Reviewed by Tonya K. Flesher University of Mississippi

Accountants should look with great pride at the accomplishments of James O. McKinsey, and Wolf’s book affords an excellent oppor tunity for such an appreciation. Dr. Wolf is a professor of personnel and human resources management and he states in the preface that this book was written for administrators, consultants, and students of management as a guide for management and consulting. How ever, the first section of the book deals with a brief biography of James O. McKinsey and in this section McKinsey’s accounting achievements are revealed.

McKinsey’s accounting career began in 1914 at St. Louis Univer sity where he studied and taught bookkeeping. Later, McKinsey received bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Chicago and became a CPA. Before he finished his degree, George Frazer, professor of accounting, asked him to join the accounting faculty. This was a typical experience for McKinsey commencing with his high school days, as he claimed that he was hired to teach in every school he attended before he attained his degree. Also, Frazer hired McKinsey to work in his public accounting firm. Frazer sent McKinsey to New York to establish an office of the firm and during this time McKinsey lectured in accounting at Columbia University. In 1921 he returned to the University of Chicago.

In 1919 McKinsey initiated his prolific writing career. One of these early publications was a teacher’s guide to the Revenue Act of 1918. In 1920, he and A. C. Hodges wrote Principles of Account-ing for the University of Chicago Press. Also in 1920, McKinsey. pub-lished the first volume of Bookkeeping and Accounting, followed by the second volume a year later. These two volumes were written for secondary school students. McKinsey took a pioneering philos ophy in accounting education through his emphasis on principles over techniques. He required the students to view accounting from the position of a manager rather than a bookkeeper because he felt that all educated people should be able to understand account ing data. McKinsey maintained that accounting was the equal of any university course in teaching students to reason analytically. McKinsey produced three books in 1922: one a case study; the two-volume Financial Management; and Budgetary Control, his classic dealing with the subject that is now described as Manage ment by Objectives. In 1924, Business Administration and Man agerial Accounting were released. Both of these works were pioneering efforts in the respective fields of policy and manage ment accounting.

That year was a significant turning point in Mc-Kinsey’s career as his interests began to shift from accounting and budgeting to managerial accounting. He was later to move further away from accounting as he developed his interests in manage ment. After 1927, he taught only business policy courses and devoted the remainder of his time to his consulting work in his own firm to the exclusion of research and other faculty activities. He was one of the first professors of business policy in America. How ever, before. his break away from accounting McKinsey served as president of the American Association of University Instructors in Accounting (now AAA). He also authored Accounting Principles in 1929. This is the book now authored by Niswonger and Fess (in its twelfth edition). The descedant of his business policy text is today one of the most popular books in that field. Thus, McKinsey’s con tributions may still be found in accounting and business education in the fields of budgeting, managerial accounting, accounting prin ciples, business policy and managerial finance. He is also remem bered as the former chairman of the board of (Marshall Field and Company and for the consulting firm which bears his name. This legacy was left by a man who died at the age of forty-eight

The remainder of the book is a synthesis of McKinsey’s approach to consulting and management. Thus, it is the first section which would be of interest to accounting historians, while the other four sections are of limited interest and appeal, in the opinion of this reviewer. There is, however, a two-page appendix listing the prin cipal writings of James O. McKinsey. This book would serve as an excellent example and starting point for a similar research project analyzing McKinsey’s approach to accounting and budgeting.