The thesis closes with implications for complementing the competence view of communication in accounting education with the performance lens and for expanding sociolinguistic epistemology with perspectives from the Global South on what counts in global, professional communication.

History

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 : Introduction -- Chapter 2 : Literature review -- Chapter 3 Methodology -- Chapter 4: The discursive construction of 'effective communication' in accounting education -- Chapter 5: Communicating in the accounting classroom -- Chapter 6: Communication as an employability attribute of globalized accountants -- Chapter 7: Communicating in the accounting workplace -- Chapter 8: Conclusion

Notes

Theoretical thesis. Bibliography: pages 202-218

Awarding Institution

Macquarie University

Degree Type

Thesis PhD

Degree

PhD, Macquarie University, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences , Department of Linguistics

Department, Centre or School

Department of Linguistics

Year of Award

2021

Principal Supervisor

Ingrid Piller

Additional Supervisor 1

Loy Lising

Rights

Copyright Pia Patricia Tenedero 2021 Copyright disclaimer: http://mq.edu.au/library/copyright

Language

English

Extent

1 online resource (229 pages) illustrations, map

Former Identifiers

mq:72272 http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/1283128