Slide sem t

1
SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE ARCHETYPES AND THE
COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS IN COST ACCOUNTING AN
EXPLORATORY STUDY
Third Biennial International Accounting Research
Conference
2
BASIC PREMISSES

• ? The adoptions of the costing method usually
  known as full cost, materialized in the forms
  of absorption costs and of activity based
  costing, generates inadequate information for
  the profitability analysis in the managerial
  field.
• ? Individuals behave guided by their faiths (or
  beliefs) and values and a great part of those
  faiths and values that condition peoples
  behavior strongly flow from unconscious processes.

3
HYPOTHESES

• ? H1 Based upon the premise that certain
  concepts and procedures have been proven to be
  not useful for the process of making managerial
  decisions in the field of cost accounting, a
  hypothesis is established that such concepts and
  procedures are nevertheless accepted for
  managerial purposes, by decision makers, by
  professors and by researchers, who have high
  intellectual levels, linked to the area of cost
  accounting. In this way it can be inferred that
  certain causes of natural behavior should exist
  that drive and induce these people to accept such
  concepts.

4
HYPOTHESES

• ? H2 Based upon the premise that the process of
  reflection induces people to change their
  perceptions, faiths, values, concepts and
  behavior, a hypothesis is established that the
  Masters/Doctorate Course in Controllership and
  Accounting from the School of Economics,
  Administration and Accounting (F.E.A.) of the
  University of São Paulo (U.S.P.), due to its
  approach of stimulating the process of
  reflection, constitutes an effective instrument
  to change the form of thinking of the students.

5
OBJECTIVES

• ? The fundamental objective of this work is to
  develop a reflection on the causes of the
  acceptance of concepts that have been proved as
  ineffective for the administration of companies
  by a large number of people in the accounting
  area, using the fundamental concepts of the
  Jungian path of psychology.
• Exploratory work
• To raise propositions
• No conclusive
• Indicates the sense of direction

6
METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH

• ? Review of the literature on the Jungian path
  of psychology
• ? Review of fundamental works in the area of
  cost accounting backed by the focus of this
  study
• ? Exploratory research made among the students of
  the Masters/Doctorate Course in Controllership
  and Accounting of F.E.A. - U.S.P.

7
FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF JUNGIAN PSYCHOLOGY

• ?INDIVIDUALS TOTAL PERSONALITY visualized like a
  sphere composed by several layers
• the most external layer relating to the field of
  conscience
• the layer immediately below corresponding to the
  personal unconscious
• and in the sequence we have the layer of the
  collective unconscious, where the archetypes
  appears.

8
SELF-UNCONSCIOUS OF A DETERMINED GROUP.

• ?The psychology of a Brazilian is not, with
  certainty, equal to the psychology of a Japanese
  man or woman.
• Jung observes that
• as well as we can ponder the existence of a
  corresponding differentiation to each race, to
  each tribe, to each family, we too can also
  verify the existence of an unconscious layer that
  corresponds to each one of those human groups.
• This concept is fundamental for the logical
  linkage of this work in the field of cost
  accounting

9
THE INFLUENCE OF THE UNCONSCIOUS IN HUMAN CONDUCT

• ?The unconscious factors in a general way, impact
  a great deal to the performance of human beings.
  If the individual doesnt act (to think and to
  perform) consciously he or she will do it in a
  unconscious way. Jung mentions that
• The great decisions of human life are, in rule,
  much more subjected to the instincts and other
  mysterious unconscious factors than to the
  conscious will... . Jung affirms that reflection
  is an extremely important instrument to get
  consciousIn my opinion, faith doesnt exclude
  reflection ( the strongest weapon of man).

10
COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS AND ARCHETYPE A PARALLEL
WITH THE UNCONSCIOUS OF COST ACCOUNTING

• ? The factors of the unconscious are present in
  the different dimensions of human performance in
  religion, in the family relationship, in the
  field of technical professions, in sciences, in
  sports, etc.
• ? Although we cannot characterize the existence
  of archetypes and collective unconscious in the
  field of accounting, according to the precepts of
  Jungs theory, we can however, make a parallel
  with the one the was named self-unconscious by a
  determined human group.

11
COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOU AND ARCHETYPE A PARALLEL
WITH THE UNCONSCIOUS OF COST ACCOUNTING

• ? The characterized group is composed of
  professional in accounting, students, authors,
  professors, users of the accounting information.
• ? In our opinion, accounting is a millenarian
  activity which possesses a common psychic base
  that is similar to the concept of group
  self-unconscious, constituting of a type of
  collective unconscious of accountants and people
  subject to their influence, in the breast of
  which an unconscious stratum exists with specific
  form-thought.
• ? The existent form-thought in this unconscious
  of accountingis very strong because it is
  incorporating customs, traditions, habits and
  thought systems that have been accepted by many
  individuals for centuries, perhaps millennia.

12
SOME BRIEF REFLECTIONS ABOUT THE FORMATION OF
THE UNCONSCIOUS IN COST ACCOUNTING

• ? The procedure of calculation of the total cost
  of the product and formation of prices starting
  from costs plus total margin already belonged to
  the group unconscious of cost accounting.
• Double entry bookkeeping appears in XII and XIV
  centuries in the north of Italy
• German system by Schamalenbach based on ideas
  developed in the XVI century
• Calculation of product costs in the old manor
  of England since the XII century

13
SOME BRIEF REFLECTIONS ABOUT THE FORMATION OF
THE UNCONSCIOUS IN COST ACCOUNTING

• ? We can infer that full cost procedures came
  to be formed by the sediment in the collective
  unconscious of a group of people in accounting
  bind by the process of repetition in a conscious
  or unconscious way for more than eight hundred
  years.
• ? Those procedures was influenced by unconscious
  forces similar to archetypal forces.
• ? In 1929 Consolidation of archetypes.
• ? In 1936 Some reflection by Jonathan N. Harris
• ? The decades of the 60s and the 70s rich in
  reflections, but...
• ? In 1937 German RKW

14
SOME BRIEF REFLECTIONS ABOUT THE FORMATION OF
THE UNCONSCIOUS IN COST ACCOUNTING

• ? The decade of 80s decade of criticism to cost
  accounting
• ? ABC systemdeveloped influenced by the
  dominant archetype
• ? ABC correspond to the old archetypes of the
  group self-unconscious of accounting, only
  remodeled in form and sold within modern clothing
  under its own terminology of the XX century.

15
THE EXPLORATORY STUDY

• Two groups each formed by twenty students
• ? Group A students recently admitted into the
  program
• ? Group B students that already concluded the
  program
• Premises
• ? Both groups have equivalent intellectual
  levels
• ? The referred course conciliates reflection
  process that can lead to conceptual changes.

16
THE EXPLORATORY STUDY

• The research document used constituted of a
  group of ten statement with tree alternatives
• a) I agree fully
• b) I disagree completely
• c) I neither agree, nor disagree
• The statements were established in a way to
  differentiate the researched groups

17
ANALYTIC EVALUATION

• Item 1 - The method of absorption costing,
  applied in compliance with the accounting
  principles, is an inadequate method for the
  inventory valuation of work in process and of
  finished products and for the verification of the
  managerial result of an industrial company shown
  by the accounting process.

ILLUSTRATION 1 Evaluation of Item 1
18
ANALYTIC EVALUATION

• Item 2 - The balance sheet and the Income
  Statement, prepared in accordance with the
  accounting principles, generate important
  information for the managers of companies.

ILLUSTRATION 2 Evaluation of Item 2
19
ANALYTIC EVALUATION

• Item 3 - The unit product cost computed in
  agreement with the absorption costing method is
  an important element in the process of
  calculation of the sale price and analysis of
  profitability of products.

ILLUSTRATION 3 Evaluation of Item 3
20
ANALYTIC EVALUATION

• Item 4 - The system ABC - Activity Based
  Costing, through the cost drives and activity
  centers, does not constitute an effective tool
  for the strategic administration of indirect
  costs of a company.

ILLUSTRATION 4 Evaluation of Item 4
21
ANALYTIC EVALUATION

• Item 5 - The budget is actually a system of
  accounting information of the area of the
  Controller and not an instrument of the financial
  area of the company.

ILLUSTRATION 5 Evaluation of Item 5
22
ANALYTIC EVALUATION

• Item 6 - The standard cost of a product
  corresponds to the correct cost. The actual or
  historic costs is jus a cost that occurred.

ILLUSTRATION 6 Evaluation of Item 6
23
ANALYTIC EVALUATION

• Item 7 - When a country has low inflation, as it
  is now in Brazil, it is not worthwhile to have
  procedures in the accounting system to handle
  inflationary effects.

ILLUSTRATION 7 Evaluation of Item 7
24
ANALYTIC EVALUATION

• Item 8 - The accounting principles constitute
  guidelines and safe orientations for the
  generation of effective information for the
  process to take managerial decisions.

ILLUSTRATION 8 Evaluation of Item 8
25
ANALYTIC EVALUATION

• Item 9 - It has come the time for the system of
  accounting to register physical quantities and
  not only monetary values.

ILLUSTRATION 9 Evaluation of Item 9
26
ANALYTIC EVALUATION

• Item 10 - The use of market prices in
  accounting, instead of prices actually incurred,
  operates against the principle of objectivity,
  placing at risk the process of generating
  reliable accounting information.

ILLUSTRATION 10 Evaluation of Item 10
27
GLOBAL EVALUATION

• ?-pos average of the answers considered
  appropriate (positive) in the light of the
  established premisses in this work.
• ?-neg average of the inadequate answers
  (negatives)
• ?-ind average of the answers of the type that
  neither agrees nor disagrees (indifferent)

28
TABLE 1 Classification of the Researched Results

• GROUP A
  GROUP B
• Items ?-pos ?-neg ?-ind
  ?-pos ?-neg ?-ind
• Item 1 40 35 25
  65 15 20
• Item 2 5 70 25
  70 5 25
• Item3 55 35 10
  85 0 15
• Item4 10 55 35
  45 35 20
• Item5 10 60 30
  50 30 20
• Item6 20 65 15
  70 5 25
• Item7 85 0 15
  90 0 10
• Item8 10 55 35
  80 10 10
• Item9 45 30 25
  75 0 25
• Item10 50 10 40
  75 10 15

29
ILUSTRATION Global Evaluation
30
CONCLUSIONS

• ? The results of group of students recently
  admitted in the Masters /Doctorate Course
  indicate the validity of H1 hypothesis.
• ? The study in synthesis indicates the validity
  of H2 hypothesis. The course leads students to
  reflection that change positively their form of
  thinking.
• ? Among the students that had already passed
  through the Course, some were not able to get rid
  of the old thought systems.
• ? Researchers and the investigators of accounting
  should be in a process of constantly questioning
  the concepts and techniques to get the truth in
  terms of scientific knowledge.