Supervisory Factors Affecting Job Satisfaction in Public Accounting Firms

This paper reports the results of a survey of 350 junior-level accountants working at public accounting firms in Australia. The survey obtained information on their perceptions of the extent to which the supervisory actions recommended in the Accounting Education Change Commission's (AECC)Issues Statement No. 4 were applied in their organisations. We test whether these supervisory actions have an effect on their job satisfaction. The results indicate that each of the three major elements of supervisory actions recommended by the AECC - leadership and mentoring, working conditions and assignments -are significantly associated with overall job satisfaction.