Advances in Accounting Behavioral Research: Volume 3

Prior research has documented the existence of a white male culture in large public accounting firms that has long dominated most aspects of these firms. This culture has arguably resulted in systematic workplace bias against females and minorities and their exclusion from opportunities for advancement. The accounting profession, led by the Big Five firms, has recently focused efforts on developing a new “diversity culture” intended to make the workplace more accessible to and supportive of all personnel. This exploratory study examines the current impact of race and gender on the performance evaluation judgments of audit seniors representing one Big Five firm. The results indicate that, under some circumstances, the job performance and career prospects of females (both non-white and white) were rated as high as, or higher than, those of white males. The implications of these findings for the profession and future research are discussed.

The job content of audit staff positions is thought to contribute to organizational outcomes such as job satisfaction, which in turn affect the formation of human capital in the accounting profession. A reliable measure of auditors' perceptions of job content aids both accounting professionals and researchers in assessing issues and measuring changes related to job design and the generic characteristics of audit staff positions. This paper uses insights from research in organizational behavior to evaluate auditing positions from a new perspective. The Job Characteristics Model is used to examine their nature and content as well as to explore the relationship of job content to job outcomes and related implications for audit firms. This study uses confirmatory factor analysis to assess the nature and the applicability of the Job Characteristics Model to an auditing context. The study confirms the applicability of the model to audit research, and shows that staff auditors perceive their positions as having several important dimensions that are reflected in the Job Characteristics Model. The results suggest that autonomy and skill variety may represent a single dimension. The study also includes tests of hypotheses relating the five core job dimensions to performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions. Test results are mixed, showing that individual job characteristics were associated with some, but not all of the work outcomes. The skill variety/autonomy composite dimension and the task significance dimension proved very consequential for these outcomes. Implications for research and practice are drawn.

This study examines auditors' evaluation of audit risk at the financial statement level (risk of material misstatements). Specifically, the study investigates whether perceived audit risk is influenced by individual differences (e.g., tolerance-for-ambiguity (TFA) and experience), and changes in industry risk. Forty-eight auditors from two offices of a “Big Five” CPA firm participated in this study.

The results of this study support the contention that TFA significantly influences the assessment of audit risk. Auditors with a high TFA perceived less audit risk than auditors with a low TFA. Industry risk also is shown to have a significant influence on the assessment of audit risk at the financial statement level. Higher industry risk was found to be associated with higher perceived audit risk. Lastly, the results indicate that audit experience is not a significant factor in explaining perceived audit risk. Important implications from these results for the overall audit process are provided.

This paper replicates and extends Chenhall and Brownell (1988) by exploring the potential moderating effects of role ambiguity and role conflict, as two dimensions of role stress, on the budgetary participation and job satisfaction-performance linkages. The responses of 79 middle-level managers, drawn from a cross-section of manufacturing companies in Australia, to a questionnaire survey are analyzed by using a path analysis and moderated regression techniques. The results, in general, failed to support the intervening variable view model of Chenhall and Brownell. The results, however, showed that both role ambiguity and role conflict have an interactive effect on managerial performance but not on job satisfaction. This study, in general, partially supported the contingency model view as suggested by Chenhall and Brownell.

This study examines the usefulness of Stahl's (1983) managerial motivation measure (MMOT) in providing early identification of managerial motivation in collegians. Surveys requesting employment histories were sent to accounting graduates who had completed an instrument that measures MMOT during the last semester of their junior year in college. Analysis supports a positive correlation between MMOT and an individual's classification as manager or nonmanager eight years following graduation. Logit analysis reveals MMOT contains explanatory power in classifying an individual as manager or nonmanager. Individuals with high MMOT reached management level faster than individuals with medium or low MMOT. The results support the use of MMOT to provide early identification of managerial initiative among collegians. A method that assists in identification of young professionals with managerial motivation is of value to both accounting organizations and employees. The results suggest that the MMOT measure holds promise in this regard.

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of causal attributions and budget emphasis on individuals' framing perceptions and risk preferences under conditions of unfavorable budget variances. Prospect theory maintains that risk preferences are domain-specific; individuals tend to be risk-averse in gains and risk-seeking in losses. Prior accounting research has found that while individual actions clearly reflect prospect theory propositions during situations of gain, individuals demonstrate risk indifference when faced with situations of loss. We investigate potential explanations for this lack of strict adherence to prospect theory during situations of loss. Our study uses internal and external attributions and pressure to meet budget targets for performance appraisals to create salient loss conditions. The results demonstrate that budget decisions vary depending on the casual factors of the unfavorable variance and on the degree of emphasis placed on achieving time budget targets. As expected, subjects exhibited relatively more risk seeking behavior when faced with internal attributions and when they expected a greater emphasis on meeting budgetary goals in performance assessment. Our results also demonstrate the importance of controlling for framing effects in prospect theory related tests.

The competence of tax accountants plays a crucial role in the U.S. voluntary compliance income tax system. This study extends prior research in accountant expertise to tax accountants. Two dimensions of expertise are measured: accuracy of recall of declarative tax knowledge, and calibration of confidence in the accuracy of recall. It is found that, like auditors, tax accountants exhibit overconfidence in their ability to recall knowledge in their domain. Because expertise is not directly observable, we seek to link our measures to observable surrogates, including: rank in firm, experience, education, and specialization. Hypothesized relationships are generally supported, although there is no detectable relationship between our measures and post-baccalaureate education. There is a positive relationship between the dimensions of expertise we measure and length of experience in practice; however, at high levels of experience the relationship becomes negative.

According to the theory of relational demography, being similar to others at work improves one's work experiences. In this comparison of 340 male and female academic accountants, indices of dissimilarity to departmental colleagues in terms of gender, education, and tenure were calculated, and tested for their ability to predict career outcomes up to 12 years later. Gender dissimilarity was not a determinant of publication performance or progression. Graduation from a highly ranked program, employment in a doctoral-granting department, and being similarly educated, but dissimilar in date of entry, to colleagues were associated with high performance. The determinants of progression were different for men and women, and in neither case, included gender variation. Colleagues with dissimilar dates of entry meant slow rates of progression for men, whereas a doctoral-granting department and colleagues without doctorates meant slow rates of progression for women.

Prior research on accounting ethics has focused on the examination of an individual's moral reasoning capabilities and/or individual acts of unethical behavior. The relevance of such research is hampered, however, by the failure to recognize the importance of organizations to the ultimate behavior of their members. The research presented in this paper focuses on the development of a model that aids in the assessment, control, and/or motivation of ethical or curtailment of unethical activity within a firm. The model blends two perspectives from recent accounting ethics research (contractarian philosophy and stakeholder ethics) with an application of epidemic theory that has recently evolved in the medical field of epidemiology. The model developed in this paper emphasizes preventing epidemics of unethical activity and encouraging epidemics of ethical activity. The ultimate result is a model designed to aid organizations in attaining a greater level of ethical behavior.

Behavioral accounting research deals with a complex set of phenomenon including the broad domain of human decision making under uncertainty. Two aspects of decision making of particular relevance to accounting and auditing research are two constructs that are inexorably interrelated: uncertainty and information (evidence). This paper introduces a theoretical perspective that enriches the knowledge-set that may be used in behavioral accounting research when confronting decision contexts that involve uncertainly.

The main body of the paper is an introduction to belief functions. The introduction includes a discussion of the fundamental constructs and then illustrates the use of belief functions in two audit settings: traditional financial statement audit planning and the evaluation of evidence in a cascaded-inference setting involving the ebaluation of internal accounting control. The paper concludes with a brief exploration of some of the research issues and opportunities that are related to the potential use of belief functions in behavioral accounting research.

Heavy reliance on college students as surrogate experimental subjects has historically generated a great deal of controversy. Interestingly, despite its rudimentary importance to behavioral experimentation, recent dialogues on the issue are curiously scarce. This essay seeks to re-open a critical dialogue on the subject by reflecting on three theoretical or methodological issues central to the historical strife surrounding experimental subject surrogation.

The World Wide Web (Web) is quickly becoming an efficient and preferred medium for business transactions, information, and entertainment. Academic research is also migrating to the Web as the number of persons who have access to cyberspace increases. Tasks previously accomplished by means of traditional mail or by use of personal computers in the laboratory can now be performed at any location subjects have Internet access. The purpose of this paper is to present the issues involved when electronic research (e-research) projects are undertaken. E-research is the use of the Web to disseminate research materials to subjects, manipulate constructs, and capture empirical data. While this approach provides many opportunities for accounting behavioral researchers, certain issues must be understood and addressed before e-research projects are begun.