Social mobility and Fair Access to the accountancy profession in the UK

Abstract

Social mobility and Fair Access to the accountancy profession in the United Kingdom:Evidence from Big Four and mid-tier firms Abstract Purpose. This paper considers how Big Four and mid-tier accountancy firms in the United Kingdom (UK) are responding to political concerns about social mobility and Fair Access to the accountancy profession.Design/methodology/approach. Interviews were undertaken with 18 public accountancy firms, ranked in the Top 30 by fee income, operating in the UK to identify how they are recruiting staff in the light of the Fair Access to the Professions' agenda. Bourdieusian sociology is used to inform the findings. Findings. The Big Four firms employ a discourse of hiring 'the brightest and the best' to satisfy perceived client demand, where symbolic capital is instantiated by reputational capital, reflecting prestige and specialisation, supported by a workforce with elite credentials. For mid-tier firms, reputational capital is interpreted as the need for individuals to service a diverse client portfolio. In general, most interviewees demonstrated relatively limited awareness of the issues surrounding the Fair Access agenda. Research implications/limitations. The interviews with accountancy firms are both exploratory and cross-sectional. Furthermore, the study was undertaken at an embryonic point (2010) in the emerging Fair Access discourse. Future work considering the accountancy profession could usefully examine if, and how, matters have progressed. Social implications. The investigation finds accountancy firms remain relatively socially exclusive, largely due to the requirement for high educational entry standards, and interviewees' responses indicate generally only limited attempts at engagement with political agendas of promoting Fair Access to the profession.Originality/value. The paper: is the first to empirically evaluate how the accountancy profession is responding to the Fair Access agenda; documents changing patterns of recruitment in accountancy employment, including the hiring of non-graduates to undertake professional work; and augments the literature considering social class and accounting. investment banking with 1,800 positions). The importance of accountancy to the graduate employment market cannot be understated. At the same time, the accountancy industry in the UK is recruiting increased numbers of school-leavers either to: a professional traineeship or to a technician level qualification followed by professional qualification. Higher education no longer provides the sole entry route to UK chartered accountancy today.A vigorous political debate surrounding widening access to higher education and the professions has taken place (e.g. Clegg

Deprivation, social class and social mobility at Big Four and non-Big Four firms

“…Diversity discourse in accounting has been much discussed in relation to gender and now extends to include other dimensions such as ethnicity, disability and sexuality but this paper focuses solely on one aspect, that of social mobility. Research in accounting has frequently adopted a Bourdieusian-inspired social analysis framework referring to an array of capitalseconomic, social and culturalthat have been found to be associated with professional career success and which are relevant to a discussion of social mobility (see for example Jacobs 2003, James and Otsuka 2009, Edgley et al 2016, Duff 2017). These capitals are now considered more fully.…”

“…Recent accounting research has found that accountants possess greater social capital (Anderson-Gough et al 2001), embodied cultural capital (Grey 1998) and economic capital than the general population. To this list can be added a wide range of other capitals including symbolic, emotional, relational and reputational capital (Duff 2017). This paper draws on these concepts and the more recent work of Savage (2015) who was one of a team of sociologists who designed and administered the Great British Class Survey conducted via the website of the BBC in 2011, eliciting over 161,000 responses (Savage et al 2013).…”

“…Accounting research has identified the accountancy profession as a social space (McPhail et al 2010, Duff 2017. Within the field of accounting, however, differences have been found between Big Four and other accounting firms (Empson 2004), suggesting that within a field, there can exist subfields each possessing slightly different characteristics.…”

“…This paper addresses this topic by focusing on a particular type of high-status, prestigious and highly educated accountant, chartered accountants who are members of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS). The limited extant accounting research on social mobility has focused on the policies of accounting firms which are responding to political concerns about social mobility and fair access to the accountancy profession (Edgley et al 2016, Duff 2017. The focus has therefore been on accounting organisations rather than individual accountants.…”

“…In accounting literature, professions have been viewed as socio-historical constructs developed around the concept of social closure (Ramirez 2001, Sian 2006. We distinguish between those ICAS entrants who trained with a Big Four firm and those who did not, given that Big Four firms are widely regarded as employers of choice with elitist credentials (Duff 2017), allowing for a consideration of the ways in which elements of social closure interact with social background in the context of different types of accounting firms in the accountancy profession.…”