Search

Accountants interact with a multitude of stakeholders on a daily basis, from co-workers and supervisors to clients and members of governing organizations. Developing skills to navigate these interactions is crucial to their success. As Colleges and universities must develop ways to teach and assess these skills alongside the technical competencies of the industry. This paper identifies five key components of softs skills to be addressed in undergraduate curriculum: communication, critical thinking, reliability and responsibility, engaged listening, and respect. Five suggested learning objectives were derived from these components. The learning objectives related to these skills can be integrated into the existing course curriculum rather than as a separate course. Objectives could be completed in an efficient manner without adding significant time or effort of developing new classes.

The purpose of this study was to provide a theoretical model for public higher education. Significant financial challenges are affecting the future of the public higher education sector of the United States. With a decline in enrollments in conjunction with minimal increases in state funding sources, many have speculated what the future holds for these institutions. The agency theory and resource dependency theories can be utilized to research these topics. Agency theory describes a relationship between a principal, in this case the individual states across the U.S., and an agent, the public higher educational institutions, whereby the agent performs duties on the principal's behalf. The institutions provide educational opportunities for the citizens of the respective state for appropriate funding allocations from the state's budget. The resource dependency theory describes the behavioral implications on organizational processes of being dependent on a limited number of resources. For public higher education systems, they are dependent upon two major sources of income: state appropriations and student tuition. The balance between these income sources can impact the principal/agent relationship between the state and their respective higher education institutions.