Search results

Analyzes mentoring as a learning forum for the accounting professional. Data collected from national CPA firms was utilized in the model development and hypotheses. This study examined how learning forums contribute to individual professional growth, performance and attitudes. Analysis of the model indicates that mentoring functions account for significant variance in job satisfaction, organizational commitment, intentions to leave, role ambiguity and job burnout. The analysis indicates that mentoring functions considerably influence socialization and personal learning. The research results highlighted the significance of the socialization process for accounting professionals within a CPA firm. Results of this study stressed the critical role of mentoring as a forum for individual learning. Accounting professionals who experience personal learning through mentoring relationships are less likely to leave the CPA firm since the socialization educates them to the firm’s goals, values and politics.

Prior research finds that early-career professional accountants (early PAs) are generally dissatisfied with the learning and training opportunities offered during their early employment years, which impacts their career progression. This paper aims to examine whether different learning styles between these early PAs and their qualified accounting employers and trainers diverge.

Using Kolb’s learning styles inventory and interviews, this study explores the learning styles of early PAs and their employers, examining changes in these learning styles over time.

This research shows the necessity for different learning styles to be integrated into early PA training and learning, as research participants’ learning styles tend to prefer active experimentation requiring practical examples and self-learning opportunities. In contrast, their senior, qualified accounting employers prefer conceptualisation-based learning styles. As early PAs’ career progression requires them to succeed in employer-supported training, some early PAs change their learning style preferences to progress, whereas others with incompatible learning styles either moved to different employers or reassessed their choice of profession.

To reduce career dissatisfaction, develop and retain competent accountants, early PAs must be supported to learn effectively. By reducing early PAs’ dissatisfaction early PA educators and employers will potentially increase the attractiveness of accounting as a profession.

Few studies interrogate how accounting professionals utilise learning and training post-graduation nor do they examine the learning styles of workplace trainers and learners. This exploratory study uniquely analyses the learning styles of both early PAs and their employers.

Since the end of the previous century social partners in different branches of industry have laid down measures to stimulate individual learning and competence development of workers in collective labour agreements. Special attention is given to stimulating learning demand among traditional non‐participants to lifelong learning, such as lower educated and older employees. The paper examines one such measure, the individual learning account (ILA).

This paper is based on a quasi‐experimental study, in which we evaluate the impact of ILA on learning intention and work floor learning culture is evaluated. The study focuses on lower educated employees in two sectors of employment: the elderly care sector and SME's in the technical installation (TI) sector. The point of departure is Ajzen'se theory of planned behaviour. In this study, we attempt to examine the effects of ILAs on intention to engage in learning activities and behavioural predictors such as attitude, perceived behavioural control and perceived learning culture. A number of authors point out the pivotal influence of supportive learning culture on learning behaviour, in which employer and employees are portrayed as partners. Therefore, for this study the variable perceived dialogical learning culture was constructed.

Differences were found in the effect of ILA on learning intention and perceived learning culture between both sectors. Especially, in TI companies ILA had significant effect on the learning intention of older employees and employees working in level three functions.

The paper assesses ILAs.

Accounting and regulators are an integral part of new public management (NPM) across public sectors. This article aims to look at one of their potential drawbacks by investigating how a policy was deemed as a failure by regulators because of its limited financial controls.

A case study of Individual Learning Accounts (ILAs) in the UK draws on secondary sources organized into a chronology of events to show how concerns about a small number of providers were followed by claims of widespread abuse of ILAs being reported by regulators; claims that were disseminated widely by the media, but which were not substantiated by prosecutions.

There is insufficient evidence to substantiate claims of widespread abuse and fraud of ILAs. This suggests that regulatory bodies helped amplify concerns about fraud and abuse, contributing to a minor moral panic.

The absence of accounting that promoted concerns of financial abuse, also takes away one of the potential forms of evidence that could be used to substantiate the moral panic.

To help avoid moral panics, regulators should report only forms of fraud and abuse that are proven, rather than sharing in conjectures of those that might have taken place.

This paper is one of the few academic studies of ILAs and the only one to date to explore the detrimental role of NPM arrangements in generating moral panics.

Seeks to show that the software development process is based on the premise to provide an enhanced e‐learning environment by supporting individual learning styles and preferences through the use of emerging adaptive technologies that also enable performance evaluation in the context of meeting agreed learning outcomes.

The design methodology adopts a case study approach that follows the design and implementation of a learner management system.

Web‐based intelligent tutoring systems, aimed at compensating for the absence of a real world tutor have to date mostly concentrated on providing assistance in a particular subject domain and not focused on the problem of utilising content represented as learning objects across multi‐subject domains. This paper describes the creation of a non‐dictatorial tutoring system that has been developed at NTP Information Solutions Ltd. A visualisation tool has bee4n created called “learning navigator” to help learners to visualise the best path through assignable units extracted from a learning repository.

The system is currently able to suggest new paths that take into account learning styles through learner performance, learner previous experience and learning objectives. Future work will include extending this criterion to take into account further individual learning preferences.

The sharable content objects (SCOs) approach to the software solution extends the internationally recognised SCORM development standards. As a consequence the paper contributes to international e‐learning standards development but also extends current knowledge of the role of adaptive technologies in supporting learning styles and preferences.

The purpose of this paper is to answer the theoretical and practical calls for an examination of the multi-level effects of empowering leadership on creativity. In addition, it attempts to link empowering leadership to creativity from the perspective of information processing, which is different from traditional mechanisms of psychology.

Based on the perspective of information processing, the authors tested how and why different levels of empowering leadership may relate to team and individual creativity. Multi-source data were collected from 62 team leaders and 295 team members. Statistical methods, such as the hierarchical linear model, hierarchical regression analysis, and bootstrapping tests, were used to analyze the data.

The results show that team and individual learning mediate the effects of empowering leadership on creativity at the team and individual levels. Interestingly, the authors also found that team learning negatively moderates the indirect and positive effect of individual empowering leadership on individual creativity.

The main limitation of this study is that the authors used cross-section data instead of longitudinal data to analyze the causal relationship. As such, the results may not truly reveal the causality.

The findings indicate that empowering leadership is important for stimulating both individual and team learning; thus, it benefits different levels of creativity. In addition, the results also suggest that there are interplay between different level mechanisms, and empowering team leader should trade-off individual and team learning effects in order to promote both team and individual creativity effectively.

This study contributes to the existing literature by providing a multi-level and cross-level analysis of empowering leadership and creativity. It clarifies how empowering leadership stimulates individual and team creativity at different levels simultaneously.

Though prior research has recognized business skills as one of the keys to successful information system development, few studies have investigated the determinants of an IS developer’s behavioral intention to learn such skills. Based on the motivation-ability-role perception-situational factors (i.e. the MARS model), the purpose of this paper is to argue that the intention of IS developers to acquire business skills is influenced by learning motivation (M), learning self-efficacy (A), change agent role perception (R), and situational support (S).

Data collected from 254 IS developers are analyzed using the partial least squares technique.

Results show that a developer’s intention to learn business skills is positively influenced by intrinsic learning motivation and both absolute and relative learning self-efficacy. Furthermore, in comparison to two other change agent roles, the advocate role leads to a significantly higher level of learning intention. Finally, work and non-work support positively influence both extrinsic and intrinsic learning motivation. Notably, non-work support has a greater impact on both absolute and relative learning self-efficacy.

Though many of the proposed hypotheses were supported, results showed several interesting and unexpected findings. First, regarding the change agent role perception, people who perceived themselves as advocates displayed a higher level of intention to learn business skills than did those who identified with the other two roles (i.e. traditionalist and facilitator). Second, when compared to extrinsic learning motivation, intrinsic learning motivation contributed more to the intention to learn business skills. Third, the study contributes to the literature by finding that, in terms of direction and magnitude, the two types of self-efficacy have similar influence on an IS developer’s behavioral intention to learn business skills. Finally, work support was found to have a positive impact on both extrinsic and intrinsic learning motivation. However, it was interesting to note that work support did not lead to significantly higher levels of relative and absolute learning self-efficacy.

The findings of this study provide several critical implications for practitioners seeking to encourage IS developers to learn b-skills. First, organizations should strongly encourage IS developers to take on the advocate role in ISD projects, and urge them to acquire business skills through formal education and on-the-job training. Second, organizations should also help IS developers understand how learning business skills is important for their future work and potential self-growth, rather than focusing solely on extrinsic benefits such as promotion or remuneration. Third, organizations can also make use of the strategies to enhance IS developer’s learning self-confidence and beliefs, which will, in turn, increase their intention to learn business skills. Finally, support from others is influential in the formulation of positive work attitudes and behaviors, so organizations will benefit when employees are well supported.

While prior research has emphasized the importance of business skill possession for IS developers during the system development process, few studies have explored the factors affecting an IS developer’s behavioral intention to learn those business skills. This study intends to bridge this gap by investigating factors that drive IS developers’ intention to learn business skills. The findings of this study are useful to researchers in the development and testing theories related to IS developer learning behavior, and to practitioners to facilitate business skill learning for their IS development staff.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the central role of critical reflection for practitioners.

This joint paper is informed by a practitioner and an academic perspective and is an output from ongoing research. An MA in Strategic HR provides the initial focus. This partnership programme is informed by action learning ethos and method and the emancipatory potential of critical reflection. The paper illustrates how students talk about becoming critically reflective, and in doing so it explores the opportunities and challenges involved.

It is argued that in order for critical reflection to realise its potential of emancipatory change, pedagogy needs to be underpinned by critical process and critical content. However, it is unfortunate that a majority of critical literature appears to be addressed to an academic audience. The paper also highlights the need to support learning conversations beyond the original set.

The paper highlights the need for development initiatives to support the questioning of taken‐for‐granted assumptions. This draws attention to the necessity of supporting an emerging community of critically reflective practitioners by ensuring an open dialogue about values and practice.

This study explores learning climates within a financial services organisation. Through the use of survey and case study strategies and analysis of secondary data available within the organisation, it assesses the current state of individual, team and organisational learning in the organisation and the managers’ roles in promoting a learning climate. The conclusions drawn from this research lead to recommendations for a series of actions, which, if adopted, would help to establish the need for a learning climate and a wider and deeper understanding of the nature of learning in the organisation. Initial practical steps are outlined to put into place activities that would add value to the organisation, enhance its learning capabilities and develop its learning climate. Research implications are also discussed.

In this paper it is argued that universities have lost their monopoly on the production and legitimation of knowledge. That workplaces are now sites of “valid” knowledge is a given. The information age affects many aspects of working life and we are now subject to highly automated and computerised systems and networks. This poses a range of challenges for the universities of the twenty‐first century if they are to retain their place as a vital part of the social fabric.