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Annual Reports as Interaction Devices: The Hidden Constructions of Mediated Communication

2005; Wiley; Volume: 21; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.0267-4424.2005.00226.x

1468-0408

Peter Skærbæk,

Public Policy and Administration Research

Based on a micro sociological examination of how an annual report is produced within a Danish business university, this study attempts to increase our understanding of the strategies used by the producers of an annual report intended for use by parliament and the government. The paper uses Erving Goffman's book Frame Analysis (Goffman, 1974) and conceptualises the production and reading of an annual report as a `strip of interaction' and illustrates how a business university mobilises the primary framework of accounting to guide the interaction between those who produce the report and its potential readers. In addition, the paper examines and answers the questions of why the report seems to have very few users and to find explanations as to why the report ends up as it did. The findings suggest that the annual report can be seen as a passive production process which meets the role expectations of parliament and the government and yet avoids the publication of any critical information that may cause problems for the university, which is currently dependent upon maximizing both public and private financing. As such, the original meaning of the accounting framework is transformed into having different layers of meaning. The study demonstrates how the use of accounting is not the objectivist theoretical use of information for decision-making, but rather the use of information for impression management purposes. Thus the study shows us that annual reports have significant social effects on contributing to the purification of the State and even the democratic constitution.