Career development in management accounting: empirical evidence

Abstract

PurposeDue to globalization and digitalization, the world of work is undergoing comprehensive change. These trends are challenging management accounting (MA) and pressuring individuals and organizations to change. The literature postulates a replacement of traditional organizational careers by “new” career models characterized by dynamism and flexibility. However, the state of the art on careers in MA lacks empirical evidence and has disparate research interests.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, the authors investigate the status quo of careers in MA, key influencing factors and assumed change in such careers. To do so, the authors conducted a quantitative empirical study, based primarily on the careers of 83 graduates of a department offering a MA major at a German-speaking university. Nine qualitative empirical interviews supplement the quantitative findings.FindingsThe authors’ findings indicate that while MA careers are changing, the characteristics of the profession are continuing to concur with the traditional organizational understanding of careers. Accumulated professional experience is the key factor to achieving a management position although management accountants tend to become more dynamic in terms of career paths and career understanding. Thus, employment in various functional areas opens new career paths in MA.Research limitations/implicationsThe methodology of analysing quantitative and empirical cross-sectional data and the resulting final sample size is too small to guarantee robust statistical inference. Moreover, further interviews would lead to greater data saturation.Practical implicationsThe study sheds light on the under-researched question of how careers in MA proceed and develop. This could be of interest for practitioners working with management accountants such as personnel consultants.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the field through its comprehensive consideration of careers in MA in this changed context, thus providing new insights for academia and business practice.

Navigating Early Career Management: Workplace Experiences and Career Impact

“…Thesefindings also show that having held one or more positions in the organization can beafacilitating factor in the integration of young managers, particularly since they have a head start in terms of their knowledge of the staff and practices in the organization. This also echoesmixed-cohort studies by Thaller et al (2023), that show the most important levers for career progression are professional work experience, highmobility and networking. Simply put, having held several positions in the organization, the support of a mentor or superior and developing their network can helpyoung men and women integrate professionally into management.…”

“…n recent years, the issue of career development for managers has attracted the interest of a good number of researchers and professionals (Adamson et al, 2022;Bishu et al, 2022;Thaller et al, 2023). In this field, studies on careers in management conducted with cohorts of women reveal the persistence of ethnic (Alesia, 2017)or gendered (Alesia, 2017; Bates & Holt, 2021; Ekonen & Heilmann, 2021; Ezzedeen et al, 2015;Vaz et al, 2023) prejudices and stereotyping, as well as microaggressions (mansplaining, manterrupting) (Vaz et al, 2023) that hold women back from management positions.…”

“…Studies carried out with mixed cohorts of men and women show that professional work experience, high career mobility and leveraging networks are key career accelerators (Thaller et al, 2023). They also expose gender-related issues in the area of work-life balance, in particular the more complex and tenuous high-wire act mothers at a higher risk of imbalance must perform, fueling frustration and anxiety (Adamson et al, 2022).…”

Information systems quality in management accounting and management control effectiveness

“…At the same time, we assume that process automation might not be the only contextual factor that could potentially affect the relationship between information systems quality and management control effectiveness. For instance, based on the existing accounting and information systems literatures, we could expect that features of organizational culture such as a data-driven culture (Franke and Hiebl, 2023; Oesterreich et al , 2022), factors relating to actors’ personal skills such as management accountants’ IT skills (Franke and Hiebl, 2023; Oesterreich and Teuteberg, 2019; Richardson and Watson, 2021; Thaller et al , 2023) or technology-related factors such as homogenous data infrastructures (Geerts and O'Leary, 2022; Shanks and Bekmamedova, 2012), could also impact this relationship. To create a fuller picture of the situations in which high-quality information systems in management accounting have their biggest benefits, we deem research on such additional contextual factors necessary from both a research and a practice viewpoint.…”

“…This has not changed today, as high-quality and digitalized information systems are viewed as enabling management accountants to work more effectively than previously, thus promising to support effective control practices (Bhimani and Willcocks, 2014; Gärtner and Hiebl, 2018; Nielsen, 2022; Oesterreich and Teuteberg, 2019; Wolf et al , 2020; Youssef and Mahama, 2021). More generally, the use of digital technologies such as ERP systems, business analytics and artificial intelligence is part of an ongoing transformation process in the management control functions of many firms worldwide (Youssef and Mahama, 2021; Thaller et al , 2023).…”