Advances in Accountability: Regulation, Research, Gender and Justice: Volume 8

Cover of Advances in Accountability: Regulation, Research, Gender and Justice
Subject:

Table of contents

(15 chapters)

This study examines the relationship between gender orientation (as measured by the Bern Sex Role Inventory) and success and between gender orientation and job satisfaction among accounting professors. Prior studies have shown that women in professions formerly dominated by men (among them public accounting) possess stereotypically masculine characteristics to a greater degree than average (Wong et al., 1985; Lemkau, 1983; Maupin & Lehman, 1994). Existence of these conditions in accounting academia would carry important implications for accounting professors, and for the profession of which they are a part. Results indicate that female accounting faculty at higher ranks are more likely to possess masculine characteristics than those at lower ranks. Job satisfaction was found to be related to gender orientation, but not to gender.

Companies typically do not record the effects of their pollution in their financial statements. Historically, this omission has been due, in part, to an inability to accurately measure emissions and the lack of an objective value of pollution. In recent years, however, both of these concerns are being addressed; the former by the development of sophisticated emissions monitoring devices that may be installed on polluting equipment and the latter by emissions trading facilitated by the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAAA) and similar legislation.As a result of the CAAA, utility companies are annually issued emission allowances (EAs) by the federal government; each allowance allows a company to emit one ton of a certain pollutant, sulfur dioxide, into the atmosphere. Companies that reduce their pollution below a benchmark level do not need all of the allowances that they are given, so they may sell their excess EAs to other companies or investors, save them for future purposes, or donate them to environmental organizations. If a company's annual emission levels exceed the number of allowances they are given, that company must acquire an adequate amount of EAs commensurate with their pollution. These allowances, consequently, are marketable commodities, and their market prices and trading activity have increased materially since inception of the CAAA in 1995.Unfortunately, however, current accounting and disclosure requirements result in financial statements that inadequately reflect corporate pollution and EA activity, even though objective values of emissions and the related allowances now exist for many companies. This paper explains a study of the public utility companies affected by the first phase of the CAAA which revealed that many companies have had several transactions regarding EA sales, purchases, donations, and receipts from the federal government, but their financial statements fail to disclose these events.Because emissions trading is widely considered successful and may become a part of the business environment for any polluting organization, financial accounting requirements regarding this phenomenon should be revised as many financial statement users may consider information regarding pollution and EAs influential to their decisions. This paper presents three proposals for incorporating pollution and emissions trading into financial accounting.

The public interest will be advanced if accounting data are evaluated properly and in an informed fashion in arbitration proceedings. This chapter focuses on arbitrators' perceptions of the relevance of accounting data in assessing ability to pay wage claims. Seven propositions indicative of perceptions are drawn from a selection of Canadian arbitration cases. Australian experience is cited for comparative purposes. Some general evaluative guidelines and recommendations are proposed to help show how accounting data ought to be invoked.

Although men and women enter public accounting in comparable numbers, a disproportionately small number of women advance to the rank of partner. A suggestion is sometimes made that women are either unaware of, or intentionally excluded from, informal communication networks within a firm. These networks socialize individuals into the organization, provide support and offer opportunities to informally influence decisions. The general assumption is that women are not integrated into organizational communication networks; however there has been no empirical research on actual network formation within an accounting firm. This study reports the results of an analysis of work and friendship networks among women and men in an office of an international accounting firm. The analysis uses a computer algorithm to identify networks of closely connected individuals known as cliques and to derive measures of an individual's prominence within communication networks. The clique analysis shows a notable lack of close relationships between female managers and male partners. Although women participate in the firm's informal communication networks, female mangers are less prominent in informal networks and do not have close ties with male partners, which suggests that women may face a glass ceiling in advancement to partner

We elaborate an interpretation of the critical discourse analysis of Norman Fairclough illustrating this in focusing upon struggles over takeovers legislation in New Zealand. We indicate the more general applicability of such analysis in the area of financial and accounting regulation.

This paper reviews recent political proposals for a flat tax within a broad historical perspective. That perspective traces economic and philosophical arguments about a “just” tax from the 16th century to the present, focusing on progressive versus flat marginal tax rates. The conclusion is that none of the flat tax proposals differ dramatically and none proposes a pure flat tax. The political debate is one that focuses on the issue of whether or not an incalculable and only potential inequity cost to society is overshadowed by a calculable benefit by reducing compliance cost and possibly stimulating economic growth by the reduction of marginal tax rates.

Recent studies of the U.S. accounting academy provide strong evidence of a hierarchical structure within its research community. The hierarchy is defined by the doctoral origins of individual accounting researchers, and contains an elite group of graduates from a small number of U.S. universities. The presence of this elite is particularly evident on the editorial boards of three major U.S. accounting research journals. It has therefore a significant gatekeeping role to perform in the production of accounting knowledge.Based on the rationale of a need to know the nature and composition of the élite group in these circumstances, this paper provides insight by observing its faculty recruitment practice. The evidence reveals a cross-hiring strategy with a focus on replacing and augmenting faculty with graduates from elite doctoral programs. This practice has the potential to sustain an elitist community of influential U.S. editorial gatekeepers.The evidence is consistent with a well-established theoretical argument relating to the construction of academic élites, and reinforces public interest concerns in previous research about the long-term effects of the élite group on the production of accounting knowledge.

We compare differences in performance for samples of firms classified as good, average, and poor environmental performers by the Council for Economic Priorities. Test results suggest that both environmentally “good” and “average” firms significantly outperform environmentally “poor” firms. These results are consistent with poor environmental performers being poorly managed and/or with market participants penalizing corporate polluters. Implications for expanded environmental disclosure are discussed.

Measures of corporate environmental performance need to be objective, accurate, and reliable in order to meet the objectives of the stakeholders interested in this information. This study examines one widely used measure of corporate environmental performance: the citations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) against firms for non-compliance with environmental regulations. This measure is examined in the context of the oil and gas industry, which is considered one of the more polluting industries. The results from this study show that larger firms are more likely to be cited for an EPA violation. In addition the study provides weak support that financially healthier firms are cited more often. Together these results seem to indicate that the EPA's enforcement policies target firms that are politically more visible and perhaps financially more solvent. Based on these results we argue that the number of EPA citations as a measure of environmental performance is biased because it does not accurately or reliably capture the extent of a firm's environmental concerns and potential exposure. Currently emerging SEC policies, and to some extent FASB policies, dealing with mandated environmental disclosures rely heavily on EPA compliance data. The results from this study suggest that drawing inferences from this information without taking into account the embedded EPA biases may lead to erroneous conclusions, and therefore to defective disclosure and management policies.

Although several research studies have focused on women and gender bias in the accounting profession and some have examined African-American CPAs and race bias, little has specifically addressed African-American women accountants who may be subject to both race and gender biases. While an increase in the African-American female presence in the accounting profession has been noted, little research has been undertaken to investigate factors that may affect their upward mobility in the profession. The objective of this exploratory survey-based study was to collect descriptive data on African-American female accountants, across a wide variety of organizations, and provide insights regarding their perceptions of discrimination and career advancement curtailment.The majority of respondents in this study are certified, hold middle-level positions, have limited supervisory duties and mentoring support, have less than six years tenure with their current employer and would leave their current employer for better career advancement opportunities. When compared to other job-levels, a larger proportion of the top job-level respondents are married and perceive greater levels of discrimination. Moreover, the majority of top-level respondents are employed in private industry and a little less than half of all respondents are employed in private industry. The statistical results and written comments of the respondents suggest that some of the African-American females in this study perceive both gender and race discrimination and career advancement curtailment. Some results of the study, however, are mildly encouraging since a comparison of current and previous employer indicates that the respondents perceive less race discrimination and career curtailment with their current employer than they did with their previous employer.

Cover of Advances in Accountability: Regulation, Research, Gender and Justice
DOI
10.1016/S1041-7060(2001)8
Publication date
2001-04-06
Book series
Advances in Public Interest Accounting
Editor
Series copyright holder
Emerald Publishing Limited
ISBN
978-0-76230-518-6
eISBN
978-1-84950-030-2
Book series ISSN
1041-7060