Corporate Reporting and the Accounting Profession: An Interpretive Paradigm

In this paper, we examine the full disclosure issue of corporate reporting from the various perspectives of the constituent groups. The full disclosure issue is significant for the accounting profession since it is the linchpin between the corporation and its constituencies. Our approach is to provide an overview of corporate reporting by relating our ideas regarding the information needs of constituency groups to those in the existing literature. Our over-riding orientation is pluralistic; managers, workers, and other special interest groups compete for influence and accounting system information resources. Through their influence, the constituency groups are presumed to be able to obtain the accounting information they desire. The constituency groups we define are: the owners, government, employees, creditors, customers, and general society. We provide an overview of corporate reporting to some of these groups, holding in abeyance the current balance of power and influence among the various interest groups. Throughout the paper, we appraise the efforts of the accounting profession in helping the individual constituency groups obtain corporate information in their quest for optimal decisions. We conclude the profession will have to either rise to the challenges created by the explosion in information technology or contend with imposed regulations.