Suchergebnisse

The impact of World War II on cost accountancy in the U.S. may be viewed as a double-edged sword. Its most positive effect was engendering greater cost awareness, particularly among companies that served as military contractors and, thus, had to make full representation to contracting agencies for reimbursement. On the negative side, the dislocations of war, especially shortages in the factors of production and capacity constraints, meant that such "scientific management" techniques as existed (standard costing, time-study, specific detailing of task routines) fell by the wayside. This paper utilizes the archive of the Sperry Corporation, a leading governmental contractor, to chart the firm's accounting during World War II. It is concluded that any techniques that had developed from Taylorite principles were suspended, while methods similar to contemporary performance management, such as subcontracting, emphasis on the design phase of products, and substantial expenditure on research and development, flourished.

This paper examines certain interactions between American government and business which resulted in important innovations in the areas of budgeting and cost accounting early in the twentieth century. The evidence suggests that budgeting methods were initially developed by municipal reformers of the Progressive era and were subsequently adapted by business for planning and control purposes. In like fashion, standard costing and variance analysis were significant cost accounting techniques born to an industrial environment which came to contribute markedly to a continuing improvement of governmental budgeting procedures.

Despite the fact that municipal accounting was a significant and permanent reform of the Progressive era, historians have failed to accord accountants proper credit for their leadership roles. Ohio was an important Progressive state and is particularly suited to an investigation of the contribution made by accountants. Ohio was the first state to require uniform municipal accounting and one of the first to inaugurate budgeting. Municipal research bureaus in major Ohio cities were among the most dynamic in the nation, inspiring important steps forward in cost accounting, budgeting, and the installation of accounting systems. Progressive municipal administrations came to depend increasingly on expert accountants to devise new systems and to audit the results.