Commentary on Roy Suddaby, Yves Gendron and Helen Lam “the organizational context of professionalism in accounting”

The paper by Suddaby et al. (Suddaby, R., Gendron, Y., & Lam, H. (2009). The organizational context of professionalism in accounting. Accounting Organizations and Society, 34(3–4), 409–427.) advances our understanding of the erosion, or otherwise, of traditional professional values by locating the debates in organisational and work contexts. This commentary seeks to extend the debate by posing questions about the theory and evidence of the paper. In particular, it argues that changes in professional attitudes and values cannot easily be understood without a consideration of the broader social and political contexts.