scholarly journals Views of Generation X and Y in public accounting firms: job satisfaction, commitment and intention to remain

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judy Marie Mason
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Generation X ◽  
Public Accounting ◽  
Accounting Firms ◽  
Public Accounting Firms

Resilience as a coping strategy for reducing auditor turnover intentions

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-498
Author(s):  
Kenneth J. Smith ◽  
David J. Emerson ◽  
Charles R. Boster ◽  
George S. Everly, Jr
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Turnover Intentions ◽  
Role Stress ◽  
Structural Equations ◽  
Negative Association ◽  
Public Accounting ◽  
Accounting Firms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Public Accounting Firms ◽  
Resilience Training

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential counteracting influence of individual resilience levels on the tendency of role stressors, stress arousal and burnout to reduce job satisfaction and increase turnover intentions. Design/methodology/approach This study surveys 332 auditors from the offices of nine public accounting firms. The structural equations modeling procedures examine an expanded role stress model to assess the nature and extent of the role that resilience plays in reducing stress, burnout, job dissatisfaction and turnover intentions. Findings Resilience has a significant direct negative association with stress arousal and burnout, a significant indirect positive association with job satisfaction and a significant indirect negative association with turnover intentions. Research limitations/implications As a cross-sectional study that incorporates self-report instruments, no definitive statements can be made about causality. However, the results extend the extant knowledge related of the role of resilience as a coping mechanism within the role stress paradigm in auditor work settings. Practical implications This study’s findings suggest the potential value of resilience training programs at public accounting firms to reduce staff burnout. In turn, reduced burnout has an increased likelihood ceteris paribus of increasing job satisfaction and reducing auditor turnover intentions. Originality/value This study’s findings suggest that resilience training for public accounting staff to reduce burnout may provide the organizational and personal benefits associated with enhancing job satisfaction and decreasing turnover intentions.

Supervisory Factors Affecting Job Satisfaction in Public Accounting Firms

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (20) ◽  
pp. 65-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. ALLEN CLABAUGH ◽  
GARY S. MONROE ◽  
GEOFFREY N. SOUTAR
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Public Accounting ◽  
Accounting Firms ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Public Accounting Firms

scholarly journals PROFESSIONAL COMMITMENT OF ACCOUNTANT AND THE COMMITMENT OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRMS ON AUDITOR’S JOB SATISFACTION

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathius Tandiontong
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Sem Analysis ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Professional Commitment ◽  
Public Accounting ◽  
Accounting Firms ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Accounting Firms ◽  
Financial Scandals

The Public Accounting Firms (PAFs) have notoptimally met their user’s expectation in providing high quality auditings services. Many financial scandals that involve public accounting practitioners are still occurring. They make users of auditing service confuse about integrity of Certified Public Accountants. This study aims to obtain empirical evidences in evaluating of the extent to which the professional commitment of accountant and organizational PAFs commitmenaffecton auditor’s job satisfaction. This studyusesan explanatory surveymethod, althoughits detailsalso contain some descriptions, however because it is a relational research, its focus lay on relational explanations among verificative variables. Some operationalized variables are included in this study, consisting ofprofessionalcommitment, organizational commitment, and job satisfactionthat paymore fundamental emphasis on their indicators. Datawere collected throughquestionnaire distributionto targetedrespondents, as well aslimitedinterviewsor documentary studies as additional efforts to obtain explanatory elements from survey findings. Analytical units in this study involved the Public Accounting Firms (PAFs) in Indonesia with total population as 417 PAFs. Samplings by a simple proportional randomized method in 79PAFs with 347 accountants as responding target weresent questionnaires. Data analytical and testing methods were carried out by the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis. The research findings showed that professional commitment of accountants and commitment of the PAFs organization affects auditor’s job satisfaction, both simultaneously or partially.

Survey On The Differential Effects Of Time Deadline Pressure Versus Time Budget Pressure On Auditor Behavior

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Kelly ◽  
Loren Margheim ◽  
Diane Pattison
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Time Pressure ◽  
Time Budget ◽  
Public Accounting ◽  
Accounting Firms ◽  
Differential Effects ◽  
Public Accounting Firms ◽  
Deadline Pressure ◽  
Time Budget Pressure

<span>The study examines the differential effects of time deadline pressure versus time budget pressure by surveying both senior and staff auditors in public accounting firms. The responding senior auditors reported experiencing time deadline pressure more frequently than time budget pressure over the preceding year and a majority of them indicated they experienced more stress from time deadline pressure than from time budget pressure. However, the responding staff auditors experienced time deadline and time budget pressures about equally over the preceding year and experience3d about equal levels of stress from the two types of time pressure. In contract to the frequency and stress results noted above, the results also indicated that both senior an staff auditors perceived time budget pressure to be more associated with reduced audit quality, reduced job satisfaction, and increased underreporting of chargeable time than time deadline pressure.</span>

WARREN W. NISSLEY: A CRUSADER FOR COLLEGIATE EDUCATION

1996 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elliott L. Slocum ◽  
Alfred R. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Independent Schools ◽  
College Graduates ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Graduate Level ◽  
Public Accounting ◽  
Accounting Firms ◽  
Public Accounting Firms ◽  
College Programs

Warren W. Nissley's intense dedication to public accounting led him to crusade for development of schools of accountancy and improvement of education of accountants. Nissley conceived and championed the Bureau for Placements, 1926–1932, which resulted in: public accounting firms recruiting college graduates and developing permanent professional staffs, publishing the first Institute career publication, academic and student awareness of public accounting, and improved quality of college programs and graduates. Nissley's campaign for independent schools of accountancy, 1928–1950, influenced the Institute's committee on education. Many elements of his recommendations may be recognized in the evolution and current developments of accounting education. However, Nissley would continue to express disappointment in the failure to establish separate professional, graduate level, schools of accountancy for public accounting.

A Contemporary Analysis of Accounting Professionals' Work-Life Balance

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Buchheit ◽  
Derek W. Dalton ◽  
Nancy L. Harp ◽  
Carl W. Hollingsworth
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Support ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Public Accounting ◽  
Important Distinction ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Accounting Firms ◽  
Accounting Professionals ◽  
Big 4 ◽  
Public Accounting Firms

SYNOPSIS In recent years, work-life balance surpassed compensation as the most important job satisfaction factor among AICPA members (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants [AICPA] 2004). Despite the continued importance of this issue in the accounting profession (AICPA 2011), prior research has not examined work-life balance perceptions across different segments of the profession. We survey 1,063 practicing CPAs in order to assess the comparative work-life balance perceptions across (1) Big 4 versus smaller public accounting firms, (2) audit versus tax functions, and (3) public accounting versus industry work contexts. Consistent with predictions based on institutional logics theory, we find that work-family conflict and job burnout perceptions (our proxies for work-life balance) are highest in the Big 4. We are the first study to measure both support-for and viability-of traditional alternative work arrangements (AWAs), and we report an important distinction between these two constructs. Specifically, while CPAs across all public accounting firms (i.e., Big 4, national, regional, and local firms) report similar levels of organizational support-for AWAs, Big 4 professionals report significantly lower perceived viability-of AWAs (i.e., the ability to use AWAs and remain effective at one's job) compared to accounting professionals at smaller public accounting firms. Further, we find no differences between audit and tax professionals' perceptions across any of our work-life balance measures. We also document nuanced differences regarding work-life balance perceptions in public accounting versus industry. For example, contrary to conventional wisdom, work-life balance is not uniformly “better” in industry (e.g., burnout is actually lower in smaller public accounting firms compared to industry). Finally, we use open-ended responses from a follow-up survey to provide several recommendations for firms to improve their work-life balance efforts.

An Analysis of Cross-Sectional Differences in Big and Non-Big Public Accounting Firms' Audit Programs

2006 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Blokdijk ◽  
Fred Drieenhuizen ◽  
Dan A. Simunic ◽  
Michael T. Stein
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Audit Fees ◽  
Public Accounting ◽  
Accounting Firms ◽  
Big 5 ◽  
Public Accounting Firms ◽  
Audit Approach ◽  
Control Risk

A significant body of prior research has shown that audits by the Big 5 (now Big 4) public accounting firms are quality differentiated relative to non-Big 5 audits. This result can be derived analytically by assuming that Big 5 and non-Big 5 firms face different loss functions for “audit failures” and is consistent with a variety of empirical evidence from studies of audit fees, auditor changes, and the stock price reaction to audited earnings. However, there is no existing evidence (of which we are aware) concerning the underlying production differences between Big 5 and non-Big 5 audits. As a result, existing empirical evidence cannot distinguish between the possibility that Big 5 audits are simply perceived to be different (e.g., by investors) or actually differ in how they are produced. Our research objective is to identify the production characteristics of audit engagements that may explain the differences in expected audit quality between Big 5 and non-Big 5 firms. In this archival study, we examine the total audit effort and the allocation of effort to four audit phases—planning, (control) risk assessment, substantive testing, and completion—for a cross-section sample of 113 audits of Dutch companies in 1998/99 by 14 public accounting firms. We find that, after controlling for client characteristics: (1) both types of auditors exert about the same amount of total audit effort; (2) Big 5 auditors allocate relatively more effort to planning and (control) risk assessment, and relatively less to substantive testing and completion; and (3) client size, use of the business-risk-based audit approach, and reliance on client internal controls affect audit hours differently for the two auditor types. We conclude that the Big 5 firms actually produce a higher audit quality level, and that this quality difference is related to how audit hours are deployed in a more contextual and less procedural audit approach.

A Theoretical Framework of the Relationship between Public Accounting Firms and Their Auditors

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Dreike Almer ◽  
Julia L. Higgs ◽  
Karen L. Hooks
Keyword(s):  
Future Research ◽  
Public Accounting ◽  
Accounting Firms ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sociology Of Professions ◽  
Rich Description ◽  
Public Accounting Firms ◽  
Current Article ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Significant Attention

The behavior of auditors in the context of their employment by public accounting firms has received significant attention in the accounting literature. The current article extends this literature by providing a framework that identifies what auditing professionals contribute and receive as a result of their work efforts, as well as related influences. Using agency theory modified with fundamental ideas from the sociology of professions literature, we develop a model of the auditor-public accounting firm employment relationship. This framework is grounded in a timely, contextually rich description of the public accounting work environment, and the pressures and incentives faced by auditors. Propositions for future research are suggested that arise from understanding the auditor-firm relationship.

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