CFP_CPA_SI_Digitalization_professions_and_work_DIF2021

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Critical Perspectives on Accounting 
Special Issue 
Digitalization, Work, and Professions 
Guest editors 
 
Fabio James Petani, Inseec (fjpetani@inseec.com) 
Carlos Ramirez, Essec (ramirez@essec.edu) 
Yves Gendron, Université Laval (yves.gendron@fsa.ulaval.ca) 
 
This special issue wishes to attract contributions from several areas of accounting, 
organization and management studies in order to engage in debates about the interdependent 
relationship between the evolution of technology and “professional” work. We are interested 
in the processes by which information systems may foster, inhibit or otherwise transform the 
capabilities of professionals across a variety of sectors, as what counts as professional work 
has changed, and technology itself has adapted and evolved around constantly changing 
professional obligations and requirements (e.g., personal data and privacy management 
regulation). 
The management literature has often put forward the positive aspect of increasingly 
sophisticated information technology: less time spent on repetitive, uninspiring tasks means 
the opportunity for professionals to develop their skills and provide a greater degree of value-
added services to their clients, fueled by the access these professionals now have to rich 
databases. However, the critical literature has painted a darker picture of technological 
evolution. Echoing Braverman’s classical analysis (1998, originally published in 1974) that 
saw how the simplification of tasks and progressive breaking down and codifying of 
knowledge and expertise into standardized organizational processes, led to a deskilling of 
labor, we may legitimately wonder whether, far from unleashing creativity and fostering 
innovation, technological evolution might actually mean less jobs, working harder, and being 
under the surveillance of more powerful control systems (Bron & Gaulejac, 1995). 
Technological change, instead of generating support and enthusiasm, might conduce to an 
impoverishment of labor content and produce modern versions of Bartleby, the Wall Street 
scrivener, who was perfectly happy with the repetitive nature of his job and preferred not to 
keep up with the evolving complexity of tasks required of him, and was therefore left behind 
because of his passive resistance to change (Melville, 1853). 
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We need to enlarge a critical appreciation of how technological innovation relates to 
professional work and identity, since recent historical developments suggest investigations 
that may both take stock and anticipate the affordances of technology in business and society. 
Critical scholars in organization and management theory (Adler et al., 2007; Alvesson & 
Wilmott, 2002), have a noble tradition of research into the relationship between new 
technology and the labor process (Knights & Wilmott, 1988; 1990), which can inspire 
contributors of this special issue to investigate how work and professions evolve because of 
digitalization. 
In particular, transformations such as Artificial Intelligence, platform-based business models, 
blockchain and cloud-based services have accelerated technological change, stirring a lot of 
unrest and concern for the future of the labor force in general (Dahlin, 2019) – especially in 
the professions of finance and accounting (Bhimani & Willcocks, 2014; Quattrone, 2016; 
Gulin et al. 2019; Knudsen, 2020; Mancini et al., 2017). With the complexity and widespread 
reach of these new technologies, those who develop them occupy a new position within the 
professions’ ecosystem; that is to say within the web of connections between professionals 
and other actors (clients, service providers, other professions, regulators, and the public). In 
the process, the notion of what is professional expertise is changing and it is not a futuristic 
scenario (and platforms render it increasingly feasible) to think that professionals (accountants 
but not only) may soon increasingly cross the boundaries of IT-design, in order to create their 
own information systems. At any rate, this prospect calls for a critical assessment of the 
relationship between digitalization, work and professions that this special issue aims to 
advance. 
These changes engender a range of research opportunities, not least in terms of delving deeper 
into the dynamics of professional expertise in the study of organizations and digitalization. 
Not only have work tasks become more or less complex under the influence of IT, but in 
professional domains such as auditing, the judgment of professional partners is increasingly 
dependent on the expertise of IT specialists and other complex protocols (Bonner, 1994; 
Smith-Lacroix et al., 2012). Accounting and other professions have recently experienced 
institutional domain changes worthy of further critical investigation (Suddaby et al., 2015). 
Software development is in itself a complex, evolving object of activity (Adler, 2005). We 
need to understand both how digitalization influences some important professions in business 
and society (e.g., lawyers, accountants, auditors, physicians, bankers, etc.), but also how 
technology impacts the fundamentals of professional expertise, and the job market more 
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broadly (e.g., whether liberating organizations of menial jobs just means downsizing). 
Moreover, software marketing narratives that promise a skill-based development of careers 
and higher performances, discounts the time, personal and economic investment to acquire 
software and become proficient in digital tools (and in all its updated and radically upgraded 
versions). 
In other words, we need to learn what tradeoffs digital transformation imposes on 
organizations and business actors, and what desirable and undesirable effects it brings to 
professions and work. In parallel, we need to understand the everyday concerns of IT 
entrepreneurs, CEOs and CFOs, related to how digitalization creates new occupations and 
business models, and engenders new dynamics of expertise, competition and collaboration. 
The recent Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the conventional unfolding of business activities 
and accelerated the pace of digital innovation applications such as blockchain, AI, platforms, 
and Software as a Service. These innovations have the potential of revolutionizing 
employment but they are also a way to diffuse the managerial rhetoric of “techno-liberation”, 
which might be another route to continued serfdom and yet another face of capitalist 
oppression. Further, as far as professions are concerned, we need to explore how the 
traditional markers of professional identity, such as professional judgment, professional 
expertise and notions of the public interest are changing due to technology. We also need to 
revisit some older theoretical notions such as Abbott’s (1988) jurisdictions (Smith-Lacroix et 
al., 2012): are there jurisdictional boundaries that professionals should not cross when 
engaging with digitalization – the risk being that of developing software that promotes strong 
forms of client agency (i.e., devaluing professional specific expertise)? 
We thus invite critical reflections on digitalization, work, and professions from researchers 
within and outside the field of accounting. We welcome a variety of methods and the 
development of meaningful interdisciplinary contributions. Questions that could be addressed 
by this special issue, include but are not limited to the following: 
 How are new technologies and cloud-based systems changing professions? 
 Are the IT-enabled or IT-enforced changes in professions more consistent with an 
upskilling of particular professional roles, or do they translate into a deskilling or radical 
change of expertise? 
 What kinds of resistance to digitalization do professionals engage with more frequently? 
On what grounds is resistance claimed and enacted? 
 To what extent does digitaltransformation favor an actual upskilling of the professionals 
involved (who demonstrably engage in added value activities as a direct effect of the time 
they save with automation of routine time-consuming tasks)? 
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 What are the unexpected and undesired effects of technological change on professional 
routines (including on tasks unquestionably labelled ‘menial’, and ‘undesirable’ – but 
where a lot of tacit knowledge may lie)? 
 How can digital transformation damage, replace or reinforce the pivotal role of trust 
connecting particular professionals with clients and stakeholders? 
 How are artificial intelligence, platforms, blockchain, and cloud-based services changing 
the ecosystem of occupations? 
 To what extent does resistance to digitalization provoke a radical change in professional 
identity (instead of an acceptable evolution of their professional role)? 
 What are the organizational processes we can expect digital technologies to take over 
from humans and with what effects on professions? 
 What stakes are involved in contemporary dynamics of expertise surrounding the 
digitalization of work? 
 To what extent is the digitalization vs. “professional” work dynamics impacted by the 
Covid-19 crisis? 
 
Preliminary workshop 
A workshop will be held at INSEEC Grande Ecole in Lyon (2021), during the Digital, 
Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Financing (DIF) Conference, December 20-22, 2021. Authors 
wishing to present at the workshop should submit their full paper or extended abstract 
(1,000/1,500 words) by October 15, 2021 to Fabio James Petani (fjpetani@inseec.com). 
Authors of selected papers from the workshop will be invited to submit their revised papers 
for this special issue, subject to the journal’s normal review processes. 
 
Submission process to the journal 
Attendance and/or presentation at the workshop is not a pre-requisite for submission to the 
special issue. The closing date for submissions to this special issue is June 30, 2022. 
Manuscripts should be submitted electronically via https://www.journals.elsevier.com/critical-
perspectives-on-accounting. The guest editors welcome enquiries from those who are 
interested in submitting. All papers will be reviewed in accordance with the normal processes 
of Critical Perspectives on Accounting. It is anticipated that this special issue will be 
published in 2024. Any queries or enquiries about the special issue should be directed to 
Fabio James Petani (fjpetani@inseec.com). 
 
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