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Past, present and possible future developments in human capital accounting: A tribute to Jan-Erik Grojer

Article Information:

Title:

Past, present and possible future developments in human capital accounting: A tribute to Jan-Erik Grojer

Author(s):

James Guthrie, Vijaya Murthy

Journal:

Journal of Human Resource Costing & Accounting

Year:

2009

Volume:

13

Issue:

2

Page:

125 - 142


ISSN:

1401-338X


DOI:

10.1108/14013380910968647

Publisher:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited


Acknowledgements:

The authors wish to acknowledge the research and editorial assistance of Carlos Sterling and Fiona Crawford of the University of Sydney.

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Abstract:

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to pay tribute to several of the ideas of Jan-Erik Grojer by reviewing and critiquing the field of Human Competence Accounting (HCA) since his Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal review article in 1998.Three research questions he posed in that article are now addressed in the current paper: What could be done, as envisaged in the commentary of Grojer and Johanson; What has been published in HCA research in the ten year period (1999-2008); What more could/should be done in HCA as a research agenda.

Design/methodology/approach – A literature based analysis and critique of HCA accounting articles published in the selected journals from 1999 to 2008 is employed. A purpose built coding and classification scheme is built around several categories for the purpose of analysing the HCA literature.

Findings – The paper seeks to demonstrate the importance of Grojer and Johanson's review and indicates that questions they raised and possible research directions have been acted upon by a number of authors. The findings of the analysis indicate that, a decade on from the original review, HCA is a legitimate area for accounting research and is multi-disciplinary and multi-focused in nature.

Research limitations/implications – The paper only considers selected HCA articles within the ten journals used over the period 1999-2008.American mainstream positivist research has not been reviewed. Also the categories chosen to represent HCA have several limitations which are addressed in the paper.

Originality/value – HCA research has a strong tradition and the Grojer and Johanson review is an important beacon that provided insights to accounting researchers. The current analysis extends Jan-Erik's work by providing several insights into what has happened and also provides several ideas for future research and policy work in accounting for HCA.

Keywords:

Accounting research, Accounting valuations, Competences


Article Type:

Literature review


Article URL:

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/14013380910968647

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