Soldiers don't go mad: Shell shock and accounting intransigence in the British Army 1914-18

Frances Miley and Andrew Read

The British Accounting Review, 2021, vol. 53, issue 2

Abstract: This research examines intransigence in accounting systems. Using historical research methods and archival sources, it explores intransigence in the Royal Army Medical Corps’ accounting systems in the context of the incidence of shell shock among British Army soldiers fighting at the battlefront during the First World War. The Army did not recognise shell shock as a medical condition and made few changes to its medical accounting systems for soldiers with shell shock. The four factors of system stability of the AGIL scheme (adaptation, goal attainment, integration, latency) are used to understand the limited medical accounting response to shell shock. This research indicates that in addition to historical and internal political reasons for intransigence, intransigence will occur unless a factor in the AGIL scheme is sufficiently impaired to make the accounting system unstable and force system change. This research finding has contemporary relevance, explaining accounting intransigence in response to issues of social concern.

Keywords: Adaptation; AGIL; Goal attainment; Intransigence; Latency; Medical accounting; Military accounting; Systems integration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:bracre:v:53:y:2021:i:2:s0890838920300767

DOI: 10.1016/j.bar.2020.100956

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