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ABSTRACT: The Accounting Education Change Commission has called on accounting professors to inform their students about accounting work environments. This emphasis is timely because a growing body of evidence suggests that many accounting students leave the academic setting with inaccurate perceptions about the professional work environment. This cross-sectional study assesses the correspondence between accounting professors' and students' perceptions of the public accounting work environment by comparing first-term junior accounting students', last-term senior accounting students' and accounting professors' perceptions of that environment. The study also examines the extent that students look to professors and other sources for relevant information about work in public accounting.
The results indicate few significant differences between juniors' and seniors' perceptions, but reveal significant differences between professors and both student groups. Although both student groups believe professors are the most important source of information about the public accounting work environment, the findings in this study suggest that faculty members' perceptions of that environment are not mirrored in student perceptions. These results support the AECC's emphasis on professors taking more active roles in informing students about what they can expect in practice. Moreover, this study's findings provide impetus for future research on the accuracy of accounting professors' perceptions of accounting practice and the influence accounting professors have on student perceptions.
The most common disappointment associated with early employment is unmet expectations. (Elliott and Jacobson 1992, 13) Reports of job dissatisfaction and high turnover rates for competent entry-level accountants are problems that are faced annually by the public accounting profession. Prior research indicates that one cause of these problems is that accounting student perceptions of the professional work environment are significantly different from the perceptions of entry-level accountants (e.g., Carcello et al. 1991). This divergence in perceptions leads to the job dissatisfaction reported by entrylevel accountants and often to economic losses to the profession from turnoverrelated costs and the related opportunity costs of losing quality people.
The existence and consequences of this perception difference have been discussed in the literature, with the accounting education process implicated as being partially responsible (e.g., Carcello et al. 1991; Ferguson and Hatherly 1991; Reed and Kratchman 1989). The Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC) clearly recognizes this difference in perceptions as a problem and has recommended several actions...