Culture and Accounting Practices in Indonesia

Abstract

This article discusses the cultural impacts on the accounting values and practices in the context of Indonesia. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (individualism versus collectivism, large versus small power distance, strong versus weak uncertainty avoidance and masculinity versus femininity) with Gray’s accounting values (professionalism versus statutory control, uniformity versus flexibility, conservatism versus optimism and secrecy versus transparency) are applied to Indonesia’s accounting systems and practices. The presented article showed that there has been small progress in enabling auditors or accountants to exercise their individual professional judgments. As a result of the capitalist system, with its heavy government intervention in the practices of the accounting profession, the professionalism in the accounting sector is still weak. This in turn influences the disclosure of accounting information. Indonesia’s collectivistically-oriented society thus has caused a lower level of professionalism where management, including accountants and auditors of the firms, find it difficult to exercise their professional judgments. This then has a direct impact on the uniformity of accounting practices as well as on the disclosure of accounting information. The strong avoidance of uncertainty in Indonesia results in the conservatism of accounting practices, where the use of the historical cost of asset valuation, recognition of internally-generated assets and amortization of those intangible assets are largely practised. There is a strongly masculine influence in the society, which causes secrecy, thus restricts the disclosure of accounting information with the intent of avoiding competition among the society.