Fiona Anderson-Gough

Tests of time : organizational time-reckoning and the making of accountants in two multi-national accounting firms

There has been remarkably little study of the recruitment, training and socialization of accountants in general, much less the specific case of trainee auditors, despite many calls to do so. In this paper, we seek to explore one key aspect of professional socialization in accounting firms: the discourses and practices of time-reckoning and time-management. By exploring time practices in accounting firms we argue that the organizational socialization of trainees into particular forms of time-consciousness and temporal visioning is a fundamental aspect of securing and developing professional identity. We pay particular attention to how actors consciousness of time is understood to develop, and how it reflects their organizational and professional environment, including how they envision the future and structure their strategic life-plan accordingly. Also of particular importance to the advancement of career in accounting firms is an active engagement with the politics of time: the capacity to manipulate and resist following the overt time-management routines of the firms. Rather than simply see trainees as passive subjects of organizational time-management devices, we noted how they are actively involved in ‘managing’ the organizational recording of time to further their career progression.

Locus of control, attributions and impression management in the selection interview

Surprisingly little is known about the ways in which candidates create positive impressions during employment interviews. Three studies are presented which investigate how candidate and interviewer locus of control influence preferences for three categories of explanations proffered by candidates during graduate recruitment interviews. In Study 1, we asked 139 undergraduate students and 37 personnel managers to rate internal-controllable, internal-uncontrollable and externaluncontrollable candidate attributions for hypothetical past events according to the likelihood of each producing a positive impression during a selection interview. Students also completed Rotters Locus of Control questionnaire and the Interview Behaviour Scales. Students and personnel managers rated internal-controllable attributions most likely to create a positive impression. However, students with an external LoC rated external-uncontrollable explanations and internal-controllable explanations as being equally likely to convey a positive impression. In Study 2 a group of 62 candidates applying for actual positions with a company completed the same attribution questionnaire prior to first-stage interviews. Interviewer ratings of candidate performance correlated positively with ratings of internal-controllable explanations (r =.36, p< .001). In Study 3, a sample of 103 experienced interviewers completed the attribution questionnaire and the WLOC. All interviewers rated internal-controllable attributions most likely to convey a positive impression of a candidate. However, locus of control mediated preference for candidate attributions such that ‘External’ interviewers rated external-uncontrollable attributions significantly more likely to convey a positive impression than ‘Internal’ interviewers. The implications of these findings for impression management and interview selection decisions are discussed.

Professionals, networking and the networked professional

Drawing upon an eight-year-long study of two of the global accounting firms, this chapter suggests that a key aspect of professionalism is networking. Networking within these firms is crucial to achieving and demonstrating professional competence and to career advancement. It involves sophisticated forms of social practice and permeates a range of organizational processes. It is argued that networking also implies and potentially creates and regulates a particular kind of identity, namely that of the networked self or, more specifically, the networked professional.