More hands on please: Career development in the accounting. profession

Transcription

1 More hands on please: Career development in the accounting profession Ms Theresa Smith New England Business School, University of New England, Armidale NSW Ph: Associate Professor Alison Sheridan New England Business School, University of New England, Armidale NSW asherida@une.edu.au Ph:

2 More hands on please: Career development in the accounting profession Abstract Historically the organization played a greater role in managing the careers of their employees. By the mid 1990s however, this view was superseded by the notion of the boundaryless career, where career development was framed as the responsibility of employees. In this paper, drawing on a sample of accounting professionals, we consider the question of what role employees believe their organizations should play in managing their careers. The results of the research question the validity of the boundaryless career concept. The accounting professionals in this research do not appreciate the hands off approach adopted by organizations. For accounting firms to retain their most valued staff they may need to attend more closely to their career development needs. Key words: career management; organizations; accounting profession; Australia 2

3 Introduction The management of the employment relationship has evolved significantly (Michelson and Kramar 2003). One area where the prevailing norms have evolved in particular is career development (Super, 1957; Schein, 1978; Levinson et al, 1978; Hall, 1996; Arthur & Rousseau, 1996). In the 1970s and 1980s, the importance of companies being involved in the long term career development of high value employees was a central part of the HRM rhetoric. By the mid 1990s, however, this view was superseded by the notion of the boundaryless career (Hall, 1996; Arthur and Rousseau, 1996), where career development was framed as the responsibility of employees. In this paper, drawing on a sample of accounting professionals, we consider the question of what role employees believe their organizations should play in managing their careers. It seems for this occupational group, the withdrawal of the HRM role from active participation in career development has not been appreciated. Rather, these accounting professionals highlight the costs to organizations and themselves of the hands off approach they have observed and strongly argue for a more hands on approach. Career Development Schein (1978) and Levinson et al. (1978) proposed the notion of the psychological contract to describe the relationship between the employee and the organization. The traditional view of the psychological contract was characterised by a mutual understanding between the employee and the organization. It was expected that employees would work hard, cause few problems, and generally conform to the manager s requests. In return, employers would provide good jobs and pay, offer advancement opportunities, and generally guarantee lifetime employment. It was a stable, predictable world; the employee would be loyal to the employer and, in return, the employer would provide job security for the employee (De Meuse et al., 2001). 3

4 In contrast, Arthur and Rousseau (1996) and Hall (1996) argued that careers in the twenty-first century would no longer be automatic nor linear, they would be boundaryless. The career would be directed by the individual, not the organization, and driven by changes in the person and in the environment. Hall (1996) termed it a protean career. Job security would be replaced by employability. Hall (1996) also argued that the individual would need to develop new competencies related to the management of self and career. The individual must learn how to develop self-knowledge and adaptability (Hall, 1996). Arthur and Rousseau (1996) likewise emphasised that skills will create opportunities, rather than opportunities creating skills. It would be up to the individual to manage their own career. Allred, Snow and Miles (1996) similarly argued that the responsibility for career management would rest with the individual, rather than with the organization. This paper therefore examines whether this notion of the boundaryless career is relevant to current employees, in particular to accounting professionals, and what implications it has for career development and management in organizations. The study demonstrates that the findings of Allred et al. (1996), Arthur and Rousseau (1996) and Hall (1996) regarding career development are incongruent with the behaviour, needs, and expectations of the men and women interviewed from the accounting profession and that accounting firms may need to pay more attention to career development if they are to retain their most valuable employees.. Method The accounting profession was selected as a case study for examination for a number of reasons. First, the accounting profession allows individuals to pursue a pathway into more senior positions, such as chief financial officer; chief executive officer; or as a director on the board of a company. Second, there are a number of career paths open to individuals in the accounting profession, including in accounting firms; in the corporate sector; in government; in academic 4

5 institutions; and through self-employment. It was believed that it would be useful to explore the reasons why men and women follow such varied career trajectories. Also, it would be useful to explore the role that these range of organizational contexts have on career. Finally, men and women employed in the accounting profession are required to complete on-going professional development in order to keep their accreditation. It was felt that the regulatory nature of the profession may therefore have career implications for men and women. Semi-structured interviews were adopted as the research tool to draw out the career experiences of the respondents sampled. Using grounded theory, there were several key steps in the data analysis phase. First, each interview was audio taped and then transcribed. Second, each interview was content analysed and coded for emerging themes. The themes focused on the three key factors that respondents perceived to influence their careers: personal; inter-personal; and organizational factors. In general, the process of data analysis was characterised by a constant comparative method to compare specific codes, concepts, themes and patterns of relationship generated from the interview data. These were then combined to enable an understanding of the current context of career development in the accounting profession. In the final stage of data analysis, the interview data and theoretical framework were compared and contrasted with the literature on the existing theories of career development. The sample comprised 30 men and 29 women employed in the accounting profession in Australia. Purposive, convenience and snow ball sampling were used to select these respondents. The 59 respondents covered a broad spectrum of variables including gender; age; employment status; and organizational type. They were employed in a range of organizations, across various occupational levels was and all had completed some form of accounting qualification. 5

6 The age range for men was and for women. The average age of the men was 41, compared to 43 for the women. Respondents had been in their current position for an average of 4.6 years and been with their current organization for an average of 9.5 years. These figures include those respondents who operated their own sole practice. Since the tenure of these respondents was quite lengthy, it probably skewed the figures for time in position and time in the organization. All of the respondents were asked the following two questions in order to determine their attitude towards career management: Are there any actions the organization could take to further assist you in your career planning and development? Do you think the responsibility for managing a career rests with the individual, the organization, or a combination of both? RESULTS Most of the respondents in the research moved through various roles throughout their career. Whilst theorists such as Arthur and Rousseau (1996) and Hall (1996) argue that careers in the twenty-first century will be characterised by greater mobility, the majority of the respondents in this research had long periods of stable employment with the one organization. A significant portion of respondents (n=12, 20 per cent) had actually remained with the same organization during their entire career. There were also a further 29 respondents (49 per cent) who after one or two early job changes, had settled in the one organization, with intentions of remaining there. One explanation for the pattern of traditional career paths was that considering that the average age of respondents was early 40s, these respondents may have been brought up in the era of expecting and wanting a traditional career. However, the nine respondents aged under 30 all appeared to favour a traditional career as well. 6

7 Also in contrast to the claims of Allred et al. (1996) Arthur and Rousseau (1996, and Hall (1996), the overwhelming majority of respondents (n=55, 93 per cent) believed that the responsibility for managing a career rests with both the individual and the organization. The respondents strongly believed that the organization has a role to play in facilitating their career development. For example, respondents believed that organizational career management had an important influence on their early career development when they are not always certain of their future career direction. Respondents explained that the organization could help identify career paths for them when their knowledge of the organization s hierarchy is limited. I think for the very first couple of years you don t know what the next logical step is in your career all the time and where the opportunities are going to become available within a large company like **. So early on the organization can identify a role and identify a person suitable for that role. Later on in your career you would actually be in a position to know where the jobs would come up. (respondent 41) The majority of respondents admitted that their careers had not been planned, they had just evolved in response to their personal and work circumstances. There appeared to be two categories of respondents: those who had unplanned careers (53 or 90 per cent); and those who planned their careers to a greater degree (6 or 10 per cent). In general, the respondents career moves were the result of either actively applying for and seeking out positions themselves; having others identify the opportunity for them, such as managers, HR, family and friends, or mentors; or being recommended for the job. With most respondents, their job changes in early career resulted from other people identifying positions for them, and as they progressed in the organization or became more experienced, they tended to actively seek out job moves themselves. The respondents with unplanned careers tended not to have detailed career plans or goals for their future development. Such respondents generally had a broad idea of where they saw themselves going in their career, but did not have any time frames or specific roles that they were aiming towards. In contrast, respondents with more planned careers typically crystallized their career 7

8 goals early in their career life and strove to achieve them. The latter group tended to be more ambitious and able to verbalise their career goals. They developed strategies and directed their career behaviour towards achieving those goals. Some of the respondents in the research also recognized the value to the organization of providing career management to employees. When we recruit people we want to be able to offer them a choice of career paths. So when I go looking for young people to bring on board I will be able to say look come in at this level, this is the training we will give you, these are the directions you can take. I think if we can do that we can attract a high caliber staff. YOU need to attract good staff, train them and give them a good reason for working for you. (respondent 46). Examples of Organizational Career Management The experiences and comments of eight respondents employed in a large corporate sector organization illustrate the attitude toward career management. These respondents revealed that the focus on managing careers at their organization had changed over the years. The employment contract had moved from a situation where a lot of emphasis was placed on career management by the organization, to a new contract where the organization believed it was up to the individual to manage their own career. None of the respondents liked this shift in career management back on the individual. The respondents agreed that early on the organization was paternalistic in its approach, which had positive outcomes for their career development. For example, the organization helped to match employees career goals or aspirations with vacancies in the company. There were also talent performance schemes that helped to identify the high performers in the organization and assist in their career development. However, the current feeling among these respondents was that the organization was not very active in career management, and this created problems for their career development. For example, four of the eight respondents were at a crossroads in their career and were feeling quite vulnerable and unsure of their future career direction. They 8

9 believed that the organization was not doing enough to support them in their career development. They suggested that management and HR needed to work together to help identify career opportunities for them. Respondent 17 for example, believed that: HR need to get a little more involved and manage it at a higher level so you know where they see you going. I think your manager just above you wants you to do your job for the next year and doesn t have that long-term vision. Where as I like to know what he wants for the next five years so I can plan my life. HR could help facilitate that and bring the employee and the jobs together. (respondent 17) I think if the organization is genuine about keeping their good people they have to do something. I have talked to three HR people in **. One has been very accommodating and has listened to me and provided advice, but the other two were absolutely assholes. They didn t care and they didn t want to know. It was like they thought well who are you anyway. They made me feel I wasn t worthy of their consideration. I think I am at a reasonably senior level and I thought their attitude was unacceptable. (respondent 16). These respondents also believed that the organization could better support their career development by providing guidance and support. For example, by ensuring that job vacancies are advertised internally and people are given access to that information. Second, by ensuring that there is a fair and equal selection process. Third ensuring that the appropriate people are aware who are the good performers, who are the people ready to move on, and what are their interests. In contrast, 26 respondents believed that graduate development programs offered by the corporate sector and professional services firms were an example of where organizational career management had a positive influence on their career development. It provided them with the training, knowledge, skills and experience that they believed was a foundation to their future career development. One respondent made the following comment about the graduate program: You got to understand the way the organization worked. It developed my skills both technically, professionally, people skills, the communication type skills. It took you from a raw graduate and made you into a professional. The training was constant at all grades from the day you started. It wasn t a defined graduate program, just training appropriate to the grade. (respondent 52) 9

10 A young male respondent similarly explained that the graduate program was useful in exposing him to various aspects of the business, providing the opportunity to meet senior staff, including the CFO, and gaining knowledge of the key structures of the organization. Like many other respondents, he believed that this type of support was important in a large organization. Two other respondents also provided an example of how effective proactive organizational career management could be for employees. These two respondents were employed with a major IT company. The two respondents reported that the level of organizational career management had a positive influence on their career development by providing them with a formal structure and support that fostered their career within the organization. It was not necessarily focused on career progression, but encouraged them to consider what they wanted out of their career and how to go about achieving it. Both respondents stated that such proactive career management boosted their job satisfaction and commitment to the organization. The two respondents explained that there is a lot of HR involvement in assisting employees to manage their careers. For example, the employees are required to complete a personal development program, as well as an individual development plan. Employees are encouraged to actively pursue goals that they stated in their plans. A portion of their bonuses each year are based on how much employees actually tried to develop those two programs. The personal development plan is developed each year, whilst the individual development plan is an ongoing process. The plan is reviewed by an employee s manager. They report to a HR manager who is responsible for their development in the company. Employees also report to another manager who assigns work. Both HR and the employee s manager are responsible for the personal and individual development program. According to one of the respondents, the organization also has a career guidance or training scheme. So if an employee wishes to change professions within the company, there are training 10

11 sessions where they can discuss it with a professional career counsellor. The organization also operates a range of personal development workshops, such as how to be a better motivator, communicator, get along with colleagues, and other forms of training. Both respondents indicated that they were strongly supportive of this proactive approach to career management by the organization. In contrast, three respondents (one male and two females) believed that there was a lack of organizational career management directed to older partners in the professional services firms. They believed that this had negative outcomes for their career development as they were feeling vulnerable and were lacking career direction. The respondents explained that the problem is that once an individual progresses to partner level, little focus is provided on helping them plan their future career path. You have a lot of partners that don t have an official mentor that kind of got there and are left to work it out for themselves. We are only starting to do formal succession planning in the partnership. Whether that is internal roles, such as CEO, and owners of major client accounts. We have just recently started a program for partners in their first three years called the foundation program. They are given some more counselling and coaching, formal mentoring, more business development training, checking in how they are going. Some are sailing and some have fear in their eyes because they feel vulnerable and nobody as been saying how they are going. (respondent 34) This vulnerability led two respondents to seek coaching or mentoring outside the organization in order to help them crystallise their future career goals. This is a particularly concerning problem given that the average age at which individuals reach partner is 30 to 35. These individuals would have many years left in the workforce, and have much more to contribute to the organization. The respondents believed that the organization had abandoned them, and they were left to just coast along in their career. The respondents indicated that they were still interested in pursuing challenging and rewarding work, as well as alternative career options. Organizations risked losing these respondents who had such a depth of experience and tenure within the firm. 11

12 Whilst respondents discussed the important role organizations had in career management, they also recognized the role of the individual. Respondents acknowledged that it was up to the individual to set career goals, however the organization has to provide those opportunities to increase your technical knowledge, to increase your abilities to manage other people, and to improve your ability to communicate to peers and clients (respondent 39). In other words, the organization should help facilitate an individual s career development. It s a combination of the two. The organization helps to facilitate, but it still has to be owned by the individual. Ultimately I own my career and the organization can help facilitate that by offering me opportunities or development, but its my career. (respondent 14). CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS The study demonstrates that the findings of Allred et al. (1996), Arthur and Rousseau (1996) and Hall (1996) regarding career development are incongruent with the behaviour, needs, and expectations of the men and women interviewed from the accounting profession. First, the majority of respondents were interested in stable employment with the one organization. Second, the overwhelming number of respondents believed that organizations should play a role in helping facilitate their career management. Respondents reported that organizational career management strategies help to identify career opportunities for them; a means of providing career guidance; encouraging respondents and managers to discuss their career goals and means of achieving them; and having programs that fostered the high performing individuals. Where career management was not provided by the organization, this had negative implications for the respondents career development. The respondents reported feeling dissatisfied and disillusioned with the organization, and unsure of their future career development. Clearly, the implications for organizations are that the men and women interviewed from the accounting profession are more interested in their organization playing a hands on approach 12

13 with their careers. Due to the lack of organizational support in this area, some respondents are considering career opportunities outside their organization or are seeking out external coaching. The real concern for organizations is that many of the respondents in the research who indicated anxiety and dissatisfaction, are some of the most valued, highly skilled and senior employees in the organization. The organization risks losing them if they fail to acknowledge this need for proactive career management. The respondents discussion demonstrates the importance of providing provide career management programs that foster and enhance the career development of employees, in particular for older or senior employees. The study also suggests that proactive organizational career management may be more beneficial for respondents with unplanned careers as the organization can work with them to help foster their career development. This can be achieved by identifying career opportunities or providing them with the training and development they need to progress to roles that meet their needs. Respondents who plan their careers tend to know what positions they are striving for, but need the organization s help in facilitating their progression. Career management strategies such as talent programs or high performer fast tracks, may therefore assist the latter in achieving their goals. Given the focus and determination of those with planned careers, their goals need to be acknowledged and accommodated by the organization, or they may be quick to leave the organization in order to fulfil their career plans elsewhere. 13

14 Refernces Allred, B., Snow, C., Miles, R. 1996, Characteristics of managerial careers of the 21st century, Academy of Management Executive, 10 (4), pp Retrieved from Expanded Academic ASAP database. Arthur, M.B & Rousseau, D. 1996, A career lexicon for the 21st century, Academy of Management Executive, 10 (4), pp Retrieved from Proquest database. De Meuse, K.P., Bergmann, T. & Lester, S.W. 2001, An investigation of the relational component of the psychological contract across time, generation, and employment status, Journal of Managerial Issues, 13 (1), Pp Retrieved from Expanded Academic ASAP database. Hall, D.T. 1996, Protean careers of the twenty-first century, The Academy of Management Executive, 10 (4), pp Retrieved from Expanded Academic ASAP database. Levinson, D., Darrow, C.N., Klein, E.B., Levinson, M.H. & Mckee, B. 1978, The seasons in a man's life, Alfred Knopf: New York. Michelson, G. & Kramar, R. 2003, The state of HRM in Australia: Progress and prospects, Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 41 2, pp Morley, C., O Neill, M., Jackson, M. & Bellamy, S. 2001, Gender Issues in Australian accounting. A survey of women and men accountants in the profession, CPA Australia: Melbourne. Retrieved from Lexis Nexis news database. Pringle, J.K. & Mallon, M., 2003, Challenges for the boundaryless career odyssey, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 14, 5, pp Schein, E. H. 1978, Career Dynamics: Matching Individual and Organizational Needs. Addison- Wesley: Reading, Mass. Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. 1990, Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory procedures and techniques, Sage Publications: Newbury Park, CA. Super, D.E. 1957, The Psychology of Careers, Harper & Row: New York. 14

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