Analysis of compassion in accounting and business students, overall and by gender

Temporal changes of compassion in accounting and business students in an English course: a longitudinal study in higher education

“…Accounting is not an exception and social and emotional skills lie at the heart of successful and professional accounting practices (Eliza and Amalia, 2022). The findings reported by Russell et al (2020) also showed a significant difference in levels of compassion between female and male students and that compassion is important to student perception of careers in accounting and business.…”

“…Concentration on academic accounting has roots in labor market success (Fogarty and Zimmerman, 2019). Understanding accounting issues and mastering technical skills are Temporal changes of compassion 327 important for students' success in the accounting and business field (Russell et al, 2020). Accounting education generally needs an increased emphasis on developing students' soft skills in the hope that accounting graduates will be more effective and productive professionals.…”

Religion and Interfaith Dialogue: The Forgotten Pedagogical DEI Initiative in Business Education and Strategic Planning

“…Some research suggests an increasingly overemphasis on the technical aspects of the discipline "at the expense of" the ethical components (Amernic & Craig, 2004, Chabrak & Craig, 2013, Hopper, 2013and van der Kolk, 2019. While mastering the technical skills are important to success in the accounting and finance discipline (Rebele &Pierre, 2019 andRussell et al, 2020), practitioners must be proficient in areas to meet the demands of clients as well and this is particularly true at small firms. While many might believe that undergraduate students have an ethical compass formed at a young age, accounting ethics is situational and requires protocol and rule-examination.…”

“…If educators delegate courses on sustainability or diversity, equity, and inclusion to stand-alone courses or those in the liberal arts as opposed to lightly integrating concepts into courses, undergraduate students majoring in the technical disciplines may be left with the impression that they are receiving two types of education, where one focuses on the human dimension and one overly emphasizes profit-maximizing opportunities (Gustafson & McCarville, 2017). The gulf between liberal arts education grounded in religion and interfaith dialogue and business education leads accounting majors to deemphasize qualities like compassion, character, and personal values when analyzing problems and pursuing careers (Russell et al, 2020). This also holds true for other technical disciplines.…”

“…Third, a literature review suggests that current pedagogical teaching cases and articles reflect the more negative aspects of sustainability or DEI initiatives. Research suggests that equating professional ethics to negative financial crises and fraud (LaShaw et al, 2016) or the avoidance of conflict of interest does not help students develop skill sets that produce positive financial outcomes (Russell et al, 2020). Positive, values-based instruction infused within courses provides students with "cultural capital" and offer a pathway to social inclusion (Asonitou & Hassal, 2019).…”