The deployment of accounting‐related rhetoric in the prelude to a privatization

This paper addresses the discursive struggle surrounding the privatization of Canadian National Railway (CN). It analyses aspects of the way in which accounting language, concepts and information were deployed by Paul Tellier, CEO of CN in the two and a half years prior to the formal announcement, in February 1995, that the Canadian Government intended to privatize CN. Particular focus is applied to the text of Tellier's articles in CN's monthly internal employee newspaper. The paper highlights the potential for accounting to be implicated in constructing a “privatization mentality” and in persuading employees to accept a change in organizational orientation and culture. The study finds that the language and technical features of accounting were exploited in the prelude to privatization to help sustain the economic wisdom of a privatization decision.