career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

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THE ASSOCIATION OF CAREER STAGE AND GENDER WITH TAX ACCOUNTANTS’ WORK ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS Suzanne Luttman Associate Professor Santa Clara University Leavey School of Business Santa Clara, CA 95053 [email protected] (408) 554-4897 FAX (408) 554-5193 Linda Mittermaier Associate Professor Capital University College of Arts and Sciences Columbus, OH 43209-2394 [email protected] (614) 236-6130 Fax (614) 268-6837 James Rebele Associate Professor Lehigh University Rauch Business Center Bethlehem, PA 18015-3117 [email protected] (610) 758-3682 FAX (610) 758-6429

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Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

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Page 1: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

THE ASSOCIATION OF CAREER STAGE AND GENDER WITHTAX ACCOUNTANTS’ WORK ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS

Suzanne LuttmanAssociate Professor

Santa Clara UniversityLeavey School of Business

Santa Clara, CA [email protected]

(408) 554-4897FAX (408) 554-5193

Linda MittermaierAssociate Professor Capital University

College of Arts and SciencesColumbus, OH 43209-2394

[email protected](614) 236-6130

Fax (614) 268-6837

James RebeleAssociate ProfessorLehigh University

Rauch Business CenterBethlehem, PA 18015-3117

[email protected](610) 758-3682

FAX (610) 758-6429

Page 2: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

THE ASSOCIATION OF CAREER STAGE AND GENDER WITH TAXACCOUNTANTS’ WORK ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS

ABSTRACT

The ability of firms to retain valued knowledge and skills possessed by

accounting professionals depends, in part, on creating a work environment that positively

affects accountants’ job-related attitudes and behaviors. A first step in achieving this

objective is to identify those variables that are related to accountants’ work attitudes and

behaviors. Previous research has examined antecedent causes of, for example,

accountants’ job satisfaction, performance, organizational commitment, and role stress.

Two limitations of the extant research are that subjects have almost always been auditors

and no consideration has been given to the fact that accountants may react differently to

their work environment depending on where they are in their careers.

This study addresses these two limitations of prior research by examining whether

tax accountants’ work attitudes and behaviors differ across four common career stages:

exploration, establishment, maintenance, and disengagement. The association of gender

with tax accountants’ work attitudes also was tested. Results indicate that career stage is

significantly related to tax accountants’ performance and job-related tension, but

unrelated to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, work alienation, and role stress.

A significant gender effect was found. These results for tax accountants differ somewhat

from results for auditors (Rebele et al. 1996), indicating that a one-size-fits-all approach

to managing work environments within accounting firms may not be effective in

developing and retaining professional staff.

Page 3: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

THE ASSOCIATION OF CAREER STAGE AND GENDER WITH TAXACCOUNTANTS’ WORK ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS

Prior research has examined the relationship between aspects of the accounting

work environment and practicing accountants’ job-related attitudes and behaviors.

Examples of this type of research include studies that have examined how accountants’

role stress is related to their job satisfaction and performance and studies examining

relationships between accountants’ personal characteristics (e.g., personality type) and

job satisfaction, performance, and turnover behavior (see, for example, Fogarty et al.

2000, Fisher 2001, Rasch and Harrell 1990, Rebele and Michaels 1990, and Senatra

1980).

Except for a few studies that tested whether age or job tenure affects accountants’

work attitudes and behaviors, researchers have not subdivided samples according to

where in their careers different respondents might be. Grouping all respondents together

implicitly assumes that where a person is in his or her career does not affect how the

person interacts with his or her work environment. Research in non-accounting contexts

has, however, shown that we can better understand how individuals relate to their jobs

and are affected by their jobs when we consider how people might change over time

(Morrow and McElroy 1987; Van Maanen and Schein 1979).

The idea that we change in significant ways across the course of our careers is

intuitively obvious. What is not so obvious are the types and patterns of changes that we

might experience between when we start and stop working, or the effect that such

changes might have on how we relate to our work environment. Career development

Page 4: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

theory provides several conceptual models that identify patterns of changing job concerns

and potential consequences of such changes for job-related attitudes and behaviors

(Smart and Peterson 1994). Super (1957) provided one such model of career

development and adjustment. Rather than assuming that all individuals in the same age

range are in the same career stage, Super’s model assumes that many factors (e.g.,

physical, social, and psychological) determine a person’s career stage. Having a similar

set of priorities, goals, and attitudes is a better indicator than is a similar age that

individuals are in a particular career stage.

The four career stages identified in Super’s (1957) model are exploration,

establishment, maintenance, and disengagement. These labels are descriptive of concerns

facing individuals currently in that particular career stage. For example, exploration-

stage individuals are focused on finding the right occupation and with answering the

“what do I want to do with the rest of my life?” question. Establishment-stage

individuals have chosen their occupation and shifted their attention and efforts to

securing their place in an organization or profession. Maintenance stage individuals are

concerned with maintaining their position in the organization, and may be intimidated by

the skills of younger employees. In contrast, individuals in the disengagement career

stage are more focused on making the transition from work to retirement. Cron and

Slocum (1986) have shown that long before they reach retirement age, some individuals

psychologically disengage from work.

Sonnenfeld and Kotter (1982), Whiston (1990), and Smart and Peterson (1994)

have provided significant support for Super’s career stages model. Using Super’s model,

Rebele et al. (1996) found career stage to be associated with auditors’ job-related

Page 5: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

attitudes and behaviors in important ways. For example, auditors in the exploration

career stage had the lowest levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment and

the highest levels of work alienation and role stress. These results indicate that auditors

just beginning their careers have a difficult time adjusting to the work environment, a

finding that suggests the need for job retention efforts designed specifically for entry-

level auditors.

Two important limitations of existing research are that auditors were almost

always used as subjects and, except for Rebele et al. (1996), the moderating effect of

career stage on the relationship between work environment and job-related attitudes and

behaviors has not been examined. This study extends Rebele et al. (1996) by examining

whether and how tax accountants’ career stage is related to their work attitudes. As noted

by Benke and Rhode (1980), work environments within public accounting firms differ

across specializations and results from one group of professionals may not be

generalizable to another group of professionals. Separately studying tax accountants and

measuring and testing the effect of career stage will both improve our understanding of

how accountants relate to and react to their work environments.

Beyond Rebele et al. (1996), this study also evaluates the association of gender

with tax accountants’ work attitudes. Creating a positive work environment, including

appropriate reward structures and retention opportunities, requires recognition of

behaviors and attitudes that differ across genders.

Page 6: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT

The basic purpose of this study is to examine whether tax accountants’ work-

related attitudes differ across the four career stages identified by Super (1957). Work

attitudes examined in the study are job satisfaction, job performance, job-related tension,

organizational commitment, work alienation, role conflict, and role ambiguity. This

section reviews relevant empirical research as background for hypotheses about the

association of career stage and tax accountants’ work attitudes (Hypotheses H1a through

H1g) and the impact of gender on tax accountants’ work attitudes (Hypothesis 2). For

completeness, we include non-accounting studies and accounting studies that measured

career stage using demographic characteristics such as age or job tenure.

Job Satisfaction

Research on the association between career stage and job satisfaction has

produced mixed results. Studies by Slocum and Cron (1985), Cron and Slocum (1986),

and Ornstein, Cron, and Slocum (1989) found that the level of job satisfaction of

salespeople increased as they progressed through the career stages. Results from other

studies indicate that job satisfaction either does not increase across career stages (Van

Maanen and Katz 1976) or decreases across career stages (Churchill et al. 1976; Mount

1984).

Research in accounting contexts also has produced conflicting results. For

example, Adler and Aranya (1984) found that CPAs’ intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction

increased over the first three career stages, but then diminished in the final career stage,

while Rebele et al. (1996) found exploration-stage auditors had the lowest levels of job

Page 7: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

satisfaction, with satisfaction generally increasing over the next three career stages.

Alternatively, Norris and Niebuhr (1983) found job satisfaction to be unrelated to career

stage for accountants employed by Big 8 firms. The inconclusiveness of prior research

findings leads to the following non-directional hypothesis:

H1a: There is no significant difference in mean levels of tax accountants’ jobsatisfaction across the exploration, establishment, maintenance, anddisengagement career stages.

Job Performance

Although workers’ job performance often declines over career stages, research

involving professional employees does not support this decline in performance (Hall and

Mansfield 1975; Cron and Slocum 1986). This may be because experience and client

relationships enable professionals in the later career stages to maintain relatively high

performance levels. Rebele et al. (1996) found this positive relationship between career

stage and performance, with exploration-stage auditors having the lowest level of job

performance and disengagement-stage auditors the highest level of performance. Thus,

the second hypothesis about tax accountants’ career stage and performance is:

H1b: There is no significant difference in mean levels of tax accountants’ jobperformance across the exploration, establishment, maintenance, anddisengagement career stages.

Job-Related Tension

Stress is experienced, to varying degrees, by all employees and can arise from the

physical work environment, the individual, the work group, or the organization (Matteson

and Ivancevich 1982). Physiological or psychological stressors on the job cause an

employee to experience job-related tension. An individual’s ability to manage job-related

tension should improve over time, although research has not extensively investigated the

Page 8: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

relationship between career stage and job tension. Results from the one available study

(Rebele et al. 1996) show no significant relationship between auditors’ career stage and

job-related tension. The third hypothesis is:

H1c: There is no significant difference in mean levels of tax accountants’ job-related tension across the exploration, establishment, maintenance, anddisengagement career stages.

Organizational Commitment

The degree to which an individual feels committed to his or her organization may

be related to career stage. It may be that exploration-stage individuals bring high

expectations to the workplace and can become critical of their organizations when these

expectations are not met (Hall 1976). Promotions and raises received by those in the

establishment and maintenance career stages tend to lead these individuals to perceive

their organizations more favorably. A research review conducted by Rhodes (1983)

found that younger employees tend to be less committed to their organizations than older

employees.

The relationship between career stage and organizational commitment has been

examined in several accounting studies, with mixed results. Adler and Aranya (1984)

found older accountants to be more committed to their organizations than were younger

accountants. Aranya and Ferris (1984) found a positive relationship between

accountants’ level in an organization and organizational commitment, while McGregor et

al. (1989) found management accountants’ organizational tenure related to their

organizational commitment. Rebele et al. (1996) found a positive relationship between

career stage, measured using Super’s model, and organizational commitment and Lynn et

al. (1996) found professional tenure to be positively related to organizational

Page 9: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

commitment. Several studies (Ferris 1981; Norris and Niebuhr 1983; and Harrell et al.

1986) found no relationship between accountants’ career stage and commitment to their

organizations.

Because prior research has produced mixed results regarding the relationship

between accountants’ career stage and organizational commitment, the fourth hypothesis

is:

H1d: There is no significant difference in mean level of tax accountants’organizational commitment across the exploration, establishment,maintenance, and disengagement career stages.

Work Alienation

An individual who “cares little about the work, approaches work with little energy

and ambition, and works primarily for extrinsic rewards” (Rebele et al. 1996: 245) is said

to be alienated from his/her work (Dubin 1956; Moch 1980). Work alienation is the

opposite of job involvement (Kanungo 1979; Organ and Greene 1981; Lefkowitz et al.

1984), which would be the work attitude preferred by employers. Two studies have

examined the relationship between career stage and accountants’ work alienation or job

involvement. Rebele et al. (1996) found auditors’ career stage to be negatively related to

work alienation, with exploration-stage auditors exhibiting the highest levels of work

alienation. Lynn et al. (1996) found a positive relationship between accountants’ career

stage and job involvement. Thus, the fifth hypothesis, concerning the relationship

between tax accountants’ career stage and work alienation, is:

H1e: There is no significant difference in mean levels of tax accountants’ workalienation across the exploration, establishment, maintenance, anddisengagement career stages.

Page 10: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

Role Stress

Role stress includes both role conflict and role ambiguity, with role conflict

reflecting an incompatibility of expectations between a role sender and a role incumbent

and role ambiguity referring to existing uncertainty about job expectations, methods for

fulfilling job expectations, and/or the consequences of job performance (Kahn et al.

1964). Both role conflict and role ambiguity should decline as individuals progress in

their careers (Walker et al. 1975; Cron 1984). Role conflict should decline across career

stages because (1) more experienced individuals will likely have learned how to resolve

or cope with conflict, (2) over time, individuals may build up psychological defense

mechanisms to screen out conflicting demands, and (3) individuals who cannot cope with

conflict will likely change jobs. Role ambiguity should decline over time as individuals

obtain more information about what supervisors expect of them and about how to meet

these job expectations.

Although role stress has been examined in several prior accounting studies (e.g.,

Fisher 2001, Senatra 1980), only Rebele et al. (1996) tested the relationship between

career stage and role stress. Their findings indicate that external auditors’ role ambiguity

declined over the four career stages, but, except for exploration-stage auditors having the

highest levels of role conflict, career stage was unrelated to role conflict. The sixth and

seventh hypotheses address the relationship between tax accountants’ career stage and

role stress. They are:

H1f: There is no significant difference in mean levels of tax accountants’ roleconflict across the exploration, establishment, maintenance, anddisengagement career stages.

Page 11: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

H1g: There is no significant difference in mean levels of tax accountants’ roleambiguity across the exploration, establishment, maintenance, anddisengagement career stages.

Gender

The association between the work environment and job-related attitudes and

behaviors may be affected by gender. For example, Weeks et al. (1999) found

differences in businesspersons’ responses to ethical judgment scenarios across genders.

Lynn et al. (1996) found some differences in accountants’ work attitudes across career

stage for females, but not for males. Given the increasing number of women employed in

accounting positions, identifying gender differences in work attitudes and behaviors has

become very important. As such, the final hypothesis is:

H2: There is no significant difference in mean levels of tax accountants’ workattitudes between genders.

RESEARCH METHOD

This section explains how the above hypotheses were tested and how the data

were analyzed. Included in the section are descriptions of the subjects and a discussion

of the reliability of measures used in the study.

Data Collection

Participants were tax accountants employed by four large international accounting

firms. Questionnaires were distributed by a tax partner whose cover letter supported the

completion of the survey. (The questionnaire is presented in the Appendix.)

Questionnaires were placed in sealed, self-addressed, postage-paid envelopes by the

respondents and mailed to the researchers. One-hundred and forty-four questionnaires

were distributed and 118 completed questionnaires were returned to the authors, for a

Page 12: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

response rate of 82 percent. Eleven questionnaires were incomplete, so data from 107

responses were used in the analysis.

Respondents had been with their firms for an average of more than three years

and had an average of five years of tax experience. Approximately 35 percent of the

respondents were at the staff level, 29 percent were seniors, 27 percent managers, and

nine percent were tax partners.

Table 1 presents information about tax accountants classified as being in the

exploration, establishment, maintenance, and disengagement career stages. The average

number of years with the firm (firm tenure), years of tax experience, and years in public

accounting are provided in the upper portion of Table 1. The lower portion of Table 1

provides demographic information (sex, position in the firm, and highest educational

degree obtained) for each respondent by career stage.

TABLE 1 ABOUT HERE

Measures

The reliability of the measures provided by the instruments used in this study has

been established through previous research in both accounting and non-accounting

contexts. For example, job satisfaction was measured using Hoppock’s (1935) four-item

scale, which has been validated in repeated studies involving more than 20,000 subjects

(McNichols, Stahl, and Manley, 1978). In accounting, the Hoppock job-satisfaction

measure has been used by Harrell and Stahl (1984), Harrell and Eickhoff (1988), Rasch

and Harrell (1990), and Rebele et al. (1996).

Psychometric evaluations have shown the 13-item role conflict scale and the 10-

item role ambiguity scale developed by Rizzo, House, and Lirtzman (1970) to be reliable

Page 13: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

measures of both role conflict and role ambiguity (Schuler et al. 1977; Jackson and

Schuler 1985; Gregson et al. 1994). These 23 items were used to evaluate role stress in

this study.

Mowday, Steers, and Porter (1979) developed a 15-item scale to measure

organizational commitment. It was used previously in accounting research by Adler and

Aranya (1984), Harrell et al. (1986), and Rebele et al. (1996).

Job-related tension was measured through a scale developed by Lysonski (1985)

and used by Rebele et al. (1996). This scale measures respondents’ perceptions of how

their jobs affect their physical health in terms of tension, anxiety, worry, stress, and

fatigue.

The work-alienation scale (Miller 1967) measures an individual’s like or dislike

for work on this dimension. Respondents self-rated their job performance using a

modified version of a 26-item scale previously used by Rebele et al. (1996).

Prior research has measured career stage using variables that Dillard and Ferris

(1989) have characterized as being either demographic (e. g., age, job title, years at the

firm, and years in the position) or cognitive/psychological (perceptual). Perceptual

approaches to measuring career stage have been shown to account for more variability in

job attitudes than do demographic-based measures (Rush et al. 1980; Cron and Slocum

1986; Ornstein et al. 1989; Chao 1990; and Morrow et al. 1990).

Career stage was measured in this study using the perceptual-based Career

Concerns Inventory (CCI) developed by Super, Zelkowitz, and Thompson (1981).

Questions included in the CCI identify those career concerns that are currently most

important to a respondent. Current issues identified by a respondent are then used to

Page 14: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

classify that person into one of the four career stages. A study of 457 Australian workers,

with approximately equal numbers of males and females, supports the factorial validity

and consistency of the CCI with Super’s four career stages (Smart and Peterson 1994).

Rebele et al. (1996) used the CCI to identify external auditors’ career stages.

Table 1 shows significant variability of demographic variables within each career

stage. For example, most “staff” tax accountants were classified as being in the

establishment career stage using the CCI, although these same individuals would have

been classified as exploration-stage if the demographic variable, job title, had been used

as the career stage measure. There were partners and managers in the exploration stage,

another inconsistency if researchers were to use a demographic variable (such as job

tenure) to classify individuals into career stages rather than using the individuals’ own

perceptions about their current career stage. By using the CCI to identify career stage,

respondents are correctly classified based on their survey responses. For example,

partners and managers deciding whether to make their careers with the CPA firm or to

seek/accept other career opportunities available to experienced accountants would

indicate responses suggesting they are dealing with the “what do I want to do with the

rest of my life” question. Thus, they would properly identify themselves as being in the

exploration career stage.

Table 2 reports means, standard deviations, mean item response ranges by

respondents (with the possible range of responses indicated in parentheses), number of

items, and reliability estimates (Cronbach’s coefficient alpha) for each measure used in

the study. All job outcomes and role stress survey questions were measured on a 7-point

scale with the exception of job-related tension, which (to maintain consistency with

Page 15: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

previous studies) was measured using a 6-point scale. The Career Concerns Inventory,

used to identify career stages, measured responses on a 5-point scale.

Reliability of the survey questions was measured using Cronbach’s coefficient

alpha, one of the most widely used measures of internal consistency. It is appropriately

used when survey responses have a multiple-point rating system (e.g., 1-7 ranking on the

“agree/disagree” scale). The maximum possible value for Cronbach’s alpha is one when

the correlation between the variables is one. All measures in the current study have

sufficiently high reliability, as indicated by coefficients alpha ranging from .76 to .95

(Nunnally 1978).

The “items” column in Table 2 indicates the number of questions from the survey

instrument used in the measurement of each job attitude, role stressor, or career stage.

TABLE 2 ABOUT HERE

Data Analysis Procedures

Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to assess the overall

relationship between tax accountants’ career stage and work attitudes and between gender

and work attitudes. MANOVA is appropriately used when there is a between-groups

factor and the analysis involves a single predictor variable (career stage or gender) and

multiple criterion variables (job satisfaction, performance, tension, organizational

commitment, work alienation, and role stress) measured on interval scales. MANOVA

allows the researcher to perform a single test that determines whether a significant

difference (indicated by a single multivariate F statistic) exists between career stages

when compared to all of the work attitudes simultaneously. If there are significant

Page 16: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

differences using MANOVA (i.e., across career stages or gender with respect to at least

one work-related attitude), then univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) is conducted to

identify which groups differ. If significant univariate F results are found, follow-up tests

determine the specific work attitudes on which the groups differ (contrasts).

RESULTS

Results are presented in Table 3. Panel A of Table 3 presents results for the

hypothesized relationships between tax accountants’ career stage and work attitudes. The

figures in the first four columns of Panel A represent the mean summated scale (summing

response scores across items to create an overall scale on each construct for each

respondent) for each career stage. The univariate F-values columns report the ANOVA

results, and the “significant contrasts” column identifies those career stages exhibiting

significantly different levels of job attitudes.

TABLE 3 ABOUT HERE

Work Attitudes

Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) results indicate that tax

accountants’ career stage is significantly related to their work attitudes (multivariate

F=1.62, p < .05). However, univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) results indicate

that only job performance (Hypothesis 1b) and job-related tension (Hypothesis 1c) are

significantly different across career stages. Job performance increased through the

exploration, establishment, maintenance, and disengagement career stages, while contrast

results show that exploration-stage tax accountants had significantly higher levels of job-

Page 17: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

related tension than did their colleagues in the disengagement career stage. No

significant differences across career stages were found for job satisfaction (Hypothesis

1a), organizational commitment (Hypothesis 1d), work alienation (Hypothesis 1e), and

both role conflict and role ambiguity (Hypotheses 1f and 1g).

Gender

Multivariate analysis of variance results presented in Panel B of Table 3 indicate

that tax accountants’ gender is related to their work attitudes (multivariate F = 2.52, p <

.05). Univariate ANOVA results indicate that male and female tax accountants differed

on levels of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and role conflict. Specifically,

female tax accountants were more satisfied with their jobs, more committed to their

organizations, and reported less role conflict than did their male colleagues. Interactions

between gender and career stage were not significant.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Results from this study indicate that career stage is generally unrelated to tax

accountants’ work attitudes, although evidence was found that exploration-stage tax

accountants have significantly lower levels of job performance and significantly higher

levels of job-related tension. Gender was significantly related to tax accountants’

satisfaction, organizational commitment, and role conflict, with females reporting higher

levels of satisfaction and commitment and a lower level of role conflict.

Comparing the results of this study with Rebele et al.’s (1996) findings for

external auditors supports Benke and Rhode’s (1980) observation that not all

professionals within public accounting firms react the same to their work environment, or

Page 18: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

even perceive their work environment in the same way. With the exception of role

conflict, the same work attitudes examined in this study were found by Rebele et al.

(1996) to be significantly related to external auditors’ career stage. The results of these

two studies indicate that a “one-size-fits-all” approach to career development and

retention in professional accounting firms may not be most effective in improving job-

related attitudes and performance.

Comparing results from the Rebele et al. (1996) study and this study should be

done with caution because subjects for the two studies came from different firms and

different geographic locations. Future research using auditors and tax accountants from

offices of the same firms is needed to more conclusively establish whether or not there

are differences in how these groups of professionals interact with their work

environments. The results of this current study should be interpreted in light of the

limitations that all measures in the study are self-reported, that the sample included only

four disengagement-stage tax accountants, and that the questionnaire was somewhat long

and fatigue factors could have affected the results.

Professional services firms must effectively and efficiently use their intellectual

capital, or knowledge, in order to offer superior client service. Developing and retaining

high-performing professionals is essential for public accounting firms to remain

competitive, while the departure of trained professional staff compromises a firm’s ability

to serve its clients and to obtain new clients or offer new services (Hermanson et al.

1995; Hooks and Cheramy 1994). Both developing and retaining professionals depends,

to some extent, on creating a work environment that positively affects job-related

attitudes. Understanding how accounting professionals’ work attitudes and behaviors are

Page 19: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

affected by the work environment or personal characteristics should help firms create

career development and training programs that most benefit their professional staff.

Using a career stages framework, this study has shown that tax professionals just

beginning their careers are not adjusting well to the public accounting work environment.

Firms should pay particular attention to developing and retaining valued employees in

this “at risk” group of tax accountants.

Results from this study and the prior study by Rebele et al. (1996) have

implications for researchers who are examining the work attitudes and behaviors of

accounting professionals. The most important implication is that researchers should

divide samples by specialization, career stage, and gender. Separate analyses then should

be performed on these different groupings to best identify and evaluated differences in

work attitudes and behaviors across groups.

Page 20: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Suzanne Luttman gratefully acknowledges the support provided by the Robert and

Barbara McCullough Chair at Santa Clara University.

Page 21: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

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Table 1Characteristics of Tax Professionals

Within Each Career Stage

Exploration Establishment Maintenance DisengagementAge 31.4 29.1 30.6 45.0Mean firm tenure 3.2 3.1 2.8 8.25Mean tax experience 4.6 3.9 5.9 17.50Mean public accountingexperience

4.5 3.5 6.2 11.25

Frequencies TotalSex: Male 12 25 26 3 66 Female 11 21 5 1 38 Total 23 46 31 4 104*Position: Partner 1 1 6 2 10 Manager 7 9 11 2 29 Senior 6 13 12 0 31 Staff 9 24 4 0 37 Total 23 47 33 4 107Education: Bachelor’s degree 8 27 21 3 59 Master’s degree 10 12 8 1 31 Doctoral degree 5 8 3 0 16 Other 0 0 1 0 1 Total 23 47 33 4 107

*Three participants did not respond to this question.

Page 27: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

Table 2Scale Means, Standard Deviations, Ranges, Number of Items, and Reliabilities

Scale Mean SD Response(Possible)Range

Items CoefficientAlpha

Job outcomes:Job Satisfaction

4.87 .89 1.75-6.25(1-7)

4 .86

Job Performance 5.49 .68 3.13-7.00(1-7)

26 .76

Job-relatedTension

3.76 .87 1.27-5.73(1-6)

11 .85

Organizational.Commitment

5.02 .97 1.93-6.73(1-7)

15 .89

Work Alienation 3.05 1.18 1.00-7.00(1-7)

5 .81

Role Stress:Role Ambiguity 3.18 1.00 1.00-5.40

(1-7)10 .84

Role Conflict 3.33 .94 1.23-6.15(1-7)

13 .84

Career Stages:Exploration 3.28 .94 1.27-5.00

(1-5)15 .95

Establishment 3.09 .69 1.53-5.00(1-5)

15 .94

Maintenance 2.79 .70 1.20-4.40(1-5)

15 .92

Disengagement 1.71 .66 1.00-4.53(1-5)

15 .93

Page 28: Career stage, gender and work attitudes and behaviors

Table 3Results for Work Attitudes of Tax Professionals by Career Stage and Gender

Panel A: Work Attitudes and Career Stages

Exploration(EX)***

Establish-ment

(ES)***

Mainten-ance

(MA)***

Disengage-ment

(DN)***

UnivariateF-Values

SignificantContrasts

****Job Satisfaction 17.9 20.0 19.4 20.8 1.85Job Performance 41.3 44.2 44.7 47.8 2.68*Job-relatedTension

43.8 40.9 42.5 34.5 2.14** EX,DN

OrganizationalCommitment

71.6 74.9 75.5 77.5 .41

Work Alienation 16.7 14.1 16.4 14.5 1.40 Role Ambiguity 35.8 30.6 31.9 25.3 1.99 Role Conflict 42.1 43.2 45.9 34.5 1.21

* p < .05** p < .10*** Figures represent the mean summated scale of questions for each work attitude.****Only significant contrasts are reported.

Panel B: Work Attitudes and Gender

Male Female UnivariateF-Values

Job Satisfaction 18.6 20.1 3.44**Job Performance 43.9 42.5 1.09Job-related Tension 42.2 41.8 .03Organizational Commitment 71.7 77.4 3.14**Work Alienation 15.9 14.0 1.55 Role Ambiguity 32.7 32.2 .05 Role Conflict 45.7 39.5 5.44*

* p < .05** p < .10