Can the stereotype of accountant be changed through accounting education? Some conjectures on educating accounting students in Romania.

• Author: Albu, Nadia
• Position: Report

1. INTRODUCTION

   The role of the accountant in organizations changed over the last decades because of the changes in the global business environment, such as the globalization, the IT developments, or the stakeholders' expectations. The accountant transformed from a 'bookkeeper' and a 'number cruncher' into a business analyst, a partner in decision making, a consultant, a 'knowledge worker' (Gammie et al., 2002; Howieson, 2003; Hunt et al., 2004; McDowall et al., 2010). But despite these trends in the accountant's role in organizations, the general image of the profession in society and the stereotypes are more linked to the traditional and outdated accounting tasks.

   The stereotypes affect the choice of a career and the academic process. The main question under investigation in this paper is if the academia prepares accountants in accordance with the existent stereotypes or if it assumes an active role in improving the image of the accountants in society and in preparing students in accordance with the expected trends in the profession. This question has to be addressed by the academic environment all over the world (Albrecht and Sack, 2000).

   Our study considers the role of accounting academics and academia at large in preparing accountants in the Romanian context. Romania is a member of the European Union since 2007, but this evolution follows a period of 50 years of communism, which negatively affected the accounting profession. In developing countries, the accounting education has to make more profound changes and has to take a more leading role towards shaping the role of accountants in organizations (Gallhofer et al., 2009). Little research is done in the accounting education in the emergent countries (Gallhofer et al., 2009), especially on how academics contribute to the improvement of accountants' image in the society. Since accounting education is closely linked to the cultural and economical environment and to the accounting reforms (Chau and Chan, 2001; Lovell and Dixon, 2004), case studies in different contexts are needed to understand the general picture of the evolution of the accounting profession.

   The purpose of this paper is to investigate and explore the process of accounting education within the general context of stereotypes perceived in society with regard to accountants in general, and to draw some conclusions regarding the future evolutions in Romania. For this purpose, we describe and interpret the experiences of Romanian academics in order to explain their role in changing the accounting profession and in improving the accountant's image, in the context of a developing country. Other studies focused on the students, accountants or employers perspectives, but we hold that academics have an important role to play in the evolution of the accounting profession (Howieson, 2003), especially in developing countries, where the profession is less developed than in western countries. We will analyze the issues associated to the role of academics in preparing the students for the accounting profession, and in "turning them on to their professional careers" (Marriott and Marriott, 2003). We contribute to the understanding of the relationship between the accounting profession and the academia in the context of an emergent country.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

   Professions are concerned about the public image they have, therefore stereotypes play an important part in building a public attitude. The stereotype reflects a social reality (Dimnik and Felton, 2006), and understanding the accountant's image is important to capture the role played by accounting in social context (Carnegie and Napier, 2010). The label "stereotype" has for the first time been used in literature by Walter Lippman in 1922 to describe the process by which individuals use simplification for generalization and organization of perceptions purposes. A stereotype may be defined as the sum of attributes considered as best describing the members of a social group.

   Considering the role of stereotypes for social groups, researchers have already studied the public image of the accounting profession. Such research studied the image of accountants for students, accountants themselves, managers and businesspersons, as well as other segments of society, been conducted as back as the 1960s to present days (see Dimnik and Felton, 2006; Carnegie and Napier, 2010; Wells, 2010 for literature reviews on this issue). The image of a calculus-preocuppied and routine work person dominated the accountant's image, what the Anglo-Saxons refer to as "beancounter". In 2005, the International Federation of Accountants' (IFAC) list of activities related to the role of accountants in business (in "The roles and domain of the professional accountant in business") presents roles that are far away from the image of "bean counter". More than that, global accounting professional bodies (such as the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants--ACCA and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales--ICAEW) have turned their attention during the last decade to bringing into attention the implications of corporate social responsibility on the accounting profession. Professional bodies and universities have an important role to play in changing this image (Albrecht and Sack, 2000; Gammie et al., 2002; Howieson, 2003; McDowall et al., 2010; Wells, 2010). More, research on the role of accountants in organizations shows that the role has changed over time, from a financial historian towards a business partner (Scapens et al., 2003 cited in Albu et al., 2010). In relation to the new role of the accountant, the employers expect graduates to exhibit both technical and personal competencies. Personal attributes such as commitment, self-motivation, team player, innovative problem solving, communication, and time management are more and more required (Morgan, 1997; Gammie et al., 2002; Howieson, 2003).

   But despite this evidence, some research suggests that the general image of accountant is still associated with the "bean counter" and that the academic environment does not promptly respond to the new advocated roles of accountants. For example, Wells (2010) concludes that this image still persists, despite the transformation in the accountants' role and the changes in the business environment. Other show that students hold negative views of the accounting profession and that the academic environment in general is not oriented towards changing this perception (Marriott and Marriott, 2003; McDowall et al., 2010). Examples of the modalities through which academia does not promote the change are: outdated curriculum, mechanistic approach to learning accounting, bookkeeping (Morgan, 1997; Albrecht and Sack, 2000; Marriott and Marriott, 2003; McDowall et al., 2010). Also, some studies conclude that academia does not generally contribute to the development of the new type of competencies expected from accountants, such as communication, team player, innovation, and ethics (Jackling and De Lange, 2009). For example, Jackling and De Lange (2009) identify a clear gap between the graduate student's skills and the employers' expectations in terms of team skills, leadership, communication and interpersonal skills.

   The context of developing economies is even more critical, because of the rapid changes and the variations in the economic environment. Research already investigates the challenges faced by...