Interpretation of Accounting Earnings by Accountants and Non-Accountants

ABSTRACT

The main aim of the research is to understand the interpretation of accounting earnings by accountants and non-accountants, and its underlied accounting concepts. This research is motivated by the fact that accounting earnings is one of many simbols in the financial statements used to representing certain reality in the communication space. Equality of accounting earning interpretation in that communication space will determine the communication effectivity. Based on hermeneutics, or particularly named as an interpretive approach, the result of this research gives an understanding that accounting earnings are differently interpreted by accountants and non-accountants.

In the accountants' interpretation frame, accounting earnings are the signifier of enterprises' economic reality changes, should not signify by the net cash inflows in the reporting period. However, in the non-accountants' interpretation frame, the reality represented by accounting earnings sign is not clear: is that an economic reality, financial reality, or accounting reality, so that usefulness of accounting earnings information in decision making is low. Analogically, in the perspective of non-accountants, accounting earnings are not differ with the reality reflected from the cracked mirror. Nevertheless, in the everyday accounting practice, non accountants still accepted and used the accounting earnings information calculated based on the accounting and financial reporting standards. Implications of this research are the rising of the needs for: (a) decomposite of accounting and financial reporting standards that useful to accomodate the "habitus" difference between accountants and non-accountants; (b) eliminate the hegemony in accounting practice; and (c) reasking of the meaning of "generally accepted accounting principles".

Key-Words: Accounting Earnings, Refferential Reality, Information Contents, Interpretation, Communication, Hegemony, Decomposition.

1. PENDAHULUAN

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Akuntansi adalah bahasa teknis perusahaan. Akuntansi adalah teks yang menjadi media ko-munikasi informasi keuangan antara manajer dan pihak-pihak yang berada di luar perusahaan, ketika manajer tidak memiliki kesempatan secara langsung untuk berkomunikasi melalui wi-cara. Ray J. Chambers menyatakan bahwa akuntansi adalah bahasa tulis yang berfungsi seba-gai pengganti bahasa wicara tersebut, dan berpendapat bahwa aspek komunikasi dari akuntan-si ini seharusnya menjadi dasar dalam pengembangan teori akuntansi (lihat Lee 1982, 152).

Pengakuan Chambers bahwa akuntansi merupakan bahasa teknis perusahaan, memper-oleh respon dan dukungan positif dari kalangan profesi maupun akademisi akuntansi (misal-nya Li 1972; Lusk 1973, Ijiri 1975; Heath 1987; Fiol 1989; Fischer dan