Gender Differences in the Job Attitudes of Accountants

Abstract

The cost of losing quality employees can be expensive for companies and firms. Higher rates of turnover for women, particularly in public accounting, have sparked efforts to resolve the problem. To further understanding of the current job attitudes of men and women accountants, over 500 accounting graduates employed in a variety of positions were surveyed. Scales were used to measure the following job attitudes: two types of Organizational Commitment (Affective Commitment and Continuance Commitment), Job Satisfaction, Intrinsic Satisfaction, Job Security and Turnover Intentions. The results indicated that the men and women accountants had many similar, positive job attitudes, but there were some notable cross‐gender differences. Overall, men tended to be more intrinsicallysatisfied and affectively committed to their jobs, primarily because they were older and had been in their jobs longer. For the women, unlike the men, job tenure was not associated with higher satisfaction levels or greater feelings of attachment to their organizations. Additionally, economic‐related factors such as percentage of household income contributed, job security, and continuance commitment (attachment to a job’s benefits) were associated with lower reported turnover intentions for men, but not for women. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Citation

Baird, J.E., Zelin, R.C. and Marxen, D.E. (1998), "Gender Differences in the Job Attitudes of Accountants", American Journal of Business, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 35-44. https://doi.org/10.1108/19355181199800011