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ABSTRACT: Behavioral accounting research (BAR) has a long history in management accounting. It has not had as significant a presence in the management accounting courses. It has tended to be relegated to the responsibility accounting chapter in textbooks. Thus, the extent to which behavioral materials appeared in a course depended on the interests of the instructor. It can safely be described as a matter of taste. In this paper the history of management accounting dating back to the end of World War II is divided into three periods. In each period, the extent of behavioral materials in the management accounting curriculum is reviewed. These periods, called the "cost accounting," "modern management accounting," and "postmodern management accounting" periods, reflect increasing emphasis on behavioral materials in the management accounting courses. The paper focuses on the reasons why the demand for behavioral material in the management accounting curriculum is likely to increase and offers conjectures about what form those materials will take. It is, implicitly, also a call for research on the issues discussed here.
INTRODUCTION
Management accounting courses will always be concerned primarily with techniques such as product costing by which accountants can accumulate and communicate data so that the firm's managers are able to make the best decisions. The various models underlying the techniques have changed over time, though their intent has not. However, it is hoped that in the new management accounting courses the choice of models and the assumptions underlying those models will be informed by our knowledge of how individuals and groups respond to our data and our models. A change of this sort would imply a change in the view of the role of accounting and the environment in which it exists.
Currently, many of the behaviors we observe that are inappropriate responses to the accounting data are deemed dysfunctional or opportunistic. The behavior and not the system is considered to be the problem. However, when we recognize the changing environment within which managers must act, their actions reflect appropriate responses to inappropriate accounting systems. These opportunistic or dysfunctional behaviors are likely to have more serious consequences in the postmodern management accounting period as managers strive to deal with a dynamic environment, new organizational structures, and a significant number of users...