On the role of the organization in auditors’ client-acceptance decisions

The objective of this research is to better understand the role that the accounting firm organization plays when auditors make difficult client-acceptance decisions in the midst of conflicting influences—specifically between the professional and commercial ‘‘logics of action’’. The investigation was conducted via a field study at three Big Six firms located in Canada. The main argument that is developed in the paper is that the firm sets the stage for auditors’ decisionmaking by making its formal organizational components (e.g., the firm’s partner-compensation scheme and decisionmaking policies) more reflective of one of the two logics, thereby establishing and helping reproduce certain patterns of order and consistency within the firm. However, the firm’s organizational components are also to some extent reflective of the other logic, thereby providing decision-makers with a legitimizing space to influence the decision process differently. I present fieldwork data that is consistent with the paper’s argument. # 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.