The undergraduate placement system: an empirical study

Susan Richardson and Catherine Blakeney

Accounting Education, 1998, vol. 7, issue 2, 101-121

Abstract: Proponents of sandwich degree courses for undergraduate accounting students suggest that a number of benefits can accrue from the students' placement year. This paper reports on empirical research which supports this view. However, the data, which was mainly gathered ethnographically, also suggests that the potential benefits may be achieved in unexpected (to the student and the university) ways and in unexpected contexts. A cybernetic model is utilized as a theoretical framework to demonstrate the control processes of the placement system and to demonstrate how control mechanisms operated for one particular placement student. From this specific focus the paper seeks to provide a deeper understanding of the placement system and the processes which take place. The paper also responds to calls from those academics interested in understanding the nature of control in organizations, for researchers to undertake empirical studies in organizational contexts. The authors make a number of recommendations for amendment to the controlling mechanisms of the placement system featured in the study and suggest that these recommendations may be useful to other operators of placement systems.

Keywords: Placements; Control; Managerial Behaviour; Cybernetics; Ethnography (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1998
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DOI: 10.1080/096392898331207

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