Students' Motivation, Perceived Environment and Professional Commitment: An Application of Astin's College Impact Model

The Global Challenge for Accounting Education

“…This can be learned first through anticipatory acquisition of the values, attributes and cognitive practices of that profession, before the world of work, such as on university degree programmes, where students obtain conceptions of their future profession that eases their transition into the workplace (Ahmad, Anantharaman and Ismail, 2012;Sin, Reid and Jones, 2012). Once at work they can begin to adopt the actions and role behaviour of their colleagues and acquire their professional commitment.…”

“…Once at work they can begin to adopt the actions and role behaviour of their colleagues and acquire their professional commitment. Students need to go through the professional or organisational socialisation process, by first learning the anticipatory stages before then learning the ropes, speaking the jargon, encountering the right dress codes and social norms, and finally acquiring and internalising the tasks, values and roles of that profession (Ahmad, Anantharaman and Ismail, 2012). Internalising such values leads to a real belief in, and commitment to, the organisation or profession rather than mere compliance from identifying and selecting the appropriate behaviours.…”

“…These cover ethics, the public interest, accountability, whistleblowing and independence. Such skills are socially constructed and require those seeking membership of the profession to have internalised these values and have an organisational fit with the profession (Ahmad, Anantharaman and Ismail, 2012). IES 5 requires practical experience -but a number of professional accounting bodies do not require this before entry to membership -for example in South America where the law forces the profession to admit individuals with only a degree in that discipline (Crawford et al, 2010).…”

“…Then in some countries, notably South America, the route is school, university and admission with no professional exams as a pre-requisite. Despite these different routes to being an accountant, each route should ensure that all students have developed a coherent body of knowledge and transferable skills and constructivist, experiential and situated learning approaches can help to ensure that all aspiring accountants around the globe have mastered the elements of IESs, can think critically, make ethical judgements and internalise the values and traditions expected by external stakeholders in the accounting education process (Ahmad, Anantharaman and Ismail, 2012), to serve the public interest.…”

“…Professional socialisation for qualified accountants internalises the world of work and brings a congruence between their values and their perceptions of the profession. This is of value in not seeing the job as just the routine processing of transactions but as a meaningful career conveying information and communicating ideas, increasing job satisfaction and loyalty (Ahmad, Anantharaman and Ismail, 2012).…”