Tests of time: organizational time-reckoning and the making of accountants in two multi-national accounting firms

There has been remarkably little study of the recruitment, training and socialization of accountants in general, much less the specific case of trainee auditors, despite many calls to do so. In this paper, we seek to explore one key aspect of professional socialization in accounting firms: the discourses and practices of time-reckoning and time-management. By exploring time practices in accounting firms we argue that the organizational socialization of trainees into particular forms of time-consciousness and temporal visioning is a fundamental aspect of securing and developing professional identity. We pay particular attention to how actors consciousness of time is understood to develop, and how it reflects their organizational and professional environment, including how they envision the future and structure their strategic life-plan accordingly. Also of particular importance to the advancement of career in accounting firms is an active engagement with the politics of time: the capacity to manipulate and resist following the overt time-management routines of the firms. Rather than simply see trainees as passive subjects of organizational time-management devices, we noted how they are actively involved in 'managing' the organizational recording of time to further their career progression. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.