Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
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- Creators: School of Accountancy
Description
It appears that students have an overall negative perception of accountants due to the negative connotations associated with the profession. The overarching stereotype of an accountant appears to be one of a professional that lacks soft skills but is known to excel at hard skills. After personally working in audit, I do not believe auditors lack the soft skills that stereotypes portray but, in fact, believe they excel at these along with hard skills. It is for this reason that I surveyed undergraduate students at Arizona State University to understand their perceptions of the accounting profession. I also surveyed audit professionals at both EY LLP and the Arizona State Office of the Auditor General to understand the importance of specific traits that a professional auditor would exhibit in their daily job function. After conducting a statistical analysis, I found that the only trait where there was a statistically significant deviation between students' perceptions and professional auditors' realities was with the importance of communication in the profession. Students, on average, rated the importance of communication lower than professional auditors rated this. I also found that there was only a statistically significant deviation in the importance of creativity and volunteerism in students' future industries compared to the importance of these traits in audit, and that there were 10 other traits that did not have a statistically significant deviation. Although this is the case, students, on average, said they would not be willing to take a job in the accounting profession. Yet, it was found that students, on average, have an overall positive opinion about the accounting profession. Although the results disagree in some regards to my hypotheses, this research shows that the importance of communication should be emphasized more in introductory accounting courses. It also can be used to inform students that there is little difference in the importance of specific traits they will exhibit in their future jobs compared to the importance of those in audit.
ContributorsAroz, Connor Alejandro (Author) / Cassidy, Nancy (Thesis director) / Geiger, Karen (Committee member) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Women have more opportunities to expand their career aspirations than ever before, so many view it as being acutely relevant. However, although women now account for more than half of the work force, there is still a considerable gap in the representation of women in the top leadership positions within their organizations. This trend is especially prevalent in public accounting firms. Drilling down to the root cause of gender inequality in firm management reveals several key obstacles that women face including generational gender biases, inflexible work schedules, insufficient career development training, and limited visibility of other female leaders. The negative implications of uneven gender distribution in upper management leave a potential for firms to miss opportunities for diverse perspectives on innovations, solutions, and advancement in the industry. Furthermore, firms make tremendous investments on extensive training of their professionals throughout the entire length of their careers, so high turnover rates cause a significant loss to each firm's investment in their human capital. So, public accounting firms have made considerable investments to develop resources and programs in order to combat the issues that create gender inequality and uneven turnover. The thesis begins by reviewing the Ann Hopkins v. Price Waterhouse trail, which was a pivotal point in changing how public accounting firms treat and prevent sex discrimination within their organizations. The rest of the thesis analyzes the correlation between the barriers that are most frequently linked to hindering women's success in public accounting and the programs that firms have installed to address those barriers. It also addresses qualitative accounts from female CPAs on the actual effectiveness of their firm's programs on the longevity of their careers in public accounting, as well as perspectives from current Accountancy students on the relevancy of diversity and inclusion programs.
ContributorsValdivia, Ashley Lynae (Author) / Cassidy, Nancy (Thesis director) / Huston, Janet (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05