Aspiring professional accountants need to develop certain competencies comprising both technical knowledge and professional skills (also referred to as generic skills), during their initial professional development (IPD). However, despite interventions to develop these competencies, there is still a gap between employers' expectations and graduates' competencies. It has been argued that Emotional Intelligence (EQ) may be the missing link in the IPD of professional accountants. It has been suggested that instructors should adopt specific non-traditional pedagogical approaches to develop professional skills and EQ. The effectiveness of these approaches may, however, be compromised by the diversity in the classroom. Instructors should take cognisance of the demographic differences of the individuals within the student group and the impact of these differences on the development of professional skills and EQ, when selecting the pedagogical approaches. Instructors should also take cognisance of the interaction between demographic variables within the demographic groups. This dissertation explored demographic differences in students' perceptions of the professional skills developed at the end of their IPD. Statistically significant differences were noted between different demographic groups of students on whether they have developed professional skills. This dissertation further explored the differences in EQ between demographic groups of students. Statistically significant differences were not only noted in EQ between these demographic groups of students but also within these demographic groups. Although this dissertation considers South African students, the results may be of interest to other multicultural and multilingual environments, particularly environments that have a history of socio-economic inequity and racial injustice. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Accounting / MCom / Unrestricted

The aim of the dissertation was to investigate the demographical differences on Work-SoC, and the relationship between work-related sense of coherence (Work-SoC) and work engagement in a motor retail organisation in Gauteng. The Work-related sense of coherence (Work-SoC) scale, Utrecht work engagement (UWES-9) scale and a biographical questionnaire were applied in the data collection from 326 employees in a motor retail organisation in Gauteng. The results indicated a strong relationship between Work-SoC and work engagement and that Work-SoC does predict work engagement. Except for tenure and gender, all demographical variables showed statistically significant mean differences on Work-SoC. The study has added valuable knowledge to the existing literature as it was the first to investigate mean differences on Work-SoC for different demographical groups and also investigate the relationship between Work-SoC and work engagement in the South African environment. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)