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Organizations have become increasingly interested in developing their human resources. One tool that has been explored in this quest is mentoring. This has led to a surge in mentoring research and an increase in the number of formal mentoring programs implemented in organizations. This review provides a survey of the empirical work on mentoring that is organized around the major questions that have been investigated. Then a conceptual model, focused on formal mentoring relationships, is developed to help understand the mentoring process. The model draws upon research from a diverse body of literature, including interpersonal relationships, career success, training and development, and informal mentoring. Finally, a discussion of critical next steps for research in the mentoring domain is presented.

This chapter combines quantitative studies of the connections between stressors and performance in accounting settings and identifies the mediators and moderators of stressors–performance relationships. Using meta-analyses and path analyses, this research compiles 72 studies to investigate the relationships of stressors with accountant and auditor performance. As hypothesized, bivariate meta-analyses results indicate that work-related stressors negatively affect performance, and burnout and stress are negatively related to performance, whereas motivation is positively related to performance. Moreover, a meta-analytical structural equation modeling indicates that role stressors have significant direct and indirect effects (through burnout and stress) on job performance. Accumulation of multiple samples through meta-analysis bolsters statistical power compared to single-sample studies and thus reveals the sign of residual direct effects of role stressors on job performance in accounting settings.

This study, based on our analysis of survey data from 1,242 partners and employees of a U.S. national public accounting firm, examines the impact on psychological well-being from the moderating effects of flexibility and role clarity on work-home conflict experienced by public accountants. Most prior research in public accounting deals with the antecedents and consequences of role stress and primarily focuses on job outcomes of turnover intentions and job satisfaction as dependent variables. Public accounting firms have responded to stressors with worker-friendly policies, largely by introducing flexibility and clarity in their organizational culture. Using a multi-disciplinary research model, we analyze the causal relationships of flexibility and clarity as moderators of the bi-directional nature of work-home conflict (work interference with home and home interference with work) on psychological well-being. Our study finds that perceptions of flexibility and role clarity drawn from a career position in public accounting can mitigate role conflict between work and home environments and contribute to enhanced psychological well-being. We also find that certain relationships described in the model are moderated by family status and age, but not by gender. Results of our study have implications to both individual public accountants and to their firms.

In elite professional firms, minorities are actively recruited but struggle to move upward. The authors argue that initiatives aimed at general skill development can have unintended consequences for firm diversity. Specifically, the authors contend that approaches that win partner support through motivational significance and interpretive clarity provide a more effective avenue to skill development for minorities, who have less access than White peers to informal developmental opportunities. The authors also argue that a longer “partnership track,” which imposes a time limit on skill development, will benefit minority professionals. Using data on 601 offices of large US law firms in 1996 and 2005, the authors investigate the effects of five developmental initiatives and partnership track length on the representation of African-Americans, Latinxs, and Asian-Americans among partners. Observed effects are consistent with expectations, but patterns vary across racial-ethnic groups.

This paper seeks to examine the effects of mentoring and organizational justice on auditors' relationships with their non‐mentor supervisors. While having a mentor should cause higher quality protégé auditors and their non‐mentor supervisor relationships, organizational justice perceptions should mediate this mentoring association. Thus, having a mentor should see higher procedural justice perceptions, which, in turn, should result in higher quality relationships between protégés and their non‐mentor supervisors.

A survey of 95 audit professionals shows that protégés report higher quality auditor‐supervisor relationships than do non‐protégés; however, having a mentor does not appear to be the determining factor.

Building on a prior study of Siegel et al., the paper finds that auditor attitudes towards the job (job satisfaction) and the firm (job commitment) eliminate the association between mentoring and quality of auditor‐supervisor relationships. Procedural justice, but not distributive justice, perceptions also mediate the relationship between job satisfaction and quality of auditor‐supervisor relationships. Procedural justice perceptions produce higher quality auditor‐supervisor relationships with non‐mentor supervisors.

Using mediation regression techniques instead of the more stringent path analysis and using self‐reported survey data that derives a method variance could affect the generalizability of our results. Future research can correct these limitations.

The paper finds that while merely having a mentor need not improve relationships, mentoring programs can still greatly improve auditor‐supervisor relationships.

The paper includes implications for developing effective mentoring programs for CPA firms.

This paper synthesizes the extant feedback literature, focusing on how feedback affects an auditor’s learning, performance, and motivation. Performance feedback is an important component in the auditing environment for ensuring quality control and for developing and coaching staff auditors. However, the literature on feedback in the audit environment is fragmented and limited making it difficult to assess its behavioral effects on auditors. This paper has three main objectives. The first is to review some of the influential research in psychology and management to identify key variables and issues that appear to be critical in the study of behavioral consequences of feedback in organizational settings. The second is to review performance feedback research specifically in auditing to identify the areas previously examined and synthesize the findings. The third is to suggest a variety of future research opportunities that may assist in developing an understanding and knowledge of the behavioral effects of feedback on auditors. The literature analysis has significant implications for audit research and practice. In particular, the analysis provides important insights into understanding who, how, and when performance feedback should be given to improve its effectiveness in the audit environment.

This study aims to examine how public accounting firms can use developmental mentoring to increase knowledge sharing (KS) among employees directly and indirectly through affective organizational commitment.

This study uses a survey of public accounting professionals to elicit participants’ demographics and their perceptions of KS, mentoring relationships and organizational commitment in their workplace.

The findings support that two categories of challenges found in developmental mentoring, demonstrating dedication and resilience and career goal and risk orientation, are directly associated with increased KS and they, along with a third, measuring up to mentor’s standards, indirectly influence KS through their positive effect on organizational commitment. Applying social exchange theory, these challenges contribute to a reciprocal relationship between the protégé and mentor, which builds the relationship between the protégé and organization.

This study provides information about developmental mentoring that human resource professionals and managers in public accounting firms can use to address two persistent challenges facing them: increasing employees’ organizational commitment and encouraging employees to share their knowledge with others at work.

This study examines the concept of developmental mentoring, adopting three categories of mentoring challenges and applying them in the context of public accounting to examine their effect on KS.

The purpose of this paper is to examine organizational commitment within the context of important antecedents, correlates, and consequences for auditors in public accounting. Specifically, to explore the relationships among the constructs of experience, role ambiguity, organizational commitment (affective and continuance), job satisfaction, and turnover intentions.

An integrated model is developed and tested using structural equation modeling techniques. A sample of 334 auditors working for international and regional public accounting firms in a major metropolitan area of the USA is used to test the model.

The findings support nearly all of the hypothesized relationships. Auditors with more experience have less role ambiguity, have more affection for their organization, and are less inclined to leave their organization. Continuance commitment plays a less important role in the integrated model. However, the study lends support to the notion that the two dimensions of continuance commitment, high sacrifice and low alternatives, are distinct and have different patterns of relationships with other important variables.

The sample was taken from one geographic area of the US and may not be representative of all auditors. Auditors from the regional public accounting firms may not be representative of other regional firms.

Despite the fact that auditors with higher levels of affective organizational commitment and job satisfaction are less likely to leave their organizations, the findings also indicate a direct link with more experience and the desire to leave the firm. Role ambiguity and continuance commitment do not have direct links to turnover intentions, but deserve consideration for their indirect influence on important job outcomes.

This study contributes to the study of organizational commitment by using auditors from all job levels and from public accounting firms from varying sizes. Few studies have examined the sub‐dimensions of continuance commitment for auditors.

This study aims to determine the direct and mediating effects of time pressure, work–family conflict, role ambiguity, work stress and audit quality reduction behavior.

The sample selection in this research is done by purposive sampling method based on the criteria specified by the researcher. In addition, random sample selection does not necessarily produce a sample that can represent auditors at all levels and types of Kantor Akuntan Publik (KAP). This research uses quantitative analysis with approach of structural equation modeling (SEM) method to analyze direct and indirect effect. The main method for data analysis is SEM.

Based on the results of the research note that time pressure, work–family conflict and role ambiguity each have a significant effect on work stress. In testing the direct effect on audit quality reduction behavior, only time pressure influential significant, while work–family conflict and role ambiguity not significant. However, in the test of indirect influence/influence of mediation, there is a significant influence on all tests that time pressure, work–family conflict and role ambiguity each have a significant effect on audit quality reduction behavior through work stress.

The originality of this paper is in SEM used by involving new variable which is work–family conflict. The research location is public accounting offices (KAP) in Indonesia.