Communicating Norms of Conduct: The Semantics of Professionalism

This paper explores how two public accounting associations, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA), conveyed norms of conduct to members and students through editorials published in the Journal of Accountancy and CA Magazine from 1916 to 1973, with a focus on the use of profession-related terms. Drawing on Bakhtin’s concept of stylistic aura and employing advanced textual analysis techniques, the study reveals that profession stem words played a key role in communicating these norms by synthesizing varied normative concerns into a cohesive professional discourse applicable across settings. The semantic meanings of these sentences shifted over time and between journals. Additionally, the study finds that utterances with profession stem words were more pervasive and better at highlighting competing concerns than ethics stem words. This study contributes to our understanding of accounting association communication processes, specifically communication via professional narratives.