MA wanted: The role construction and socialization of the management accountant in job advertisements

Abstract

Research objective The theoretical objective of our research was to bring together two seemingly different disciplines – social sciences and accounting – by threading socialization theory and its concepts together with management accounting role literature. The empirical objective was to apply our integrated viewpoint into a practical research setting and examine how recruitment material with its information content and discourses contribute to the construction of the MA’s role as part of the professional and organizational socialization processes.

Empiria In our research we used both domestic and foreign literature related to management accounting role studies and socialization theory. As our empirical data we used 289 job advertisements concerning management accounting work that had been published in Helsingin Sanomat during years 1978, 1988, 1998 and 2008.

Methodology The job advertisements were analysed using categorization dictionaries that were formed on the basis of prior research, role models and the selected ads. This method allowed us to transform the information content of the ads into quantitative form and to perform statistical frequency analysis on it. In addition, the content of the ads was analysed qualitatively by applying the principles of functional discourse analysis.

Results The anticipatory socialization content of job advertisements has increased towards the 21st Century in terms of increased specificity of job descriptions and skill requirements. The examined ads displayed three different discourses – that of a beancounter, change agent and a “pure breed” – the last two of which have recently been on the rise. The identified discourse changes match the results of prior management accounting role studies, which suggests that recruitment rhetoric, a means for anticipatory socialization, is used to support the management accounting role change and competency development in Finland.