Creative accounting: using creative writing to teach accounting principles

In this paper, I focus on the intersection of accounting and, to borrow a much-abused term, a creative approach to that discipline. Here it is applied mostly through the use of creative writing as a means of teaching and learning. Co-authoring Balancing Act, a text for teaching MBA students key accounting principles through creative writing, is a key result of my years writing the 'Literature & Insights' editorial for the Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (AAAJ), as well as being writer-in-residence and running creative writing workshops at international accounting conferences. Balancing Act and this paper highlight how creative writing and especially story can be used to explore fundamental aspects of accountability, including social or environmental ones. Such writing complements discussion of issues to be encountered by students in their future professional lives. It attempts to bring to life the situations and personal perspectives of a range of different parties affected by selected accounting practices. Story connects us all, and the application of creative writing as a tool to enhance learning in other disciplines is always personally rewarding. It is an effective way to ground the values and practices that those professions publicly espouse, and demonstrably so within management accounting.