The impetus for this work emerged from Savall’s belief that there is a doubleloop interaction between social and economic factors in organizations, between behaviors and structures, and between the quality of life in organizations and their economic performance. When managers underestimate this dynamic interaction, the resulting tension ultimately manifests in lowered performance and increased costs, what he refers to as the “hidden costs” of organizational life. Only by delving into the depths of these organizational dynamics can we hope to fully understand – and create the basis for improving – organizational performance. The Qualimetrics Approach presents a different and challenging way of thinking about analyzing organizations, one that draws together quantitative information, financial analysis and qualitative insights into organizational dynamics. As Savall and Zardet argue, to gain a true understanding of what is happening in organizations, intervener-researchers must focus on all three perspectives, as ignoring any one of them will lead to incomplete understandings. Their approach underscores the importance of using qualitative data to validate quantitative depictions (“the numbers”) of organizational performance in understanding the construction of financial statements. The strength of Savall and Zardet’s approach is that it pushes us to go deeper, to fully understand the narratives underlying the numbers and the social construction of our financial assessments.

A fundamental question with respect to the market for audit services is whether or not such services are homogeneous across suppliers ... In this monograph, we review the basic principles and findings concerning differentiated product markets as they have been developed in the economic literature. Using Lancaster's characteristics framework, we posit that the audit service contains several attributes which are valued by top management. A key attribute is "credibility", which is communicated by an audit firm's brand name and is identified with the power of an auditor's test ... We posit that, along with other product characteristics, the power of test varies systematically across audit firms. Hypotheses concerning the demand for different audit service specifications (qualities) are developed in a context where companies are changing their capital structure through an initial public offering of common shares. These hypotheses are tested using a sample of 469 U.S. corporations which first "went public" during 1981. The results are consistent with the existence of differential audit services.