Symbolism as practice: a practice theoretical understanding of audit committee practices in emerging market family companies

Abstract

The paper advances the symbolism debate drawing on a family governance setting in an emerging economy. The paper extends the practice turn literature, focusing on how key actors skilfully manoeuvre organisational practices, rendering audit committee (AC) toothless or symbolic. Relying on qualitative data through face-to-face interviews with key actors and archival and documentary survey, the paper demonstrates symbolism surrounding the implementation of ACs in a context in which listed companies are run by family shareholders. Non-family AC members find themselves in a practice where practices are symbolically manipulated to signal compliance while causing minimal disruption to the power and control of owner families. The paper also provides a theoretical account of symbolism contributing to a relatively underdeveloped area of AC research. Drawing on Schatzki’s (2006, p. 2010) notion of practice memory, the paper brings to the fore the skilled manoeuvres of actors rendering AC toothless. The paper will spawn further theoretical and empirical attempt to develop the practice turn in AC literature especially in family governance settings.