A number of developments have inadvertently exposed the extent to which the accountancy profession had become a major industry and, thus, indirectly invited critical reflection upon the relevance and adequacy of its regulation. Consideration of the three episodes allows us to explore how accountants have responded to the challenge of change and, more specifically, how they have sought to address and neutralise the threat to the image of themselves (and associated material benefits) as responsible, independent professionals. In this, as we show in our analysis of the episode concerned with the governance of the largest UK accounting association, accountants have.
