Conventional wisdom presumes that accounting professionals have little capability for creative thinking. An alternative view is that accountants display creativity when provided with organisational opportunities. This view has been tested in a comparative study of professionals drawn from similar educational backgrounds and allocated to consulting, audit and tax duties within the headquarters of a major international firm in Saudi Arabia. A benchmarking approach was adapted. Those professionals placed in the consulting department reported more positive climates and creative outputs. There was evidence that there was scope for increasing the creativity to organisational advantage within the audit, tax and related functions, through more transformational leadership interventions. In view of the educational similarities of the samples, it is concluded that any lack of creative performance within the audit and tax functions is not due to individual deficiencies. Team development and leadership interventions are suggested as promising means of addressing any “creativity gap” in audit and tax team processes.
Purpose -The purpose of this research is to investigate creativity within the context of a more regulated accounting functional area (audit and tax) and a less regulated non-accounting functional area (consulting). Accordingly, this research aims at developing insights into how current cultural assumptions may have to change, if professional challenges requiring more creative behaviours are to be successfully addressed. Design/methodology/approach -Six literature-derived hypotheses were formulated to be quantitatively tested using a self-report inventory. Findings -The findings showed that the less regulated functional area reported higher scores on creativity, intrinsic motivation, creative team factors and transformational leadership. The findings suggested that such differences could not be explained by personal education/aptitude variations, and could be a consequence of more support for creative behaviours, a significantly different form of transformational leadership, and also weaker structural constraints on creativity.Research limitations/implications -The work has examined constructs at the level of professional work groups, while it has raised issues at the far wider level or professional cultures.Researchers acknowledge that such broader findings are of an exploratory nature. The new scales were adequately reported to be reliable and valid, but further assessment is needed. Further studies and efforts are essential to raise awareness in professional bodies of the importance of the issues of creativity, motivation, and leadership. Practical implications -The work has implications for tailored training and development of accounting professionals. Case evidence from "best-practice" accounting departments would help challenge the beliefs that creative change is impossible. Originality/value -The research suggested a new paradigm in which accounting professionals can be adaptively creative "within the task" and innovatively creative "around the task" as appropriate means of change and development of services in accounting offices, as this is theoretically feasible and empirically could be proved.
This study investigates the extent to which neoliberalism could be the cornerstone for economic reform and diversification in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. It seeks to determine the most important effects of neoliberalism as well as its social and economic costs, starting from the premise that economics is by and large a social science. The study is aimed at exploring the possibilities of crafting an economic doctrine suited to the conditions of these countries and capable of satisfying their current and future needs with the aim of fostering sustained development and stability on a sound basis. In its quest for answers, it uses a descriptive, critical and interpretive methodology in an analytical framework that combines the views of prominent economists and social scientists while paying special attention to the scientific and critical views of Arab Gulf thinkers and their analysts. The study looks at what it called “the five major defects” of neoliberalism: an unfair class system; lack of social solidarity; the debt trap; communal protests; and marketization and commoditization. Five warnings were made to the citizens of the Gulf States: to avoid impoverishment; to be wary of debt; to avoid ventures; to be wary of predators; and to be wary of intruders. The study tackled the twin issues of opting for limited liberalism and the need for reform to allow the economy breathing space.
This paper seeks to challenge the interpretations found in Western political philosophy on Oriental or Asian tyranny. The main research questions are: Is tyranny the inevitable fate of non-Western societies? To what extent do these societies tolerate political oppression? To provide initial answers, the paper analyzes certain aspects of tyrannical phenomenon found in some non-Western countries, in Arab, Asian, African, and Latin American contexts. It offers two new interpretive terms: “possible tyranny” and “impossible tyranny.” It suggests that each country inevitably has its own share of tyranny in both quantity and quality, for a period of time. However, if this type of tyranny oversteps certain boundaries in a country, that country will likely experience another kind of tyranny: impossible tyranny. The study offers preliminary definitions, an initial justification of these two terms, and suggests many questions for future studies.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.