Rapid changes in the external environment of organisations have been accompanied by calls
for accountants to change the nature of information they provide, the skills they possess and
the role they play in the organisation. The proposed changes, which are encapsulated under
the phrase accounting for strategic positioning or strategic management accounting are two
pronged. On one hand accountants are required to reposition themselves in the organisation
hierarchy where they will be involved in the formulation, implementation and choice of
strategies. Accountants are also being urged to adopt a range of techniques whose
emphasis is futuristic and external to the firm especially emphasizing the importance of
monitoring customers and competitors. A review of the literature has revealed that while
considerable effort has been put into the development of rational techniques for proposed use
less has gone into whether, how and with what effect the proposed techniques have been
implemented in organisations and society. The literature has adopted an uncritical approach
to the proposals for a strategic accounting, providing little insight into how the discourse of
strategy has come to occupy such a position of centrality in organisations and society with
other functions seeking to be branded “strategic”.
