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Diversity and the evaluation of talent in the accounting profession : the enigma of merit
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Anderson-Gough, Fiona, Edgley, Carla, Robson, Keith and Sharma, Nina (2023) Diversity and the evaluation of talent in the accounting profession : the enigma of merit. Accounting Horizons, 38 (1). pp. 27-37. doi:10.2308/horizons-2022-103 ISSN 1558-7975.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.2308/horizons-2022-103
Abstract
SYNOPSIS While accounting firms are facing recruitment and retention problems, regulatory bodies are calling for efforts to improve diversity to be more effective, especially at senior levels. In this paper, we discuss “merit” and assumptions about “meritocracy” in processes of performance evaluation and career progression. Based on interviews in medium and large professional services firms in the United Kingdom, we explore how the language/practices of merit can inhibit moves to improving diversity. Merit has two aspects: “technical” notions of core competencies associated with merit and cultural notions of social fit, which have the effect of favoring the progression of the elite groups embedded within firms. The latter creates a loop in understanding merit, enacted within firm culture over time, that is difficult to disrupt. As such, efforts to improve diversity are unlikely to bring about change without considering how organizational beliefs about merit have unintended consequences.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > HF5601 Accounting | ||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Accounting Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School |
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SWORD Depositor: | Library Publications Router | ||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Accountants -- Training of, Social mobility, Merit (Ethics) -- Social aspects, Accountants | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Accounting Horizons | ||||||
Publisher: | American Accounting Association | ||||||
ISSN: | 1558-7975 | ||||||
Official Date: | 15 November 2023 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 38 | ||||||
Number: | 1 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 27-37 | ||||||
DOI: | 10.2308/horizons-2022-103 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Free Access (unspecified licence, 'bronze OA') | ||||||
Copyright Holders: | © Copyright 1998 - 2023 American Accounting Association. All rights reserved. | ||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 1 December 2023 | ||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 4 December 2023 |
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