RECONSIDERING SPECIALIZATION IN THE ACCOUNTING PROFESSION: A MODEL FOR CONSTRUCTIVE RECOGNITION

For many years, accountancy in the United States has struggled with its professional image. It has simultaneously attempted to be a broad all-purpose brand that enveloped all practice areas under the CPA designation, and created opportunistic certificates in emergent fields. This paper argues for the specialization of accounting practice in a more comprehensive and consistent way. A valuable system of specialization should accomplish several different objectives. First, it should create opportunity rather than constraint. Voluntary systems, whereby practitioners who perceive net benefits can participate, should therefore be superior to mandatory systems that would have the effect of barring those that do not from some part of their actual or potential livelihood. Second, a system should create partitions that would encourage a sense of collective constituent ownership among practitioners. Practice units must therefore be such that investments in the administrative effort will be rewarded and relevant to the development of human capital. Third, specialization should not be so complete that it cannot retain the advantages that still exist in generalized practice. This also includes maintaining a degree of organizational wholeness for the profession. Last, the array should maximize the emergence of standards and guidelines in those areas at the periphery of practice.