Ralph E. Viator

Mentoring in public accounting firms: An analysis of mentor-protégé relationships, mentorship functions, and protégé turnover intentions☆

Abstract From in-depth interviews with public accounting personnel, Dirsmith & Covaleski [ Accounting, Organizations and Society (1985) pp. 149–169] concluded that mentoring exists in large public accounting firms and benefits the mentor, protege and the firm. Based on a national survey of public accounting employees, the current study uses quantitative data analysis to identify public accounting mentoring functions, their effect on employee turnover intentions, and their association with specific organizational variables (protege organizational level, protege gender, mentors position, and audit firm structure). The study found that public accounting mentoring consists of three separate functions: social support, career development, and role modeling. Path analysis indicated that employees with lower turnover intentions received more career development support from their mentor and had a partner as a mentor. The level of social support provided by partner mentors tended to be less than that provided by manager mentors. Female proteges, who tended to have managers as mentors, received more social support when their mentor was also female. The role modeling function did not differ across organizational variables. The results of the study indicate that while social support is a key factor in defining the mentoring process for public accounting employees, the career development function is associated with lower protege turnover intentions.

The association of formal and informal public accounting mentoring with role stress and related job outcomes

Abstract This paper examines the association between mentoring (both formal and informal) and three measures of role stress (role conflict, role ambiguity, and perceived environmental uncertainty), as well as two job outcomes (job performance and turnover intentions). The statistical analysis is based on structural equation modeling, using responses from 794 employees of large public accounting organizations. The results suggest that in addition to providing the traditional career development and psychosocial support functions, informal mentors provide proteges with information that clarifies their organizational role (reduces role ambiguity). However, mentoring benefits may come at a cost: higher role conflict. The study found limited positive effects attributed to formally assigned mentors.

The Relevance of Transformational Leadership to Nontraditional Accounting Services: Information Systems Assurance and Business Consulting

This paper examines whether supervisors in nontraditional accounting services (vs. supervisors in financial auditing and tax services) are more likely to acquire transformational leadership skills, and, whether such skills impact subordinates role clarity and role outcomes. Transformational leadership coincides with the AICPAs Vision Projects definition of leadership skills: the ability to influence, inspire, and motivate others to achieve results. The paper uses role theory to articulate specific links between transformational leader behavior, role clarity, and role outcomes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job performance). Data was obtained through a mail survey to 1,150 AICPA members, with 416 usable responses obtained. Participants who primarily worked in the functional area of information system assurance and business consulting (ISA/BC) perceived that their supervisors demonstrated higher levels of transformational leadership, compared to participants from two other service area...

An Experimental Study of Multidimensional Hierarchical Accounting Data: Drill‐Down Paths Can Influence Economic Decisions

Although decision support systems utilizing multidimensional hierarchical data have rightfully been praised for their ability to enhance decision making, we find that the drill‐down path offered by such systems can influence economic decisions—sometimes in a suboptimal fashion. Our experimental investigation offers profitmaximizing monetary incentives to decision makers who navigate a simple multidimensional system. Specifically, decision makers view three possible drill‐down paths that each contain three lower‐level outcomes of subunit performance (i.e., only nine possible outcomes exist). We manipulate the predictive ability of aggregate data by changing the system‐offered drill‐down path. In our experiment, we keep all numeric performance outcomes constant; however, half of the time, the optimal outcome lies within the best aggregate level performer and half the time it does not. We find economic decisions are significantly worse when aggregate level performance fails to predict the optimal lower‐level...

Accounting Information Systems Doctoral Dissertations: 1998

The Fall 1999 issue of the Journal of Information Systems continues the annual publication of accounting information systems (AIS) dissertation summaries to provide an index to the AIS dissertation literature. This issue primarily contains summaries of AIS dissertations completed in 1998 and early 1999. Also included are AIS dissertations completed between 1994 and 1997 that were not listed in prior issues of the journal. Completed dissertations are available from University Microfilms, Dissertation Copies, PO Box 1764, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48198; (800) 521-3042. In September 1998, letters were sent to directors of accounting doctoral programs in the United States, Canada, Australia, and other countries in Europe and Southeast Asia. The letters requested that the directors identify AIS-related dissertations completed in that year and give the current mailing addresses for those graduates. The graduates were contacted directly (through email where possible) and asked to provide a short abstract of their dissertations, which were edited to meet length constraints. Other AIS-related dissertations were provided from references obtained at American Accounting Association meetings and workshops. Individuals whose dissertations were completed after 1994 that have not been included in this listing, may submit the relevant information (author’s name, dissertation title, doctoral-granting institution, dissertation acceptance date, an abstract of less than 200 words, and current email address) for inclusion in next year’s listing. In particular, graduates of doctoral programs outside of the U.S. are strongly encouraged to submit, as well as individuals who have completed dissertations since July 1, 1998. All submissions should be sent to Ralph E. Viator, School of Accountancy, College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506; Fax (606) 257-3654; Email: acc205@pop.uky.edu.