Accounting--A Social Institution: A Unified Theory for the Measurement of the Profit and Nonprofit Sectors

by Julius Cherny, Arlene Gordon, Richard Jl Herson

Overview

This book attempts what for many in the accounting profession has been the impossible: a unified accounting system for measuring and reporting the performance of human service organizations as well as firms in the profit sector. The model developed recognizes the centrality of the consumer and the significance of optimizing consumer preferences whether the consumer is an individual purchasing services and products in the profit sector or the consumer is society in the role of consumer-payer of the services and products of human service organizations. Equating society as the consumer-payer of human services leads to the use of societal income as a measure of the effectiveness of human service organizations.

Accounting is a social institution whose chief function is measurement. Given a statement of goals, accounting should measure the achievement of these goals. Thus accounting can be viewed as a feedback system to report the differences between goals and their achievement. In a democratic society, the economic goal for its members should be their continuing gains in independence from a self-sufficiency viewpoint and satisfaction of their needs and wants from a consumption viewpoint. These are common goals in the profit and nonprofit sectors. The societal model developed by Herson, Gordon, and Cherny has long-run implications for the professions of accounting, human services, economics, and political science and the book will be a provocative work for professionals in these disciplines for some time to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780899306902
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/30/1992
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

JULIUS CHERNY is a professor of accounting at Iona College, a partner in a management consulting firm, and the research director of the Price Institute of Entrepreneurial Studies. His theoretical and practical knowledge and experience in accounting, mathematics, and economics provide a systematic perspective for this work.

ARLENE R. GORDON is currently a senior consultant to The Lighthouse Inc., where she served as Associate Director since 1973. Her experience in developing an integrated management information system for the evaluation of social and rehabilitative services provide the insights that contribute to the need for and application of the proposals in this work.

RICHARD J.L. HERSON, retired partner from a firm of certified public accountants is former executive director of The Bruner Foundation. He brings a rare combination of accounting experience and knowledge of the profit and nonprofit sectors to the problem of evaluating resource allocation within our society.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Executive Summary
The Organizational Model
Societal History: Background of the Problem
Societal Model: The Propositions
The Methodology of Measuring Systems
Profit and Nonprofit Accounting—A Unified Approach
A Review of the Literature
Empirical Applications of the Model
Consequences and Implications
Postscript and Guide to the Literature
Index