Exploring effective mentoring as a professional development tool for Papua New Guinea accountants

Abstract

The Papua New Guinea accounting profession is relatively young and still developing. Many Papua New Guinea Accountants (PNGAs) begin their career in accounting unaware of the gap they face when transitioning between their oral culture and a highly functional chirographic accounting career. PNGAs face a combination of factors impacting their performance and ability to manage the accounting program and provide relevant results. The PNGA desires to perform at improved levels, but they do not know how to identify and engage in activities for better outcomes. This study explores the contextual challenges and cultural values that influence PNG accountants as they participate in a mentoring program in their profession. In order to understand the lived experience of the PNGAs a multiple- method research approach was used to collect and analyse data concerning the PNGAs’ mentor relationships from semi-structured interviews, reflective journals, and researcher observations. Findings were analysed through a phenomenological lens, and the supporting methodology of action research provides the capacity to review the mentor model's structural framework and recommend changes. The original contribution of this study is the identification of significant contextual challenges and cultural values that influence PNGAs as they participate in a mentoring program in their profession. It foregrounds the need to clarify the PNGA's preferred cultural foundation, as to whether the mentor program of an individual PNGA requires an oral or chirographic focus, or a compromise between the two. Revising the original mentor program structural framework in this way better supports PNGA's professional growth by encouraging the PNGA to integrate components of oral and chirographic cultures and create a third space as they manage the inherently disruptive nature of the transition to create a unique PNGA world. This study provides a framework to recognise how to learn and adapt their lives for a more rewarding accounting career.