IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joaced/v48y2019icp71-79.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A commentary on learning objectives for accounting education programs: The importance of soft skills and technical knowledge

Author

Listed:
  • Rebele, James E.
  • St. Pierre, E. Kent

Abstract

Position statements on accounting education have generally called for an increased emphasis on developing students’ so-called soft skills in the hope that accounting graduates will be more well-rounded and productive professionals. Many accounting education programs and individual faculty members have responded to these position statements with efforts to develop, for example, students’ communication skills, ability to think critically, and ethical awareness. Largely missing from the accounting education literature has been a discussion of whether soft skills can effectively be taught or developed at the undergraduate level and whether accounting faculty members are trained or equipped to assume this responsibility. In addition, given the constrained number of credit and contact hours, efforts to develop soft skills have largely been made at the expense of covering important technical material. This paper addresses these issues and further questions the balance between soft skill development and coverage of technical accounting knowledge. Although not a zero sum proposition, it is clear that as emphasis on soft skills development increases there has to be a decreased emphasis on technical issues given the class time constraints. It should be noted that we do not take the position that developing soft skills is not important or desirable. Instead, we focus on how accounting faculty members, given their expertise, can best use the limited time they have to educate our students and to prepare them for careers as accounting professionals.

Suggested Citation

  • Rebele, James E. & St. Pierre, E. Kent, 2019. "A commentary on learning objectives for accounting education programs: The importance of soft skills and technical knowledge," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 71-79.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joaced:v:48:y:2019:i:c:p:71-79
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jaccedu.2019.07.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0748575119301472
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jaccedu.2019.07.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fisher, Elizabeth & McLeod, Alexander J. & Savage, Arline & Simkin, Mark G., 2016. "Ghostwriters in the cloud," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 59-71.
    2. Tracey J. Riley & Kathleen A. Simons, 2016. "The written communication skills that matter most for accountants," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 239-255, June.
    3. Gillian Dale-Jones & Phil Hancock & Keith Willey, 2013. "Accounting Students in an Australian University Improve their Writing: But How Did it Happen?," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(6), pages 544-562, December.
    4. Elvia R. Shauki & Helen Benzie, 2017. "Meeting threshold learning standards through self-management in group oral presentations: observations on accounting postgraduate students," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4), pages 358-376, July.
    5. Siriwardane, H.P. & Low, K.-Y. & Blietz, D., 2015. "Making entry-level accountants better communicators: A Singapore-based study of communication tasks, skills, and attributes," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 332-347.
    6. Douglas Howcroft, 2017. "Graduates’ vocational skills for the management accountancy profession: exploring the accounting education expectation-performance gap," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(5-6), pages 459-481, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elisabeth Sinnewe & Daifei (Troy) Yao & Laura De Zwaan, 2023. "Developing critical thinking: An examination of contemporary practices in accounting," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(1), pages 403-425, March.
    2. María Elena Escobar Ávila, 2020. "La enseñanza de la contabilidad: su metodología, epistemología y didáctica," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Contaduría Pública, number 10.
    3. Wolcott, Susan K. & Sargent, Matthew J., 2021. "Critical thinking in accounting education: Status and call to action," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    4. Covaleski, Mark A. & Earley, Christine E. & Zehms, Karla M., 2021. "The lived reality of public accounting interns," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    5. Susanne Leitner-Hanetseder & Christoph Eisl & Carina Knoll & Othmar M. Lehner, 2021. "Need For Advanced It Skills For Accountants €“ What Does Accounting Education Literature Tell Us?," Business Education and Accreditation, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 13(1), pages 57-69.
    6. Everaert, Patricia & Safari, Maryam, 2021. "Digital self-contained module to assist a writing task on evaluating the financial, social, and environmental performance of a company: Teaching note," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    7. Berry, Reanna & Routon, Wesley, 2020. "Soft skill change perceptions of accounting majors: Current practitioner views versus their own reality," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    8. Carla Carvalho & Ana Carlos Almeida, 2022. "The Adequacy of Accounting Education in the Development of Transversal Skills Needed to Meet Market Demands," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-18, May.
    9. Huber, Marsha M. & Leach-López, Maria A. & Lee, Eunsuh & Mafi, Shirine L., 2020. "Improving accounting student writing skills using writing circles," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    10. Sargent, Matthew J. & Winton, Bradley G., 2023. "Cognitive ability and performance in accounting students: The importance of data analytics assignments," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    11. Ștefan Bunea & Flavius-Andrei Guinea, 2023. "Stakeholders’ Perceptions of the Vocational Competences Acquired by Students Enrolled in Accounting Master’s Programmes in Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-28, April.
    12. Min Tao & Xiong Wang, 2023. "An Integrated MCDM Model for Sustainable Course Planning: An Empirical Case Study in Accounting Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-25, March.
    13. Fogarty, Timothy J., 2019. "Surrender Dorothy?: A commentary on Rebele and St. Pierre (2019)," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    14. Apostolou, Barbara & Dorminey, Jack W. & Hassell, John M., 2020. "Accounting education literature review (2019)," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lin Mei Tan & Fawzi Laswad, 2018. "Professional skills required of accountants: what do job advertisements tell us?," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4), pages 403-432, July.
    2. Apostolou, Barbara & Dorminey, Jack W. & Hassell, John M. & Rebele, James E., 2017. "Accounting education literature review (2016)," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-31.
    3. Everaert, Patricia & Safari, Maryam, 2021. "Digital self-contained module to assist a writing task on evaluating the financial, social, and environmental performance of a company: Teaching note," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    4. Nanja Kroon & Maria do Céu Alves, 2023. "Fifteen Years of Accounting Professional’s Competencies Supply and Demand: Evidencing Actors, Competency Assessment Strategies, and ‘Top Three’ Competencies," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-23, February.
    5. Apostolou, Barbara & Dorminey, Jack W. & Hassell, John M. & Rebele, James E., 2018. "Accounting education literature review (2017)," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1-23.
    6. Plant, Kato & Barac, Karin & Sarens, Gerrit, 2019. "Preparing work-ready graduates – skills development lessons learnt from internal audit practice," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 33-47.
    7. Maureen Snow Andrade & Shaylana Davis, 2021. "Business School International Alumni: A Story of Grit," International Journal of English and Cultural Studies, Redfame publishing, vol. 4(1), pages 1-14, December.
    8. Susanne Leitner-Hanetseder & Christoph Eisl & Carina Knoll & Othmar M. Lehner, 2021. "Need For Advanced It Skills For Accountants €“ What Does Accounting Education Literature Tell Us?," Business Education and Accreditation, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 13(1), pages 57-69.
    9. Ștefan Bunea & Flavius-Andrei Guinea, 2023. "Stakeholders’ Perceptions of the Vocational Competences Acquired by Students Enrolled in Accounting Master’s Programmes in Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-28, April.
    10. Apostolou, Barbara & Dorminey, Jack W. & Hassell, John M. & Rebele, James E., 2015. "Accounting education literature review (2013–2014)," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 69-127.
    11. Bassam Maali & Ali M. Al-Attar, 2020. "Accounting Curricula in Universities and Market Needs: The Jordanian Case," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(1), pages 21582440198, January.
    12. Komarev, Iliya & Preobragenskaya, Galina, 2022. "A framework of market-relevant accounting competencies for the Gulf Cooperation countries (GCC)," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    13. Apostolou, Barbara & Dorminey, Jack W. & Hassell, John M. & Rebele, James E., 2016. "Accounting education literature review (2015)," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 20-55.
    14. Huber, Marsha M. & Leach-López, Maria A. & Lee, Eunsuh & Mafi, Shirine L., 2020. "Improving accounting student writing skills using writing circles," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    15. Francesca Culasso & Elisa Giacosa & Edoardo Crocco & Daniele Giordino, 2023. "Modern day Management Accountants: A latent Dirichlet allocation investigation," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2023(2 Suppl.), pages 11-36.
    16. Wilkin, Carla L., 2022. "Developing critical reflection: An integrated approach," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(3).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joaced:v:48:y:2019:i:c:p:71-79. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-accounting-education .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.