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Exploring the Importance of Soft Skills Training for Accountants

Regional accounting firm leaders face challenges with employees who possess strong technical skills, but lack nontechnical communicating and teamwork skills. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies regional accounting firm leaders use to train technical staff on soft skills. The human capital theory was the conceptual framework supporting the study. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with partners, leaders, managers, and human resource personnel with 5 years or more of experience who participated in the hiring, training, and professional development process at 3 regional CPA firms. The review of company documents and company website postings triangulated the semistructured interviews. Data analysis entailed coding, conceptualizing concepts and ideas, identifying themes, and member checking to ensure the trustworthiness of interpretations. Based on the data collected, 3 themes emerged after the analysis including soft skills needed for success, mentoring and leadership programs, and team building initiatives. Findings from this study may contribute to social change by providing strategies regional accounting firms could use to provide soft skills training and mentoring initiatives to technical staff. Improvement in soft skills training may improve employees' lives by increasing their employability, career progression, and transition within the workplace, which may improve the economic wellbeing of local communities.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:waldenu.edu/oai:scholarworks.waldenu.edu:dissertations-4781
Date01 January 2017
CreatorsGardner, Tonja Annette
PublisherScholarWorks
Source SetsWalden University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceWalden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

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