The aim of this research was to develop a competency model for auditors by identifying those characteristics and behaviours that predict success as an auditor. The Work Profiling System (WPS), the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) and the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) were the tools and techniques used to achieve this aim. This research was conducted in two groups: trainee accountants (year 1- 3) and chartered accountants (year 4-5+). The results of the research, which was conducted within one of the Big 5 auditing firms, indicated that the competencies required of a trainee accountant are largely consistent with those of registered chartered accountants, working in the same environment. The most noticeable difference was the change in focus from cognitive or technical skills during the earty years to a focus on managerial competencies in later years. The competencies identified in this research compare well with reported models in literature. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial Psychology)

South Africa is experiencing a financial skills shortage with a severe shortage of accountants and chartered accountants in particular. The aim of this study was to measure accessibility of public higher education in South Africa, in general and specifically relating to accountancy programmes with special emphasis on chartered accountancy programmes in South Africa, by making use of selected accessibility indicators. Although some of these indicators have been used to measure accessibility of higher education in general both locally and internationally, they are not often used to measure accessibility of a programme for a particular profession such as accountancy or chartered accountancy. This study aimed to fill this gap by measuring the selected accessibility indicators and providing subsequent rankings of the four public universities selected for this study. The results can be used by institutions that offer accountancy and chartered accountancy programmes as well as the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, as the profession’s Education and Training Quality Assurance body, to evaluate the accessibility of accountancy as well as chartered accountancy programmes. / Financial Accounting / M. Compt. (Applied Accountancy)

The thesis deals with the ethics of auditors, tax advisers and accountants. It focuses on the basic characteristics of these professions and especially their codes of ethics - Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, Code of Ethics of the Chamber of Tax Advisers of the Czech Republic and the Code of Ethics of the Chamber of Ceritified Accountants. It also includes a comparison of these ethical codes. Finally, the results of the survey on the topic "Ethics and ethical codes of selected professions" are analyzed.

South Africa is experiencing a financial skills shortage with a severe shortage of accountants and chartered accountants in particular. The aim of this study was to measure accessibility of public higher education in South Africa, in general and specifically relating to accountancy programmes with special emphasis on chartered accountancy programmes in South Africa, by making use of selected accessibility indicators. Although some of these indicators have been used to measure accessibility of higher education in general both locally and internationally, they are not often used to measure accessibility of a programme for a particular profession such as accountancy or chartered accountancy. This study aimed to fill this gap by measuring the selected accessibility indicators and providing subsequent rankings of the four public universities selected for this study. The results can be used by institutions that offer accountancy and chartered accountancy programmes as well as the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, as the profession’s Education and Training Quality Assurance body, to evaluate the accessibility of accountancy as well as chartered accountancy programmes. / Financial Accounting / M. Compt. (Applied Accountancy)

The aim of this research was to develop a competency model for auditors by identifying those characteristics and behaviours that predict success as an auditor. The Work Profiling System (WPS), the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) and the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) were the tools and techniques used to achieve this aim. This research was conducted in two groups: trainee accountants (year 1- 3) and chartered accountants (year 4-5+). The results of the research, which was conducted within one of the Big 5 auditing firms, indicated that the competencies required of a trainee accountant are largely consistent with those of registered chartered accountants, working in the same environment. The most noticeable difference was the change in focus from cognitive or technical skills during the earty years to a focus on managerial competencies in later years. The competencies identified in this research compare well with reported models in literature. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial Psychology)

This research focuses on the concept of occupational stress. Theories and models are discussed in an attempt to highlight the nature of stress and its implications for the individual if it is not effectively managed. Individual differences in the way they experience strain and cope with stress are considered, as well as the organisational implications of stress. Current thinking in the management of stress programmes is highlighted. The empirical study was conducted to determine whether there are differences between various organisational subgroups with regard to variables relating to occupational stress, strain and coping, as measured by the Occupational Stress Inventory - Revised (Osipow, 1998). The findings of the study show that there are significant differences between seniority, age, race and gender subgroups within the accounting organisation in which the research took place, with regard to stress, strain and coping / Industrial Psychology / M.A. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

This study examined the effect of a score card¬-based performance pay plan in a professional services firm. The plan was implemented in response to a decreasing trend in productivity and a desire for a formal incentive compensation plan. Performance of manager and senior manager accountants were analyzed across two departments over a five year period. A definitive account of the effects of the intervention is limited by the case-¬study design, but the data does suggest that the performance pay plans used did not adversely affect performances. Design limitations of the plan and future research are also discussed.

Previous research has shown that accountants may be inadequate moral reasoners. Concern over this trend caused the Treadway Commission (1987) and the Accounting Education Change Commission (1990) to call for greater integration of ethics into the student's training. Ponemon and Glazer (1990) found a difference in cognitive moral development (CMD) between accounting students at a public university and a private university with a liberal arts emphasis. This study expands Ponemon and Glazer's research by examining two liberal arts universities, one a private, secular institution and one a Catholic institution. The primary research question asks if Catholic university accounting students manifest greater CMD growth than secular university accounting students. Additionally, this study examines and compares the priority that accounting students from the different institutions place on ethical values versus economic values. It was expected that Catholic university accounting students would manifest both greater CMD growth and a greater concern for ethical values over economic values when compared with non-Catholic university accounting students. The study utilized a two-phase approach. In the first phase, an organizational study of two institutions was made to determine how each strives to integrate moral development into their accounting students' education. In the second phase, lower-division and senior accounting students were given three ethical and values related tasks to complete which propose to measure differences in ethical and economic values.

Bakgrund Hög omsättning av personal har länge varit ett problem inom de stora revisionsbyråerna och det är inte ovanligt att många väljer att avsluta sin tjänst efter bara några år. Många ser sin anställning på en stor revisionsbyrå som ett förberedande steg i karriären för att sedan söka sig vidare. Syfte Syftet med den här studien är att undersöka hur revisorer och redovisningskonsulter upplevde motivation på sin tidigare arbetsplats och hur motivation och arbetstillfredsställelse påverkade deras beslut att avsluta sin anställning. Metod Den här kvalitativa studien är genomförd med en deduktiv ansats med induktiva inslag där empiri har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med revisorer och redovisningskonsulter. Slutsats Studien visar på att det finns flera anledningar till att revisorer och redovisningskonsulter väljer att lämna sin arbetsplats och att det är många olika faktorer som påverkar motivation och arbetstillfredsställelse. Det som gav våra respondenter mest motivation var den roliga kundkontakten. Faktorer som fått våra respondenter att lämna sin arbetsplats var lön, stress kombinerat med hög arbetsbörda, att de hade för många arbetsuppgifter som inte hade med kunderna att göra, företagsledningen, erbjudande om andra jobbmöjligheter och att de ville testa på något nytt. / Introduction A high turnover of staff has been a problem in the large auditing firms for a long time. It is not unusual that many people choose to leave their firm after just a few years. Some people see their employment at a large auditing firm as a preparatory step in their careers. Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate how accountants experienced motivation at their previous workplace and how motivation and job satisfaction affected their decision to terminate their employment. Method This qualitative study is pursued through a deductive approach with inductive elements where empirical data has been collected through semi-structured interviews with accountants. Conclusion The study indicates that there are several reasons why accountants choose to leave their workplace and that there are many different factors that affect motivation and job satisfaction. What gave our respondents the most motivation was the customer contact and to help their customers. Factors that caused our respondents to leave their workplace were salary, stress in combination with an excessively high workload, that they had too many tasks that did not have to do with their clients, the management and other job opportunities.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-04T11:45:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Abdon_Meira_Neto.pdf: 683210 bytes, checksum: a2bf6366f1f1eef651bc5f46fa37d62c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2003-07-01 / The main objective of this work is to show, even tough in a non- exhausting way, the professional profile of accountants, its skills and the technological impact he is facing in a day-to-day basis. Due to the high competitive corporate environment, managers have been requested quite different informations compared with some time ago enforcing the acccountant professional to keep up updated constantly and even to rethink and foresee what would be the challenges to overcome in order to provide more and more qualified information. We have also the objective of going through the roles and responsabilities of accountant professional, since from the ones pretty much belongs to the core competence of its area that requires tecnical habilitation, being registered in public organism till new roles and responsabilities that would perfectly fit to its career, but not restricted, as controller that requires accountant background, and other skills as administration, finance, information tecnology, so on so forth. Among the existing technological resources, big emphasis was given to the integrated management systems, that makes possible the reduction and even to extinguish of some common accountant tasks as: document classification and its typestry. These systems were able to link companies, standardize procedures, improve operational control even tough nowadays companies are spreaded out in many countries / O presente trabalho tem como objetivo tra??ar, mesmo que de forma n??o exaustiva o perfil do profissional cont??bil, suas habilidades e o impacto que o avan??o tecnol??gico tem causado no seu dia-a-dia. Foi destacado que devido a alta competitividade entre as empresas, as exig??ncias dos gestores em termos de informa????o s??o diferentes do que se exigia no passado, imprimindo ao profissional cont??bil a necessidade de atualizar-se constantemente, e inclusive repensar quais s??o essas novas exig??ncias que ele deve atender enquanto provedor de informa????o de qualidade. ?? abordado tamb??m as posi????es ocupadas na carreira de um profissional cont??bil, desde aquelas restritas ?? profiss??o, e em que ?? exigida habilita????o t??cnica, com registro em ??rg??os de classe, at?? novas posi????es que embora se enquadre perfeitamente a este profissional, n??o ?? restrita a esta profiss??o, como o cargo de controller, que requer al??m do conhecimento cont??bil, o conhecimento de outras disciplinas, como administra????o, finan??as, tecnologia da informa????o, e outras. Dentre os recursos tecnol??gicos existentes, foi dado maior ??nfase aos sistemas integrados de gest??o, que possibilita a redu????o e at?? extin????o de trabalhos como classifica????o cont??bil de documentos e sua digita????o. Estes sistemas tem interligado empresas, padronizado procedimentos, possibilitando um controle muito melhor sobre as opera????es das empresas, ainda que estas tenham unidades espalhadas por v??rios Pa??ses.