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The decision-making process to leave the audit profession : How female senior managers reach their decision to resign

Background/problematization: The audit industry has historically been characterized by male dominance, and it has long been a problem to succeed in retaining women throughout the work life. Female senior managers are influenced by triggering factors that cause them to consider their continuation in the audit profession. A high number of women opt out audit firms especially at the senior managerial level and choose to restart elsewhere.   Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to understand the decision-making process of leaving the audit industry of midcareer female auditors. By studying the phenomenon from a life world perspective, it will be described as it is perceived by the women.    Methodology: The study is based on a narrative interview method with an abductive approach where the interviews were conducted with six former female senior managers from the audit industry who left less than 10 years ago. A thematic analysis was conducted in order to analyze the collected data.   Findings: The findings indicate that family, discrimination, heavy workload, job offer and renumeration are influencing factors during female senior managers’ decision-making process. Further, the findings show that the factors influence their decision to varying degrees in different stages of the process.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hj-57504
Date January 2022
CreatorsLy, Carita, Karsberg, Ulrika
PublisherJönköping University, IHH, Företagsekonomi
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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