Article by Charles Handy exploring how accountants should be able to account for the intellectual assets of a company and devise strategies for exploiting those assets. Handy begins the article discussing how there are an abundance of accountants in contemporary European capitalist countries, as well as Japan. He proceeds to note how accountants are trained to be auditors, first and foremost, but how, for growing businesses, they should be able to count things that do not pertain to numbers, namely, the intellectual assets of a company. Handy then argues that accountants should be required to count the future as well as the past by documenting how a business is planning to utilize and expand upon its intellectual assets, and how well a future business compares with its competitors. Alongside these considerations, he also advocates reconceptualizing the image of the worker as an asset, rather than perceiving them as a cost, and therefore supports ascribing a market value to individuals. As for actual management, Handy asserts that senior managers, being conditioned by the audit and bottom line, will continue to be conservative in their perception of employees and miss the opportunity to value intellectual assets. It is therefore necessary that they change the way in which they perceive the intellectual capital of their organizations over the long term.
Handy, Charles B Sheehy, Michael Philip Morris and Company R&D Associates Kraft Heinz Company Morris, Philip Intellectual capital Organizational behavior Organizational change Organizational effectiveness Industrial relations Industrial productivity Institute of Directors SCITEB
Source
Article by Charles Handy exploring how accountants should be able to account for the intellectual assets of a company and devise strategies for exploiting those assets, 1991; Charles Handy Papers; Box 20, Folder 4; 1 page
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