The construction of the professional accountant: the case of the Incorporated Institute of Accountants, Victoria (1886)

Set in colonial Australia, this study examines the professionalisation traj ectory of a group of accountants in Melbourne culminating in organisational fusion on the formation of the Incorporated Institute of Accountants, Vict oria (IIAV) in 1886. The study portrays professionalisation asa dynamic pro cess involving a diversity of "signals of movement" towards occupational as cendancy that arise in periods before as well as after the formation of occ upational associations. It employs the prosopographical method of data coll ection to interrogate the occupational and commercial backgrounds of the 45 founders of the IIAV in the pre-1886 period and is also informed through t he critical-conflict analytical framework. The Endings reveal that intrapro fessional rivalries fuelled by international relations of power and nationa list self-interests provided the impetus to organisational assembly in this case. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.