Some colleges and universities require their business majors to take literature classes; others do not. Some businesspeople, as well as many educators such as Donna M. Kish-Goodling (1999), William McCarron (1980), and Philip Vassallo (1991), support the need for business students to study literature in order to improve their communication skills and degree of human understanding. Over the past fifty years, however, Virginia Tech's literature requirements for business majors have gradually diminished to none. The twelve participants who were interviewed in this qualitative study were all business majors who graduated from Virginia Tech before 1990, when the business school, and the university at large, still required students to take one or more literature courses. The vast majority of participants agreed that they had benefited from studying literature as part of their undergraduate business degree. Participants most often credited the classes with broadening their world view, developing their analytical skills, making them more well-rounded, improving their communication skills, and helping them better express themselves. Participants agreed with Vassallo's suggestion that reading literature helped students to put their own lives into perspective (1991) and with poet Billy Collins' argument that exposure to literature was the key to learning how to write well (Lenham 2001). Even in today's highly technological society, the skills and insights obtained through the humanities, especially those involving writing, are still considered quite relevant by the participants. The research suggests that core curriculum could benefit from being more balanced, as suggested by Chester Finn, Dianne Ravitch, and Robert Fancher (1984), so that it includes literature and humanities to the same extent that it currently includes math, science, and social sciences. Literature courses, however, need not be exclusively relegated to English Departments and could even be specially designed for Business Departments, such as Kish-Goodling's class that used Shakespeare to teach monetary economics (1999). Literature courses that stress analytical reading and writing could prove quite useful to business majors. / Ph. D.

"This study was made to determine whether or not Gainesville Junior College Commercial Department at Gainesville, Texas, is meeting the probable future needs of business employers and employees. An attempt is being made to find which courses could be enriched to advantage and the nature of the material to be used in the enrichment. All factual information in this study was gained through fifty questionnaires which were sent to business graduates of 1935-1945 of Gainesville Junior College. " -- leaf 1

Bakgrund: Den traditionella stereotypen av revisorsyrket, som beskrivs som grå och tråkig, kan tänkas påverka studenters syn på revisionsbranschen. Personligheten anses betydande för valet av utbildning och individer med vissa egenskaper tenderar att välja en inriktning inom redovisning/revision. Brist på forskning gällande hur utmärkande dessa personlighetsdrag är och huruvida de matchar revisionsbyråernas efterfrågade egenskaper, har motiverat studien. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att utforska sambandet mellan personlighetstyp och val av inriktning för universitetsstudier inom företagsekonomi, samt huruvida personlighetstypen för studenter inom redovisning/revision matchar den som revisionsbyråerna efterfrågar. Metod: Den kvantitativa studien grundas i ett positivistiskt synsätt och en deduktiv ansats. En förstudie i två delar undersöker egenskaper porträtterade i jobbannonser samt karaktärsdrag värderade av arbetande revisorer. Huvudstudien består av ett personlighetstest baserat på MBTI där personlighetstyper för studenter inom företagsekonomi studeras. Slutsats: Studien visar att det finns ett samband mellan studenter inom redovisning/revision och preferens för funktionen Sinnesförnimmelse (S) inom MBTI. Den mest förekommande personlighetstypen för studenter är ESTJ, vilket indikerar att de besitter egenskaper såsom utåtriktad, praktisk, analytisk och strukturerad. Karaktärsdragen stämmer till stor del överens med vilka egenskaper som anses högst värderade av revisorer. Däremot motsätter de sig den traditionella stereotypen, vilket antyder att den förutfattade bilden av revisorsyrket bör ifrågasättas. Vidare visar studien skillnader mellan efterfrågade egenskaper i jobbannonser och vad revisorer själva anser vara väsentligt inom yrket. En slutsats dras således att det fortfarande förekommer en missvisande bild av revisorsprofessionen, som kan komma att skapa problematik i branschen.