CAP Forum on Enron: Professional Insecurity and the Erosion of Accountancy's Jurisdictional Boundaries*

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Abstract
This study examines attitudes about professionalism in accounting shortly before the debacles of Enron and Andersen. Interviews with experienced Canadian chartered accountants (CAs) conducted mostly in late 2000 and early 2001 indicate significant doubts about the notion of auditor independence and a relatively high degree of uncertainty about the future of the profession. Accountants also expressed significant difficulties in describing the basic features of what it means to be a professional accountant. On the basis of these observations, we introduce and detail the construct of “professional insecurity". Relying on Giddens's theoretical developments on the role of trust and systems of expertise in today's society, we reflect on the significance and implications of the professional insecurity of CAs, particularly its impact on accountancy's ability to hold on to its jurisdictional boundaries. Our thesis is that the difficulties that accountants experienced in their day‐today lives in sustaining a coherent sense of self‐identity were particularly stressful to them given people's fundamental need for coherence, and this significantly affected the capacity of their profession to hold jurisdiction.