Jacaranda
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Browsing Jacaranda by Author "Barnes, Lisa"
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Item Role Conflict in the Work of Accounting Academics in Australia: Changes, Challenges and Opportunities(2019-07-01) Williams, Anthony; Barnes, Lisa; Northcote, Maria T.; Long, Warrick R.BACKGROUND/CONTEXT
Like academics in most other disciplines, accounting academics work in a context that is constantly changing with multiple challenges. Some aspects of their lived experience have been reported elsewhere (e.g., Cappelletto, 2010; Guthrie, Evans, & Burritt, 2014; Pop-Vasileva, Baird, & Blair, 2014) but the study reported in this Showcase aimed to gain an understanding of the accounting academic’s lived experience as a whole, using the lens of role theory.
THE INITIATIVE/PRACTICE
Through a consideration of accounting academics’ lived experiences as well as the expectations placed upon them by students and university administrators, role theory (Bess & Dee, 2007; Schulz, 2013) was used as the theoretical framework of this study which guided the examination of how role strain from role conflict and role ambiguity may arise from the accounting academics’ perceptions of the requirements of their role.
METHOD(S) OF EVALUATIVE DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Using a phenomenological methodological design to investigate the lived experiences of accounting academics, a multi-methods approach was used that primarily used qualitative methods. Interviews and questionnaires were administered to eight Australian University Accounting Academics from five universities in Australia.
THE ISSUE
This paper reports on the particular phenomenon of role strain that was identified in the project’s findings which affected the accounting academics, specifically in terms of role conflict and role ambiguity.
INTENDED OUTCOME
The findings of this study have given a voice to accounting academics and suggest recommendations for how they can adapt to the ever-changing environment of the Australian university system while also finding value and enjoyment in their role. Academic staff from other disciplines may also find these recommendations relevant to their context. The TRAC (Teaching, Research, Workload, Curricula) framework of expectations was developed to document the various expectations that impact on the role of the accounting academic.
Item Writing - The Development of a Necessary Professional Skill(2019-05-01) Long, Warrick R.; Barnes, Lisa; Howson, Keith
- Purpose. This paper sets out to further evaluate the ability of university level students to write and to suggest some strategies to address this area.
- Design/methodology/approach. An online questionnaire was circulated to 808 accounting academics in Australian universities of which 162 useable responses were received. These responses were followed up with semi-structured interviews of a smaller group of eight academics from five different universities to further explore key issues raised in the questionnaire.
- Findings. Accounting academics believe that students are not prepared to study accounting at university level with deficiencies in several areas, where writing and communication is one such shortfall.
- Implications. The research brings to the fore the poor writing ability of university accounting students and lays stress on the need to train and more clearly guide the development of these business related skills. Training may require curriculum adjustment to accommodate additional courses of study.
- Originality. There is a paucity of material related to the writing skills of accounting and business students and this paper attempts to assist in bridging this gap.
- Limitations. The study needs to be replicated in other settings.