پروسه استخدام و انتخاب حسابداران مدیریت Understanding the recruitment and selection processes of management accountants: An explorative study

1. Introduction This study focuses on the recruitment and selection processes of management accountants. In doing so, it aims to enhance the understanding of how employers of management accountants form their perceptions of a suitable management accountant. The motivation for this explorative study stems from existing findings on the topic of management accountants. The image and role of management accountants has become a popular research topic over the past few decades (Burns and Baldvinsdottir, 2007). According to researchers, the traditional image of management accountant is somewhat unappealing, and at the very least, unfavourable, because they tend to be seen as humourless, dissociated and passive (Hoffjan, 2004; see also Friedman and Lyne, 1997). More recently, however, studies have analysed the “improved” image of management accountants, which increasingly highlights the dynamic nature of their job (Baldvinsdottir et al., 2010). In parallel, researchers have documented a shift in the role of a management accountant from “traditional” bookkeeping and “bean counting” towards a more “contemporary” businessoriented role (Järvenpää, 2007). This business orientation, which has rendered management accountants’ tasks increasingly complex and wide-ranging, has also created a demand for different skills and qualities from the management accounting workforce. In addition to purely technical skills, various soft skills, such as communication and interpersonal skills, have gained greater importance (Byrne and Pierce, 2007; Granlund and Lukka, 1998). To this effect, one can argue that the contemporary role of management accountants requires a relatively broad range of skills and qualities. latively broad range of skills and qualities. Although the image and role of a management accountant has received significant attention from scholars, there remains a lack of research papers on the recruitment and selection process of management accountants. This is unfortunate, particularly for management accountants, because recruitment and selection not only are an essential rite of passage before their training and socialisation (Lambert and Pezet, 2011) but also regulate access to the pursuit of management accounting as a career. Past research has highlighted linkages between recruitment and the organising of management accounting and control. The recruitment of management accountants can facilitate changes in management accounting practices (Järvenpää, 2007).