An examination of African Americans' access to public accounting mentors: perceived barriers and intentions to leave

This paper reviews prior research on diversified mentoring relationships and formulates predictions regarding African Americans' access to public accounting mentors. Empirical analysis is based on responses from 116 African-American public accounting employees, compared to 756 Caucasian responses from a prior study. Statistical results indicate that African-American public accounting employees are less likely to obtain an informal mentor and perceive greater barriers to obtaining mentors. For two mentoring functions (protection and assistance, and social support), African-American respondents reported lower levels of support, compared to Caucasian respondents. Also, African-American respondents indicated stronger intentions to leave public accounting.