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Given the importance of accountants' writing skills, the written communication expectation-performance gap, and limited accounting faculty time and expertise, this Business Writing Mechanics (BWM) learning strategy provides students with a spelling, grammar, punctuation, and word choice refresher using minimal faculty effort. BWM is an online, self-graded resource that students complete outside of class and consists of four separate assignment modules covering (1) Effective Written Communication, (2) Basic Grammar, (3) Advanced Grammar, and (4) Business Grammar. For each module, students access a PowerPoint slide deck, watch lecture video(s), and demonstrate mastery of the material via a quiz. Large quiz pools allow students to take a quiz multiple times until mastery is achieved. Students' feedback indicated the PowerPoint slide decks were a good reference tool, the videos were easy to follow, and students' knowledge, confidence, and awareness of writing mechanics increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The model proposed by Vroom and Jago for determining the level of participation of subordinates in organizational actions has been proven to be quite effective across a range of decision contexts. When applied to auditing budget decisions in accounting firms, the use of the Vroom-Jago model was found to result in higher quality decision-making, as compared to the results obtained when subordinate participation was determined solely by organizational factors such as management preferences.

To issue an accounting standard, members of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) must approve pronouncements with a majority. Since its inception, the FASB has been subjected to two types of voting requirements: a simple majority, which requires the approval of four of seven members, or a supermajority, which requires the approval of five of seven members. This study investigates the effects of different voting requirements on (1) the time taken to generate a pronouncement and (2) the need for subsequent revision of the accounting pronouncement. The results indicate that the supermajority voting requirement hinders the pronouncement generation process. This is evidenced by a decrease in the frequency of pronouncements issued and an increase in the amount of time required to generate an accounting pronouncement. In addition, the supermajority was found to have no effect on subsequent interpretation or supersedure of the pronouncement. As a result, the findings provide limited justification for the existence of a supermajority requirement.

This study investigates factors that influence audit interns' commitment and long-term intentions to work in public accounting. We measure the organizational and professional commitment of 127 audit interns prior to the start of busy-season internships with public accounting firms and then again at the conclusion of the internship. We find that both organizational and professional commitment decline significantly as a result of the internship experience. We note that heavy workloads during the internship decreased the degree of commitment to a particular firm. On the other hand, offering challenging work assignments and surrounding the intern with desirable coworkers significantly increased commitment to both the firm and the profession. We also find that changes in organizational commitment are related to changes in interns' long-term intentions to work in public accounting, and that by the end of the internship, nearly 60 percent of the interns changed their views with regard to how long they planned to work in public accounting, with a majority of respondents anticipating a shorter career in the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the review process to new researchers, describes the institutional background for reviews, and provides advice to reviewers. The objectives of a quality review are (1) to assist the editor in his/her gatekeeping role, and (2) to assist the authors in improving their work. We argue that the review process plays a critical role in the dissemination of research that ultimately provides credibility to the body of academic knowledge. This process relies on expert, anonymous reviews by established researchers (typically those who have already published in top journals on similar topics). Because reviewers are relatively scarce, and anonymous, the review process also relies on the personal ethics of reviewers. Invitations to review should only be accepted if the researcher has the skill, time, objectivity, and inclination to do a quality review. A quality review should consider the contribution, execution, and conclusions of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on a comparative analysis study in order to evaluate whether U.S. domestic energy-based companies earn more profits and pay less taxes as compared to other U.S. non-energy-based companies from other industries. It is believed that U.S. oil companies earn excessive profits and pay little taxes when compared to other companies. The results of the study manifests that energy-based companies are less profitable and pay higher taxes in contrast to other industries.

Effective capital markets rely on financial information mandated by high-quality accounting pronouncements. This study identifies characteristics associated with the quality of pronouncements issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). We relate pronouncement qualities described in previous literature directly to comments on actual pronouncements made by respondents familiar with pronouncement use. Our review of previous literature suggests that desirable or normative characteristics of accounting pronouncements can be categorized as informational, operational, and formational in nature. We find that informational characteristics tend to dominate FASB constituents' explanations of their rankings of the best and worst accounting pronouncements, with operational and formational characteristics carrying relatively larger weights in the rankings of worst pronouncements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the historical significance of four types of quality costs in United States manufacturers and looks on the Japanese superiority in product quality. Types of quality costs and their description; Eras of cost emphasis; Taguchi Method and its three parts; Innovative methods of quality measurement; Eliminating the chance of human error; Considerations on consumer expectations.

Looks at public accounting profession documentation of staff turnover. Information on studies on turnover model; Examination of relation of turnover intentions to organizational commitment; Details on factors that influence organizational commitment.

Employers of accounting graduates are apparently becoming increasingly selective in their recruiting decisions. A director of human resources at one large accounting firm recently described his firm's recruiting goal as being to identify "fewer and better professional accountants." Because of the apparent desire of accounting employers to become more selective in their recruiting decisions, this study shifts the research focus from the accounting graduate's point of view to the employer's. While previous research attempted to determine which factors influenced the recruiting decisions of students, this study examines the role, which student characteristics play in the recruiting decisions of employers. The study first identifies certain overall factors or groups of characteristics for a sample of accounting students who were interviewing for post-graduation employment during the 1986-1987 academic years. Associations between these overall factors and the recruiting decisions of accounting employers are then examined.