Antecedents of organisational professional conflict faced by professional accountants in different work settings.
| Autor | Barrainkua, Itsaso |
1 Introduction
In the last three decades, many academics have expressed concern about the commercialisation of the accounting profession (Gendron, Suddaby, & Lam, 2006; Sikka, 2004; Wyatt, 2004). In this regard, the business culture that has permeated accounting practice, both at the firm and professional level, is presumed to be inconsistent with professional accountants' traditional values. Currently, professional accountants are employed in bureaucratic and commercially oriented workplaces, which expose them to organisational and managerial authority (Muzio & Kirkpatrick, 2011). The context in which the professional practice is carried out may lead accountants to subordinate the values of their profession to meet the goals of the organisation.
This empirical research draws on perspectives of social identity theory and sociology of the professions to analyse the potential conflict between competing professional and organisational demands.
Social identity theory acknowledges that individuals have both a personal and a social identity (Ashforth & Mael 1989; Brouard, Bujaki, Durocher, & Neilson, 2017) and provides an understanding of the role of the conflict that an individual may experience. Given that professionals belong to a number of different groups (organisation, profession, etc.), their social identity consists of a mix of different identities that may impose inconsistent demands upon the professional. Furthermore, these demands can come into conflict with the professional's personal identity (Ashforth & Mael, 1989).
Based on the perspective of sociology of the professions, this study focuses on accountants' professional attitudes, such as professional commitment and public interest commitment, which reflect the perception of their professional role and the sources of their identity. Historically, professionalism emphasizes the notion of the social function, in which the professional is described as a guardian of the public interest (Freidson, 2001; Suddaby, Gendron, & Lam, 2009). However, the discussion around professionalism has pointed to the potential problems that arise when accountants work in bureaucratic contexts that emphasize profit at the expense of their professional values (Suddaby et al., 2009; Wyatt, 2004).
Previous studies have jointly investigated the organisational and professional commitment of accounting professionals as well as the potential conflict that may arise between the two commitments, referred to as organisational professional conflict (OPC) (Aranya & Ferris, 1984; Shafer, 2009). Therefore, the concept of OPC describes the potential collision between professional values and organisational goals and values (Aranya & Ferris, 1984; Aranya, Pollock, & Amernic, 1981; Shafer, 2009; Shafer, Poon, & Tjosvold, 2013).
One of the main reasons for the interest in studying OPC lies in the negative outcomes of this phenomenon. Most studies have found that OPC is associated with dysfunctional consequences, such as a reduction in job satisfaction, an increase in professional as well as organisational turnover intentions (Bamber & Iyer, 2002; Hall, Smith, & Langfield-Smith, 2005; Shafer, Lowe, & Fogarty, 2002), and damage to the quality of job performance (McManus & Subramaniam, 2014).
OPC reflects the pressure to compromise professional standards when organisational values or expectations are in conflict with professional values (Shafer, 2002; Shafer, 2009). In the present study, we address OPC by examining the organisational pressures faced by accountants to breach professional standards.
The aim of this study is to examine the effects of public interest commitment, professional commitment, organisational commitment, and organisational ethical culture on the perception of OPC. In the study, we also test for the differences in the perception of OPC between professionals in different accounting areas.
Studying the pressure that accountants may face is of utmost importance to help reduce dysfunctional outcomes in accounting practice. However, there are relatively few recent empirical studies that examine the professional and organisational commitment of accountants (Shafer, 2009) and the pressures that may arise from a conflict between these two commitments. therefore, this study makes several contributions to the international accounting literature.
The literature in the area has focused mainly on two antecedents of OPC: organisational and professional commitment. However, some researchers (Shafer, 2009; Shafer et al., 2013) call for new empirical studies that place more emphasis on the organisational characteristics of the firms where accountants conduct their work, such as the ethical climate of the organisation. The studies conducted by Shafer (2009) and Shafer et al. (2013) appear to be the first attempts in the accounting literature to investigate the association between organisational ethical climate and organisational-professional conflict. However, these studies were limited to professionals in public accounting firms in Asian contexts. To address this shortcoming of the existing literature and extend previous research (Shafer, 2009; Shafer et al., 2013), the present study analyses the effect of professional and organisational commitment, together with the organisational culture of the firm, on the perception of pressures arising from OPC in the case of professional accountants in different work settings.
Moreover, in the scarce literature that exists in this area, hardly any studies have investigated OPC in the case of other accounting professionals besides auditors (Shafer, 2009). This study is one of the first to compare the OPC among professional accountants in different work settings. A few studies (Aranya & Ferris, 1984; Suddaby et al., 2009) have compared the professional values of accountants employed in organisations (professional accountants in business), where these accountants work in firms providing professional services, such as auditing, or tax and accounting consulting (professional accountants in practice). While the collective of professional accountants in practice has usually been studied as a single and homogeneous group, this study differentiates between auditors and accounting and tax advisors. This division is crucial for the case of Spain and most European countries, where the current structure of the accounting profession is noticeably different to the commonly studied Anglo-American contexts (Hall et al., 2005; Shafer, 2009). In common law countries or Anglo-American contexts, all accountants are included in the official professional title of Chartered Accountant or Certified Public Accountant, which includes auditors as well. However, in countries where the legal system is based on Roman law, such as in many European countries, there is a specific official title for auditors. These professionals are differentiated from accounting experts who provide tax and accounting advisory services (Amat & Bove, 2015) and the responsibilities associated with each professional title are different. Therefore, understanding the pressures accountants in different work settings face in different national contexts to the ones commonly studied contributes to the international behavioural accounting literature and is fundamental for establishing mechanisms to strengthen the quality of all the services accountants provide.
This study is based on a questionnaire distributed in 2015 among 779 Spanish professional accountants in different work areas: (i) professional accountants in business practice (employees in the financial department of a company), (ii) professional accountants working as tax and accounting consultants and (iii) auditors.
The results of the study indicate a negative relationship between individuals' organisational commitment and their perception of OPC. Moreover, the results reveal a negative relationship between a strong organisational ethical culture and the OPC perceived. This study shows the existence of differences among the pressures perceived by accountants in different work settings. It reveals that professional accountants in businesses working as tax and accounting consultants perceive higher OPC than auditors and accountants employed in an organisation.
This study has several practical implications for organisations employing accountants as well as for the profession as a whole. Identifying antecedents of the conflicts that accountants may face has important implications for human resource management within organisations providing accounting services, such as audit firms, as well as tax and accounting consulting companies. Personnel shortages and high employee turnover have been highlighted as significant threats to the future of audit firms and the accounting profession. Given that the literature has found that the pressures stemming from OPC are related to accountant retention (Hall et al., 2005; Shafer, 2002), studies analysing the causes of this phenomenon are of primary interest.
The remainder of this paper is organised as follows. The next section reviews the previous literature and develops our research hypotheses. The third section addresses our research method, and the fourth section reports our results. Finally, in the fifth section, we present our study's primary conclusions, as well as the limitations and future lines of research.
2 Literature Review and Hypotheses Development
2.1 Public interest commitment
Several studies (Bamber & Iyer, 2002; Davenport & Dellaportas, 2009; Suddaby et al., 2009) have claimed that little attention has been paid to how much accountants accept and acknowledge core professional values and commitments. Most studies that have addressed accountants' professionalism have been limited to analysing accountants' professional commitment, without specifically addressing their social obligation. Public interest commitment involves accountants' willingness to protect the interests of third parties...
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