Murray C Wells AO

Citation

Murray Wells completed his Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Commerce degrees at the University of Canterbury before joining the University of Sydney in 1967. He completed his PhD under R.J. Chambers and was appointed, in 1973 to a Chair in Accounting, a position he held until his retirement in 1997. He also served as Dean of the Faculty of Economics and was the Foundation Director of the Graduate School of Business in the University of Sydney. Murray Wells has published in many of the world's top accounting journals, Australia's leading economics journal and a number of professional journals. His doctoral thesis was published under the title Accounting for Common Costs and earned the Hourglass Award from the Academy of Accounting Historians for the best book on accounting history published in 1978. His publications address a number of themes which draw on a deep understanding of history. In his writings, Wells drew attention to the lack of reliability and usefulness of allocated overhead costs and played a significant role in a major paradigm shift in the way accountants deal with overhead costs moving from treating allocated costs as if they are facts to concluding that they are arbitrary. He was the first to draw on history and the experiences of engineers and focus on activities as the basis for cost attribution. Murray's 1978 Bibliography of Cost Accounting to 1914, which is a major collection of quotable quotes from the cost accounting literature, includes contributions from engineers, economists and manufacturers. He also embraced the Kuhnian notion of revolutions to explain significant shifts in scientific thought. His subsequent paper A Revolution in Accounting Thought? was the lead article in the July 1976 issue of The Accounting Review and has been used to explain the shift in thinking about the values placed on assets in financial reports. Under Murray Wells' twenty-year editorship, the journal Abacus remained Australia's leading internationally recognised academic accounting journal. Murray Wells has also played a key role in many national and international organisations. He was closely involved in the formation of the International Section of the American Accounting Association and was Pacific Area Co-ordinator from 1988 to 1994. He was a Founding Trustee of the Academy of Accounting Historians and convened the Third International Conference on Accounting History in Sydney in 1988. Perhaps Murray's most important contribution has been in the development of the International Association for Accounting Education and Research. On his suggestion the IAAER became a federation of national academic bodies and established itself as a counterpart to the International Federation of Accountants. Murray also served as senior office holder of CPA Australia. In recognition of his outstanding contribution to the accounting discipline, he was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 1984. On his retirement from the University of Sydney in 1997 he was rewarded with the title Emeritus Professor.

The Australian Accounting Hall of Fame honours Murray Wells as an innovator, educator, administrator, scholar and thinker of the highest order.

Biography

Murray Wells completed his Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Commerce degrees at the University of Canterbury before joining the University of Sydney in 1967. He was the first person to complete a PhD under the supervision of Ray Chambers (AAHoF 2010). He was appointed to the second Chair in Accounting in 1973 the only other professor appointed during Chamber's tenure at the University of Sydney. Murray Wells remained a Professor of Accounting at Sydney until his retirement in 1997. During that time he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Economics and was the Foundation Director of the Graduate School of Business in the University of Sydney.

Murray Wells has published in many of the world's top accounting journals. He has also published in Australia's leading economics journal, a number of professional journals, and in newspapers. Additionally, he has published and edited a number of books. His PhD thesis was published by the Center for International Education and Research in Accounting at the University of Illinois (1978) under the title Accounting for Common Costs and earned the "Hourglass Award" from the Academy of Accounting Historians for the best book on accounting history published in 1978. It was translated into Japanese in 1992. His publications address a number of themes which draw on a deep understanding of history. In his thesis and in subsequent publications, Wells drew attention to the lack of reliability and usefulness of allocated overhead costs. With others he played a significant role in a major paradigm shift regarding the way in which accountants deal with overhead costs. No longer do accountants treat allocated costs as if they are "facts", but now accept that they are arbitrary or, in Thomas's terms, "incorrigible". He was the first to draw on history and the experiences of engineers and to focus on "activities" as the basis for cost attribution – a theme which is seen in many of his publications and presentations and which was later promoted widely as Activity Based Costing. Murray was honoured when he was invited to contribute a paper for Emeritus Professor Paul Garner's festschrift, published by the Academy of Accounting Historians in 1991, on the occasion of Garner's retirement from the University of Alabama. Garner was the doyen of the history of cost accounting. Murray's A Bibliography of Cost Accounting: Its origins and development to 1914 (1978) – a major collection of "quotable quotes" from the cost accounting literature, including contributions from engineers, economists and manufacturers is still widely cited and is to be made available through the Academy of Accounting Historians' website in 2012. Following Chambers, Murray used the Kuhnian notion of "revolutions" to explain significant shifts in scientific thought. His subsequent paper, A Revolution in Accounting Thought? was the lead article in the July 1976 issue of The Accounting Review. It has been widely cited (and 30 years later is still being cited) and has been used since as a model which helps to explain the paradigm shift occurring with respect to the values placed on assets in financial reports. A third theme, which is closely related to the overhead problem and the valuation of inventories, has been the wider question of asset values in financial reports. Murray has been a keen exponent of Chambers' Continuously Contemporary Accounting and has lectured and published widely on the subject.

When Murray Wells joined the University of Sydney in 1967, the journal Abacus, which had been only been launched two years earlier had a reputation for academic rigour. It has remained Australia's leading internationally recognised academic accounting journal due in no small part to Murray's editorship from 1977 to 1996. This period of twenty years as a mainstream journal editor is matched by only a very few people in the scholarly community. The editorship embraced a wider role. In order to keep the academic community abreast of developments and trends in journal publishing, for many years Murray joined fellow editors of The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research and Accounting, Organizations and Society in panel discussions at major international conferences, particularly in the US,. He was also active in conducting workshops at AAA and EAA Conferences to assist younger academics endeavouring to publish in top journals.

Murray Wells has played a key role in many national and international organisations. He was closely involved in the formation of the International Section of the American Accounting Association and was the Pacific Area Co-Ordinator of the Section from 1988 to 1994. Similarly, he was a Founding Trustee of the US based Academy of Accounting Historians and he convened the Third International Conference on Accounting History in Sydney in 1988. He served on the Board of Nominations of The University of Ohio Accounting Hall of Fame for more than 20 years. He was an External Advisor to many universities and professional bodies in Asia, including the Accounting Standards Review Panel of the People's Republic of China in 1985, which was appointed to consider the world's first standard on the content and structure of the Balance Sheet.

Perhaps Murray's most important contribution has been in the development of the International Association for Accounting Education and Research. The IAAER was founded in 1984 to serve as a co-host for the Sixth International Conference on Accounting Education. Murray was a member of the Founding Committee. It was on Murray Wells' suggestion the IAAER became a federation of national academic bodies and established itself as a counterpart to the IFAC. He also suggested that IAAER continue to organise the international congresses every five years and provide an international focus for academic accountants around the world. Murray Wells assumed the presidency of IAAER in 1987. Under his leadership a key element of the organisation was a commitment to assist accounting academics in emerging economies to join the international community of scholars.

Murray also served on other bodies and in a myriad other capacities:

  • CPA Australia:
    • State President
    • National Councillor
    • Chair of National Education and Membership Committee, 1990-94
  • President of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management
  • Member of the NSW Science and Technology Council, 1992-95
  • Chair - Centre for Management and Organisation Studies at the University of Technology, Sydney, 2007-11

Within the University of Sydney Murray Wells has variously been:

  • Dean of the Faculty of Economics
  • Foundation Director of the Graduate School of Business, and
  • Professor of Accounting - appointed to the Arthur Young Chair of Accounting, 1985 (later Ernst & Young Chair)

Appointment to Ernst & Young Chair was significant in two respects – it was the first named Chair in Accounting in Australia and the financial support provided a major part of the seed funding which enabled Murray to establish, within the University of Sydney, the University of Sydney Accounting Foundation and the R J Chambers Research Lecture. The Foundation was the first of its kind in Australia and continues today as a vital supporter of research in accounting and as an important link with the accounting profession. Murray also re-invigorated the Pacioli Society which had been discussed in the late 1950s, and finally established by Chambers in early 1963. Its activities had waned until it was revived in 1968 with Murray as Secretary. The Pacioli Society today provides an important link with practitioners and a forum for discussion of matters of topical interest.

Murray has had a major influence on accounting education in Australia and internationally. He has been an international consultant and he introduced a number of innovations in the teaching of accounting. Murray taught at all levels within the accounting program at the University of Sydney, but took particular interest in the first year. As a Professor of Accounting he believed that it was incumbent upon him to teach some part of the first year course. Prior to the 1970s, all undergraduate teaching comprised two or three one-hour lectures and one tutorial per week. Murray introduced a series of two hour workshops which were devoted to practical instruction. Other universities followed suit. Murray was also instrumental in obtaining a dedicated IBM computer laboratory for the Faculty of Economics in 1984 – the first of its kind in Australia. He was the first to suggest a system later known as "income dependent loans" for local student fees. He also chaired the main Australian professional bodies' Accounting Competencies Task Force which oversaw the mammoth task of documenting skills and competencies expected of professional accountants.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and CPA Australia jointly appointed him to oversee the accreditation of off-shore teaching programs leading to students gaining advanced standing at universities in Australia. He visited many teaching facilities throughout Asia and played a major role in establishing acceptable educational standards. Murray was an External Advisor to the University of the South Pacific, the University of Hong Kong, NanYang Technological University of Singapore and the University of Papua New Guinea. He has lectured at universities in Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Japan, Russia, Italy, France, Germany, USA, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

A considerable number of acknowledgments and distinctions have been given to Murray Wells including:

  • The 1970 Endowed Lecture, The University of Adelaide, 1970
  • ASA Research Lecture, The University of Melbourne, 1978
  • "Hour Glass Award" for best book on accounting history published in 1978, awarded by the (US) Academy of Accounting Historians for Accounting for Common Costs, August 1979
  • James Cusator Wards Visiting Professor, University of Glasgow, 1983
  • International Distinguished Visiting Lecturer, American Accounting Association, 1986
  • Arthur Andersen Gast Professor, Universitat Hohenheim, Stuttgart, 1986
  • International Distinguished Visiting Lecturer, American Accounting Association, 1986
  • Accountant of the Year - Government & Academia, New Accountant (Australia), 1993
  • Meritorious Service Award, Australian Society of Accountants, 1993
  • Curtius Visiting Professor, Universitatseminar der Wirtschaft, Schloss Gracht, 1994
  • Outstanding International Accounting Educator, American Accounting Association, 1995
  • Deloitte Invitation Lecture, Christchurch, New Zealand, 1995
  • President's Award, Australian Society of CPAs, 1995
  • Outstanding International Accounting Educator, American Accounting Association, 1995
  • Life Member, Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management, 2000
  • Founder's Award and Life Member, International Association for Accounting Education and Research, 2002
  • Life member of the AAA "In recognition of decades of dedicated service", 2007

In recognition of Murray Wells' outstanding contribution to the accounting discipline he was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 1984. In consideration of his service to the University of Sydney Murray Wells holds the title of Emeritus Professor.