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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 was also 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.