The foundations are being put in place for a revolution in the science of organizations. Some major analytical building blocks for the development of a theory of organizations are outlined and discussed in this paper. This development of organization theory will be hastened by increased understanding of the importance of the choice of definitions, tautologies, analytical techniques, and types of evidence. The two literatures of agency theory are briefly discussed in light of these issues. Because accounting is an integral part of the structure of every organization, the development of a theory of organizations will be closely associated with the development of a theory of accounting. This theory will explain why organizations take the form they do, why they behave as they do, and why accounting practices take the form they do. Because such positive theories as these are required for purposeful decision making, their development will provide a better scientific basis for the decisions of managers, standard-setting boards, and government regulatory bodies.

Reviews the book "Accounting Theory," by Kenneth S. Most.

Reviews the book "Controller Involvement in Management," by Vijay Sathe.

Reviews the book "Human Information Processing in Accounting," by Robert H. Ashton.

Reviews the book "Financial Accounting," by William W. Pyle and Kermit D. Larson.

Reviews the book "Financial Accounting," by Loren A. Nikolai and John D. Bazley.

During the past decade the organizations responsible for regulating the form and content of accounting disclosures have become increasingly active. As a result of this activity, the authoritative pronouncements in accounting have become increasingly technical and intricate in nature. This has caused a problem for accounting education: it has become very difficult to cover all, or even most, of the pronouncements within the standard accounting curriculum. This paper examines the approach adopted in law schools, where this problem has existed for some time. The basic approach, a blend of general-principles courses with applied research courses, is found to be adaptable to accounting education. Specifically, this paper recommends that accounting education should include applied accounting research techniques in its curricula to provide students with the means of dealing with a detailed and cumbersome body of authoritative literature. The paper also provides a suggested research design for conducting applied accounting research.