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    Communication Is Key

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    Azian Mohd Hanip
    The survey results identified seven communication skills as very important for entry-level accountants: listening effectively, using correct grammar, writing clearly and concisely, producing correctly spelled documents, asking appropriate questions, organizing information well, and using an effective business vocabulary. Respondents were dissatisfied with how well new accounting graduates were prepared in three of these skills: writing clearly, producing correctly spelled documents, and organizing information well. The results suggest accounting curricula should emphasize improving students' English, writing, and communication skills to better prepare them for their careers.

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    Communication Is Key

    Uploaded by

    Azian Mohd Hanip
    34 views2 pages
    The survey results identified seven communication skills as very important for entry-level accountants: listening effectively, using correct grammar, writing clearly and concisely, producing correctly spelled documents, asking appropriate questions, organizing information well, and using an effective business vocabulary. Respondents were dissatisfied with how well new accounting graduates were prepared in three of these skills: writing clearly, producing correctly spelled documents, and organizing information well. The results suggest accounting curricula should emphasize improving students' English, writing, and communication skills to better prepare them for their careers.

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    The survey results identified seven communication skills as very important for entry-level accountants: listening effectively, using correct grammar, writing clearly and concisely, producing correctly spelled documents, asking appropriate questions, organizing information well, and using an effective business vocabulary. Respondents were dissatisfied with how well new accounting graduates were prepared in three of these skills: writing clearly, producing correctly spelled documents, and organizing information well. The results suggest accounting curricula should emphasize improving students' English, writing, and communication skills to better prepare them for their careers.

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    34 views2 pages

    Communication Is Key

    Uploaded by

    Azian Mohd Hanip
    The survey results identified seven communication skills as very important for entry-level accountants: listening effectively, using correct grammar, writing clearly and concisely, producing correctly spelled documents, asking appropriate questions, organizing information well, and using an effective business vocabulary. Respondents were dissatisfied with how well new accounting graduates were prepared in three of these skills: writing clearly, producing correctly spelled documents, and organizing information well. The results suggest accounting curricula should emphasize improving students' English, writing, and communication skills to better prepare them for their careers.

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    COMMUNICATION SKILLS NEEDED BY ENTRY-LEVEL ACCOUNTANTS David Christensen and David Rees Southern Utah University Numerous surveys

    have established the importance of communication skills for entry-level accountants, but none has identified the specific skills needed. To gather information about the communication skills needed by newlyhired accounting graduates, members of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) were asked to (1) rate the importance of selected communication skills and (2) indicate their level of satisfaction with how well entry-level accountants are being prepared by universities in these skills. Knowing which communication skills are important for new hires is useful for determining the skills to emphasize in an accounting curriculum. Knowing the level of satisfaction with the college preparation in the important skills should help focus on problem areas. The survey was administered over the internet to approximately 90,000 members of the AICPA and IMA. Respondents rated 32 communication skills identified in the business communication literature on two five-point scales. We received 2,181 responses, for a response rate of about two percent. Most (87%) of our respondents were members of the AICPA. As summarized below, about 80% of these indicated that their work was in assurance and tax. Only 13% of the respondents were from the IMA. About 88% of these indicated that their work was in finance (management accounting). Based on numerous comments from IMA members, the relatively few responses from IMA members may be due to a lack of entry-level accounting positions in finance. (The sum of the percentages in Business Activity exceeds 100% because some respondents checked more than one business activity).
    Category All Business Activity Assurance/Tax Finance (management accounting) Other (e.g., government) AICPA 1,906 1,532 334 423 Percent 100% 80% 18% 22% IMA 275 25 242 35 Percent 100% 9% 88% 13% All 2,181 1,557 576 458 Percent 100% 71% 26% 21%

    As shown below, seven skills had average ratings above 4.0 (very important). Of these, respondents were dissatisfied with the college preparation of new accounting graduates in three skills (shown by the asterisks).
    Communication Skill Listens effectively Uses correct grammar in both spoken and written communication Writes well clearly, concisely, correctly, completely Produces correctly spelled documents Asks appropriate questions when talking with customers Organizes information into effective sentences and paragraphs Uses an effective business vocabulary * Importance > 4 and Satisfaction < 3 Importance Mean 4.51 0.637 4.48 0.657 4.42 0.713 4.35 0.829 4.22 0.805 4.20 0.771 4.16 0.803 Satisfaction Mean 3.04 1.107 2.96 1.181 2.68 1.092 3.47 1.137 3.16 0.972 2.86 1.072 3.12 1.077

    * * *

    Importance was rated on a five-point scale, where 1 = unimportant, 2 = somewhat unimportant, 3 = important, 4 = very important, and 5 = extremely important. Satisfaction was rated on a five-point scale, where 1 = very dissatisfied, 2 = somewhat dissatisfied, 3 = neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, 4 = somewhat satisfied, and 5 = very satisfied.

    As targets for emphasis, these skills may be used as criteria for tailoring and evaluating communication assignments. It appears, for example, that more attention to English and writing skills is needed. Evaluations of written and oral assignments should include a critique of the proper use of English, with special emphasis on the seven skills identified from the survey. In addition, the results also showed significant differences in the mean ratings across business activities. As shown below, the average importance of the 32 communication skills was highest for Other (e.g., government), with Assurance/Tax, and Finance (management accounting) second and third, respectively. These results may be useful in determining the relative emphasis of communication skills in an accounting curriculum with specific career tracks. For example, it appears that accounting students wanting an entry-level position in government should emphasize communication skills more than accounting students wanting finance, tax, or assurance positions.

    Business Activity Other (e.g., government) Assurance/Tax Finance (management accounting)

    Importance Mean 3.61 1.119 3.53 1.124 3.43 1.102

    Satisfaction Mean 3.38 1.010 3.20 0.981 3.16 0.955

    In addition to answering the questions, over 500 respondents added personal comments. In general, the comments were consistent with the ratings. The following summary comments are typical: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Business communication skills are essential, regardless of accounting specialty. Promising careers in accounting are impaired by poor communication skills. Some newly-hired accounting graduates have an attitude that worrying about grammar and spelling errors is beneath them. Accounting students should learn how to write a concise memo. Lengthy term papers that are often assigned in college courses dont teach students this routine writing task. Accounting students should learn to proof-read. Work papers and analyses prepared by newly-hired accounting graduates are often full of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.

    Based on its review of undergraduate education, the Boyer Commission recommended that instructors pay more attention to English, writing, and oral skills: Unfortunately, todays students too often think of composition as a boring English requirement rather than a life skill; moreover, hardly any are exposed to courses or class requirements in oral communication. Faculty too often think of composition as a task the English or composition department does badly, rather than understanding that an essential component of all faculty members responsibility is making sure that their students have ample practice in both writing and speaking. In evaluating exams and papers, faculty members are often willing to forgive grammatical and stylistic blunders, thinking such matters the responsibility of composition teachers, as long as they believe they can grasp the essence of the students text; that behavior reinforces the assumption on the part of students that clear communication is not important. Our results strongly support this recommendation.

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