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The purpose of this paper is to explore how a professional accountants' Institute has projected its changing professional identity through its annual reports. Extensive research has shown that the annual report is one of an organization's most important documents to communicate with stakeholders. The New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants celebrated its centenary year in 2008. It is therefore timely to explore how this influential professional institute has projected its evolving identity to its stakeholders over 100 years of annual reports.

The paper uses a content analysis of archival records. The type of information and the manner of presentation via textual information and visual images in the Institute's annual reports are used to track a changing professional identity.

The analysis did not find any definitive statements of professional identity by the professional accountants' Institute. Early annual reports used a singular visual image to project authenticity. Increasing use ansd complexity of visual images and mission/vision statements projected an identity of expertise, integrity and global relevance, paralleling the impacts of globalization and advances in technology. The last decade of the Institute's annual reports reveals a sophisticated use of visual images and printing to enhance textual information. This marked a dramatic turn in the projection of professional identity whilst retaining the communication of a basic reality and professional traits to its members and stakeholders.

The paper is valuable as few other research studies have investigated the projection of changing professional identities via identity statements and visual imagery in annual reports.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a historical account of four unsuccessful merger attempts between Australia’s two major professional accounting bodies over a 30-year period (1969 to 1998), each of which ultimately failed. An analysis of the commonalities and differences across the four attempts is provided and social identity theory is used to explain the differences between members level of support for these merger bids.

This study adopts a qualitative approach using a historical research methodology to source surviving business records from public archives and other data gathered from oral history interviews.

The study found that, across all four merger attempts between Australia’s two professional accounting bodies, there was strong support from society members (the perceived lower-status group) and opposition exhibited by institute members (the perceived higher-status group). This study also found that the perceived higher-status organisation always initiated merger discussions, while its members rejected the proposals in the members’ vote.

This paper focusses on the Australian accounting profession, considering a historical account of merger attempts. Further research is required that includes interviews and surveys of those involved in making decisions regarding merger attempts.

This paper is the first to examine in detail these four unsuccessful merger attempts between the largest accounting organisations in Australia.

The target date for the completion of the Single European market at the end of 1992 will see the achievement of a complex series of measures designed to promote the free movement of goods, capital, services and people between the twelve countries of the European Community (EC) (Department of Trade and Industry, 1989a). Members of the UK occupational groups to which the term “professionals” is often applied are among the people who will be able to offer their services elsewhere in the EC. By the same token, European professionals will be able to establish themselves as service providers in the UK. This essentially simple potential for free movement of professionals (a simplicity achieved, however, through complicated negotiations amongst European policy makers) brings with it a number of questions of interest to “profession watchers” in the UK. How will UK professionals, and their institutions, respond to the challenges and opportunities that accompany this EC‐wide extension to their own rights of establishment? How will they respond to incoming migrant professionals from elsewhere in the EC? What policies and practices will UK professional institutions adopt in relation to their counterparts in other EC member states? What links will they forge with them and to what extent will these contacts lead to joint initiatives at a community‐wide level? This article reports on the first phase of a study designed to consider such questions during the run up to the completion of the single market and in its immediate aftermath.

Investigations into professional accountancy education gathered impetus with the publication of The impact of globalisation on accountancy education by Karreman in 2002. This publication provided a comparative analysis of professional accountancy education in 25 countries worldwide, using a model developed for the classification of accountancy education systems. The rationale behind such an exercise is to promote educational exchange and facilitate educational development. The Karreman study only covered two countries in Africa, namely South Africa and Kenya. This study expands the Karreman study by comparing and benchmarking the professional accountancy education programmes in six member countries of the Eastern, Central and Southern African Federation of Accountants (ECSAFA) using the Karreman methodology. This study reports the results of a questionnaire survey to which seven accountancy bodies located in six countries responded. The results of this study revealed mostly agreement with the Karreman model. All the countries could be categorised as developing countries with common law/Roman‐Dutch legal systems and with a strong British influence. Thus similarities in regulation, education and practical experience are expected. The professional bodies tend towards professional selfregulation with low to medium membership regulation. All countries require practical experience before qualifying, and a theoretical approach to the final examination predominates. The study also shows that there is co‐operation in the region.

Explores several important issues associated with continuing professional development (CPD). Notes the importance of ensuring that CPD is driven by the needs of the business, and also considers the issue of whether CPD should be compulsory or voluntary. Presents the results of a survey targeted at human resource professionals in South Wales. The survey explored the attitude of respondents to a variety of CPD issues and found that, although most organizations had business plans, such plans were frequently silent on human resource activities which could enhance general business direction. Respondents, while remaining over‐whelmingly opposed to compulsory CPD, were in favour of some certification and recognition for CPD activities.

There is an increasing realisation that managerial and professional staff play a crucial role in determining the success of the organisations which employ them, whether in the private or the public sector. Hence there is a growing concern with the quality and development of such staff. A detailed study of these important occupational groups, which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC reference F/00/23/00 98) was recently conducted by the authors. Although focused on Britain, the research is linked with parallel studies being undertaken in the US, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and several other European countries. The broader international study will be published within the next year as Roomkin, M. (Ed.), The Changing Character of Managerial Employment: A Comparative View Oxford, University Press, New York and Oxford. The demographic and educational trends which relate to managerial and professional employees, their careers and other aspects of the management of such human resources are discussed. The remuneration of managerial and professional staff, their unionisation and their role in the wider society are then considered.

Talent development has become an important policy given prominence by the Macao government since Fernando Chui became its Chief Executive. The purpose of this paper is to review human resources and talent development policies in Macao and discuss the difficulties and challenges that they pose.

Using Macao as a case study the paper indicates the difficulties and challenges experienced by emerging markets in fostering talent development for the sustainability of their local economies.

This paper finds that, as an emerging market, Macao has to solve and overcome its institutional deficiencies (namely, by the establishment of both a professional registration regime and the means to gather metadata to enable predictions of the talents needed for the local economy and their potential scale) so as to please stakeholders. Only then can it truly introduce talent development schemes and programs.

There have been very few studies on Macao’s talent development initiative. This paper tries to fill this gap in the existing understanding of talent development.

As in any managerial function, the Director of Internal Audit must be cognisant of necessary administrative responsibilities to enable the proper functioning of an internal auditing department. Not only must the generic managerial responsibilities be in existence but also those functions which are conducive to internal audit. The administrative responsibilities of the Director of Internal Audit as they pertain to the administration of the Internal Audit Department are explored – the planning process; reporting audit issues and recommendations and the major issues facing the Audit Director.

In order to ensure that registered accountants and auditors (RAAs) discharge their functions in the public interest, the RAA profession, through its governing bodies, should establish, maintain and ensure compliance with among other things an identified set of educational requirements. The research objective is twofold: Firstly, to provide a normative description of pre‐qualification professional education and, secondly, to evaluate the extent to which the current pre‐qualification education process applicable to RAAs in South Africa is normatively justifiable. A study of the literature on general professional education and on education in the field of accountancy facilitated the achievement of the first objective, while the second objective was addressed by means of a comparative analysis of the basic prequalification educational requirements applicable to prospective RAAs and the normative description of professional education presented. The current educational process permits latitude for factors and practices that are not wholly justifiable within a normative definition of professional education. The lack of normative justification for several aspects of the system will impede the achievement of sound educational objectives.

Controversy on this subject has now ranged over our past six numbers, and still the discussion continues, but with rather less urbanity on the part of some colleagues than might have been expected. In this further Symposium the contributors are Mr. B. A. Ower, Librarian, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Ottawa; Miss Freda F. Waldon, Librarian, Hamilton Public Library, Ontario; Mr. Eric Moon, Editor, Library Journal and lately Secretary and Director of the Newfoundland Public Library Services; Miss Dorothy McNaughton, Secretary to the Institute of Professional Librarians, Ontario Library Association; A Canadian Librarian; Mr. W. B. Paton, Honorary Secretary of the Library Association. From the nature of the comments and the theories presented, British, Canadian and American librarians who propose to be at the Montreal Conference will be enabled to follow every angle of the discussions.