Women accountants: Is the grass greener outside the profession?

Studies of professional accountancy firms have indicated a complex process of internal socialisation which shapes the professional and organisational identities of the chartered accountants working within them. These processes have acted as a mechanism for excluding women, hindering their progress and facilitating their exit. Previous evidence suggests that women leave professional accountancy firms in order to accommodate more flexibility, experience less pressure, achieve consistency of hours and hence attain a better work/life balance.In this paper we seek to examine whether the gendered work practices of professional accountancy firms influence female choice to seek alternative employment outside the professional accountancy firm environment. Specifically the paper seeks to answer two research questions (1) why and when do women leave professional accountancy firms? (2) is the working environment outside professional accountancy firms less gendered?Data was collected by means of a postal questionnaire distributed in 2005 to women who had qualified in the years 1990–1995 (n = 1022). Responses were received from 370 women, of whom 100 were employed with professional accountancy firms and 270 employed within industry. In depth interviews were also conducted with 7 partners in professional accountancy firms and 6 women who had left the professional accountancy environment to pursue employment elsewhere.Whilst there was evidence that professional accountancy firms continue to reflect gendered working norms practices, rather than compound the dominant view, this study suggests that the primary reason women leave professional accountancy firms is to seek more interesting work as opposed to obtaining more flexibility in their working lives. In addition, the experiences of the women, the working patterns, and rates of progression were similar irrespective of employment type.     

Accounting: The Structure of a Growing Profession

Complete membership records of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Israel are analysed to determine the level of concentration and growth of the accounting profession. This study differs from previous studies in that it concentrates on the supply side of the market. Previously, because of the unique characteristics of auditing services, they were assumed to have no substitute. An analysis of firm switching by CPAs in Israel indicates the existence of substitutes in production. Low levels of overall concentration were found, although large clients are generally audited by large public accounting firms. The profession appears to be competitive as entry is quite easy and switching between firms by CPAs is common.     

Determinants of academic cheating behavior: The future for accountancy in Ireland

This paper considers the potential for improving the reputation of the Irish accountancy profession by exploring undergraduate accounting students’ intolerance of academic cheating as a predictor of future attitudes to unethical workplace practices. The study reports that females are significantly more intolerant of cheating than males. Further, with regard to ethical ideology, idealism was found to have a significant positive association with intolerance of cheating while relativism reported no association. It is anticipated that the growing admission of women to professional accountancy membership together with educational intervention to increase idealism may improve ethical attitudes and help restore the profession's reputation.     

External auditors' willingness to rely on the work of internal auditors: The influence of work style and barriers to cooperation

The extent to which external auditors rely on the work of internal auditors is an important judgment. Recently, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has recommended that external auditors “rely (more) on the work of others” to reduce the greater-than-expected costs associated with compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act. Reliance decisions, however, are complex decision tasks that require professional judgment and may be influenced by a number of factors, both external (environmental) and internal (cognitive and affective), including the auditors' working style and pervious experiences related to barriers to external/internal auditor cooperation (e.g., previously experienced low versus high internal auditor objectivity and/or competence). We experimentally examine these influences in our research reported herein. Consistent with expectations, external auditors' work styles significantly influenced the extent of planned audit testing, internal auditor reliance judgments, and interpretation of analytical procedures results. Auditors' perceptions about internal auditors' competence and objectivity, developed over years of interaction, also influenced these judgments, and interacted with work styles. Inconsistent with expectations, auditor rank (senior versus manager) did not influence judgments.     

劳动力市场性别差距、生产结构转型与人口增长转变

本文从劳动力市场性别差距视角为理解生产结构转型与人口增长转变的互动关系提出了新的理论机制。以脑力劳动密集型生产部门比重提高为特征的生产结构转型将缩小性别工资差距,提高家庭生育养育机会成本并降低生育率,进而增加女性劳动相对供给,这又会进一步提高脑力劳动密集型生产部门比重。直接干预女性劳动定价政策可能会带来女性结构性失业,反而扩大劳动力市场性别差距,且不利于生产结构转型;单方面降低女性生育养育成本政策虽然能够提高生育率,但也可能产生类似不利影响;降低男性生育养育成本政策既可以提高生育率,又可以缩小劳动力市场性别差距,并促进生产结构转型;生育养育成本补贴支出由政府承担的影响比由企业承担更为温和。本文结果表明,促进人口长期均衡发展的政策应与缩小劳动力市场性别差距、推动生产结构转型的政策统筹谋划和协调推进。本文研究为“优化人口发展战略,建立生育支持政策体系”提供了一定的理论依据和参考。     

Organizational identity change: managerial regulation and member identification in an accounting firm acquisition

This study creates a framework for analysing organizational identity change and examines the process in the context of a global accounting firm's acquisition of a UK mid-market accounting practice. It identifies the parallel processes which facilitate organizational identity change: identity regulation on the part of senior management and de- and re-identification on the part of organizational members. The study explores how changes in organizational identity are inextricably connected to organizational members' changing conceptualisations of professional identity.