Disguising ‘Taking Money Out of a Firm’: Disconnection and Detrimental Consequences for Workers

Abstract

‘Disconnected capitalism’ is a thesis defined and developed in Work, Employment and Society. This article contributes to the sociology of work by further developing the thesis both theoretically and empirically. The article does so by specifying how accounting practices enable investor-owner managers to take money out of firms with detrimental consequences for workers. Empirically, this development of the thesis is based on four case studies where the theoretical and empirical contributions add to the thesis by highlighting a contemporary dialectic in light-touch regulation that is illustrated by these studies. The article is important because the further development of the thesis provides an analytical device that illustrates how investor-owner managers take advantage of moral hazard provisions in light-touch regulation enacted by the state to deliberately exploit and strategize these provisions through management accounting strategies.