The Needs of the Financial Labour Market in Romania and the Answer of the Local Universities to This Social Demand

Diaconu, Paul; Coman, Nicoleta; Gorgan, Catalina; Gorgan, Vasile; Sandru, Codrina Article The Needs of the Financial Labour Market in Romania and the Answer of the Local Universities to This Social Demand Journal of Accounting and Management Information Systems (JAMIS) Provided in Cooperation with: The Bucharest University of Economic Studies Suggested Citation: Diaconu, Paul; Coman, Nicoleta; Gorgan, Catalina; Gorgan, Vasile; Sandru, Codrina (2011) : The Needs of the Financial Labour Market in Romania and the Answer of the Local Universities to This Social Demand, Journal of Accounting and Management Information Systems (JAMIS), ISSN 2559-6004, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Vol. 10, Iss. 1, pp. 55-73 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/310453 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. 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If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Accounting and Management Information Systems Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 55–73, 2011 THE NEEDS OF THE FINANCIAL LABOUR MARKET IN ROMANIA AND THE ANSWER OF THE LOCAL UNIVERSITIES TO THIS SOCIAL DEMAND Paul DIACONU, Nicoleta COMAN, Cătălina GORGAN and Vasile GORGAN 1 The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Romania Codrina ŞANDRU University of Transilvania Braşov, Romania ABSTRACT This study is an empirical research that aims to investigate what the labour market for the financial-accounting segment in Romania require in terms of professional and personal skills developed within the accounting education curriculum in the Romanian universities. Also, we investigate if the training of young practitioners in Romanian universities’ is appropriate or not from the curricular point of view to the employers’ demands. We use a statistical analysis of frequencies, aiming to an importance stratification of the professional and personal characteristics in the employers’ demands. The study groups the job ads into three categories: financial accounting, managerial accounting and audit, and seeks to identify specific curriculum descriptors for these categories of professional development. At the same time, we perform a frequency analysis of curriculum descriptors and job execution, comparatively to the management jobs, attempting to design a hierarchy of professional and personal skills, depending on the wording of notices by employers. Our main conclusion is that the curricular programs of Romanian universities in the economical field, though responding in terms of theoretical knowledge, should be extended considering the needs of the practice, particularly in the area of personal skills development, which are very important in a competitive selection process. accounting education curriculum, personal skills, professional skills, ethics, IES’s 1 Correspondence address: Paul Diaconu, The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Piata Romana No 6, Sector 1, Bucharest,; tel: 021/3191900; email address: [email protected]  Accounting and Management Information Systems Vol. 10, No. 1 56 INTRODUCTION The accounting education vocation is not new debate. Parker (2001 quoted by Boyce, 2004) argues that in the United States, when accounting was first taught in universities at the beginning of the 20th century, the academics were criticized (by practitioners) for a narrow, technical approach to the detriment of an analytical, more conceptualized education. At present, things have changed, so that the accounting academic environment is accused by the business environment that it focuses largely on preparing students at a conceptual level to the detriment of practical training. Our study aims to determine whether the accounting education curriculum in the Romanian universities is adapted to the requests of employers from the financial accounting field. In this direction, the syllabus of the Faculty of Accounting and Management Information Systems within the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies and the syllabus of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration within the Cluj Napoca Babeş-Bolyai University have been taken under study, being considered some of the most representative universities of this profile in Romania in accounting. This is the conclusion of a previous study which the team had performed in 2008 regarding universities educational curriculum (Diaconu, 2008). The previous study analysed the detailed educational curriculum of the Romanian universities which supplied such information on their sites. This educational curriculum has been compared with the one resulting from IFAC International Educational Standards. The conformity with the benchmark regarding the two mentioned universities was very high. For the study performance, 103 job ads from September 2010 have been examined, taking into account their collection as follows: 38 ads for executive positions in the financial-accounting department and 65 ads for operating positions in the same financial-accounting field. Detailed explanation regarding the selection of the 103 job ads is supplied on the research methodology section. Our study is among the few empirical studies conducted on the labour market in Romania in the financial-accounting field, however having as antecedent the Albu & Albu (2007) study in which they demonstrated the apparent hybridization between financial and managerial accounting jobs in Romania, subject collaterally approached in our empirical research. In our research, we have focused on two directions: • on the one hand, we examined the adequacy of university accounting education curriculum to the employers’ demands in the ads regarding jobs generally and detailed and comparatively in what regards the job ads for executive positions and the ones related to operating positions; • on the other hand, we highlighted the extent to which the university accounting education curriculum is fit for the requirements from the job The needs of the financial labour market in Romania and the answer of the local universities to this social demand Vol. 10, No. 1 57 ads for the managerial accounting positions or the ones from the job ads in the financial accounting field and which are the representative competences for each of the two job categories. 1. LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES OF THE RESEARCH Gijselaersa and Milterb (2010) examine in their research the efforts made in the field of accounting education and education on business. The authors report the fact that the providers of accounting education and business education have an extremely varied range of possibility in approaching the professional development process in the fulfilment of their roles as trainers in comparison to other professions. These make substantial efforts with regard to the provision to the society of high quality experts who generally undergo an international process of accreditation, certification and licensing. Current debates on the future of accounting and business education are based on recent development in other professional fields. A key element concerns how to accommodate accounting and business education to the rapid changing needs of the society. That’s why in our research we need to investigate the main channels which need to be followed by the universities in order to achieve the best professional products on the market and what professional skills they need to develop most in order to achieve the local market needs. Ahadiat and Mackie (1993) highlight the fact that in the selection process of the American accounting firms, an important growing role is owned by the knowledge of ethics and ethical behaviour in business of the new candidates for a job in the respective organizations. The study results have showed the fact that there is irrefutable evidence that the accounting professional trainers will have to raise the graduates’ awareness of the ethical behaviour importance and to continue the efforts for the introduction of ethics in the accounting education curriculum. The conclusions of Ahadiat and Mackie (1993) are extrapolated by Boyce (2008), who has drawn attention on the fact that ethics in accounting and business education must be appreciated in the contemporary context of a neoliberal globalized economy. Although the answers of the officials consisted in imposing new laws and regulations, the study demonstrates the fact that the issue manifests itself at the systemic level and a special attention should be paid to the economic and social system in which the individuals operate. Boyce considers that, during the theoretical training and exercises of the students on business and accounting ethics, the teaching methods are required to insist on the individualized conception on the individuals. Accounting teachers must deal with the ethics issue from the global perspective, because many aspects and new concerns appear at this level. These issues are directly related to accounting education and accounting specialty practice. The academic environment should achieve a balance in the specialty education between the formative humanistic aspects and the vocational ones. In a Accounting and Management Information Systems Vol. 10, No. 1 58 versatile and globalizing context, accounting educators can do much more for the relevance of accounting education in what regards the life experiences of the students and their abilities to act significantly in active life, both individually and collectively. In this purpose our study will try to search if the Romanian market is preoccupied by such theme or the requests of the ads are focusing on the other. Tiron-Tudor and Muţiu (2006) and Muţiu and Tiron-Tudor (2009) are investigating the role of International Education Standards as international regulation managed by IFAC in the modernization of Romanian educational curriculum. In our study we will use the results of their study in order to see if the local financial-accounting market has similar needs as they identify. Muţiu et al. (2008) disclose their research project focused on evaluation of the actual stage of Romanian academic accounting education in order to support the national university reform which has begun in 2005. The research is meeting the international trends oriented to improve the academic process of accounting graduates. In this way, by determining a correlation degree between international trends (globalization, regionalization) and the evolution of Romanian accounting system on one hand, and the evaluation of the actual stage of Romanian accounting academic system from the point of view of actors involved (graduates, teachers and employers) on the other hand, they determine the connection between the implementation of public requirements with the actual level of graduates’ professional knowledge. They also offer constructive solutions, empirically validated, which helps the accounting graduates in their way to accounting profession. Diaconu (2007) concludes that the globalization phenomena are deeply penetrating the accounting profession. The standardization of the accounting need to be evaluated both through the need of the standardization of the accounting methods (see IFRS) but also through the creation of a uniform base of knowledge which need to be undertake by the accountants in the development of their profession. Since almost 20 years the international organizations like UN raised the problem o an international accountancy learning curricula, as a benchmark for the developing world and as a model for the entire accountancy world. In this purpose IFAC has created in International Education Standards, which allowed the national accounting professions to adjust their learning curricula in relation with a general accepted reference. CECCAR, the Romanian accounting body will need to use in the next period the related standards and to implement them in its own national system. In this purpose the Romanian accounting profession will be able to become generally recognized in the accounting world in general and in the European accounting world in particular. Starting from these findings the new research will see if the updates of education curriculum are consistent with the local market demands. The needs of the financial labour market in Romania and the answer of the local universities to this social demand Vol. 10, No. 1 59 Diaconu (2008) is discussing the conformity of the educational curriculum of the Romanian universities with the International Education Standards syllabus. Starting from the classification made on that article and from the discovers that University of Babes Bolyai and Academy of Economic Studies are the most conform with the international education benchmark we started our study which is analysing the needs of local market on financial-accounting services and the points which need special developments in the future starting from this. Therefore, first hypotheses of our study are: IQ1. There is a resemblance relation between the employers’ demands regarding the basic theoretical knowledge specified in the job ads and the structure of the disciplines requested within the accounting education curriculum prescribed by IES (International Education Standards) and taken over in the education curricula of the Romanian economic universities. IQ2. The knowledge assimilated within the curricula in the Romanian universities is necessary and sufficient to meet the majority of exigencies on the labour market in Romania. Feldman (2010) presents new and innovative methods of teaching related to accounting system. This course proposes to develop methods of exposure based on knowledge that enables the development of team personal skills for team members. Also adding a leadership experience comes as a natural continuation of the experience gained on a theoretical base. In this purpose we will search through our study the impact of the personal skills in the process of selecting new candidates on the local financial-accounting labour market in Romania: how important these skills are in selection process, and if they are mentioned in the local ads. The hypotheses we tested in this case are: IQ3. Employers have different demands from professionals in executive and operating positions. The emphasis given by the employer to personal skills is higher in the case of executive positions than in the case of operating positions. IQ4. The requests in the ads regarding the employment in managerial accounting jobs are similar to those from the job ads in the field of financial accounting. Albu and Albu (2007) investigated whether between the jobs circumscribed to financial accounting and the jobs circumscribed to managerial accounting, there is a clear demarcation line or the two categories of jobs are intertwined. The study’s conclusions clearly show that, in what regards the Romanian economic environment, the two professions undergo an accentuated hybridization process. The authors have demonstrated that the hybridization process is associated with the Accounting and Management Information Systems Vol. 10, No. 1 60 use by the companies of IFRSs and ERPs, a fact that confirms the findings of previous studies performed in developed economies (Caglio, 2003; Jones & Luther, 2006). The Romanian companies have increased demands for a greater number of practical competences related both to accounting and to other disciplines. That is why a purely accounting background of the actual professional is not fit enough for the needs of Romanian companies. Thus, the study shows the development need by the academic environment of competences related to the business environment and to the ones related to personal skills. In our research will try to continue the Albu and Albu (2007) study in times of economic crises and after three years of evolution in the economy. Hypotheses that we tested here are: IQ5. Taxation and financial accounting national regulations are representative for financial accounting jobs. Management accounting competences are representative for managerial accounting jobs. IQ6. Financial accounting competences are more required from professionals exercising auditing positions. 2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The Romanian job market is mainly represented by internet sites which are intermediating the demand and the offers on the market. The main sites are ejobs.ro and bestjobs.ro and the most active site if we take in consideration the number of demands is e-jobs.ro. In this internet job market site you can find offers and demands from all over the country and the conclusions which can be taken analysing this site we consider as being consistent with market trends in Romania. In our research, we have examined all the job ads related financial-accounting field from September 2010 on the internet site e-jobs.ro, this being deemed to be month in which the employment requests reach a maximum of interest. In a previous study Diaconu (2008) highlights the skills which the accounting professionals need to get in order to comply with an IFAC educational curriculum. In this purpose we had identified that the skills of an accounting professional are classified into following categories: • professional skills and; • personal skills; We proceeded to a selection of ads, in the sense that only the ads that had a detailing of requests regarding both the professional capacities and personal skills were retained from the viewed ads. Short and undetailed ads have been neglected. Any way this kind of ads is usually regarding junior accounting positions or primary accounting jobs. Not being valuable for the study, the ads containing very little information on the requested abilities were discarded. The employers’ demands were grouped into two large categories: professional skills and personal skills. We used a scale of importance ranging from 0 to 3 as follows: • 0 granted for the case when the element was not mentioned in the ad; The needs of the financial labour market in Romania and the answer of the local universities to this social demand Vol. 10, No. 1 61 • 1 granted for the case when the element was implicit mentioned in the ad; • 2 am granted for the case when the element was indicated in the ad; • 3 granted for the case when the element was indicated with predilection as having importance for employment. Later we regrouped the categories 2 and 3, because we considered that what is mentioned in the ad is obligatorily requested with predilection for employment, transforming the grid in a itemised scale - Chelcea (1998) - (0 = unimportant, 1=implicitly mentioned in the ad context, 2 and 3 = explicitly mentioned). In terms of statistical processing, we performed the following steps: 1. We classified ads as follows: We initially grouped the ads in two categories: • ads for executive positions; • ads for operating positions. These ads were reclassified in three categories: • ads related to managerial accounting; • ads related to financial accounting; • ads related to audit. The overall analysis shows that the number of ads related to managerial accounting is three times smaller than the number of ads related to financial accounting. 2. We used the frequency method of importance indexes to determine some specific characteristics of each category established in the previous stage. In order to achieve a relevant taxonomy, we proceeded to a grouping series of the skills required from the candidates by employers. We used the accounting education curriculum requested by IFAC in IESs 1-6 and grouped them in two categories: professional skills and personal skills. The Professional Skills were grouped by main descriptors indicated by the accounting education curriculum prescribed by IFAC through the IESs 1-6 and found in the syllabi of faculties of this profile, namely: • accounting and taxation national regulations; • management accounting; • audit; • financial analysis, reporting, strategic management, budgets, economic forecasts; • international accounting regulations: IFRS, US GAAP. The Personal Skills were grouped after an introspective analysis of selected ads, as follows: • general knowledge; • behavioural skills. Accounting and Management Information Systems Vol. 10, No. 1 62 General knowledge found among the discipline descriptors indicated by the accounting education curriculum prescribed by IFAC in IES 1-6 are: • foreign languages – usually English; • computer knowledge and operation of some software. Behavioural skills were constructively identified during the analysis of job ads. These were grouped in the following categories: • communication; • motivation, initiative, honesty; • capacity of synthesis, analysis and organization; • managerial skills; • teamwork. By these behavioural skills, we mean the following: • by communication we mean the employee’s skill to have an active dialogue with the members of the team he/she belongs to, but also with the third persons he/she interacts with; • by motivation we mean a proactive attitude action mode at the workplace, which should contribute to the good conduct of business activities; • by initiative we mean the desire to contribute actively to the processes unfolded within the organization; • by honesty we mean a correct and fair attitude in the action environment, in the spirit of business ethics; • by capacity of synthesis, analysis and organization we mean cognitive capacities necessary in the everyday professional reasoning; • by managerial skills we mean the skills required for the financialaccounting department’s management; • by teamwork is meant the capacity to work with and within the team in the organization. 3. THE RESULTS OBTAINED AND THEIR ANALYSIS The most important link in the chain of progress is education of the society and the way it is accomplished defines the progress. Universities as the final step to active life have the most important role in this action and this is why they need to adjust their education curriculum to meet the needs of the fields where they produce new active members. After detecting the new trends and changes in the demands of the society the needs have to be evaluated by the academic society as a ultimate censor before a proper answer is given through a modification in the education act in order to avoid the biases. These two acts are defining the evolution of the education and are a process which acts for centuries better or worse for the benefit of the society. In the followings we are analysing on an empirical research the game between the needs of the local market of financial-accounting jobs and the updated offer of the The needs of the financial labour market in Romania and the answer of the local universities to this social demand Vol. 10, No. 1 69 future. Consistent and parallel activities conducted by training personnel from the universities are ensuring a successful acceptance from the local labour market of the candidates. That’s why a recommendation for universities is to conduct parallel practical organized programs (using EU founds for instance) to develop such important abilities for the graduating students. • By analyzing comparatively the employers’ demands for execution positions with the operating ones, we draw the conclusion that the stress in executive positions is laid, in what regards theoretical knowledge, on disciplines of analysis, synthesis and reporting, but also on knowing the accounting international regulations IAS-IFRS. Advance practical experience recommends a professional for an executive position in an overwhelming proportion. In terms of professional skills, a high frequency of specific descriptions is noted, a fact indicating their importance in the selection process of a candidate to an executive position in the financial-accounting area. • The requests from ads regarding the employment in managerial accounting jobs are similar to the ones from the job ads in the financial accounting area, confirming the hybridization tendency of the two professions in the Romanian accounting environment, but, a diminution of hybridization is noted compared to the year 2007, when a first study was initiated in this direction by Albu & Albu (2007). • Competences in terms of taxation and the ones regarding the financial accounting national regulations are representative for the financial accounting jobs, but they are not exclusive (as knowledge) for these jobs, they also being found with a high frequency as descriptors for the managerial accounting ads. • Competences of management accounting and the ones of managerial accounting are representative for the jobs in the managerial accounting area, these being primarily found in this category of jobs, from which we conclude that the jobs in the managerial accounting area are perceived as a specialization of the financial accounting jobs. • The jobs in auditing are representative in the employers’ mind as an area resulted from the financial accounting specialization, having specific features eminently in this category of activities. A special emphasis is given, in the employment process, to the knowledge of foreign languages, software operation, but also to specific behavioural skills. Accounting and Management Information Systems Vol. 10, No. 1 70 APPENDIX Table 1. Table regarding the general frequency of skills requested within the work sample 0 1 2 3 2+3 Skills Types of knowledge Description 0.97% 12.62% 70.87% 15.53% 86.41% 1. professional skills 1.1.theoretical knowledge degree in the financeaccounting field; chartered accountant; additional courses 0.97% 8.74% 90.29% 0.00% 90.29% accounting and taxation national regulations 71.84% 0.00% 28.16% 0.00% 28.16% Cost accounting, managerial accounting 85.44% 0.00% 14.56% 0.00% 14.56% audit 42.72% 9.71% 33.01% 14.56% 47.57% financial analysis, reports strategy, budgets, forecasts 81.55% 4.85% 1 0.68% 2.91% 13.59% international regulations IAS-IFRS, US GAAP 8.74% 2.91% 86.41% 1.94% 88.35% 1.2. practical knowledge previous experience 86.41% 0.00% 12.62% 0.97% 13.59% experience in multinationals 41.75% 0.00% 44.66% 13.59% 58.25% 2. personal skills 2.1. general knowledge foreign languages 0.00% 21.36% 78.64% 0.00% 78.64% computer, certain software 23.30% 31.07% 43.69% 1.94% 45.63% 2.2. behavioural skills communication 60.19% 1.94% 37.86% 0.00% 37.86% motivation, initiative, honesty 3 6.89% 13.59% 49.51% 0.00% 49.51% capacity of synthesis and analysis, organization 63.11% 2.91% 33.98% 0.00% 33.98% managerial skills 48.54% 16.50% 34.95% 0.00% 34.95% teamwork The needs of the financial labour market in Romania and the answer of the local universities to this social demand Vol. 10, No. 1 71 Table 2 – General situation – executive positions versus operating positions, only the cases when we cumulate ranking 2 and ranking 3 (specified in the ad explicitly and specified in the ad as important for employment) Executive positions – general situation 2+3 Operating positions – general situation 2+3 Skills Types of knowledge Description 84.21% 87.69% 1. professional skills 1.1. theoretical knowledge degree in the finance - accounting field; chartered accountant; additional courses 89.47% 90.77% accounting and taxation national regulations 39.47% 21.54% cost a ccounting , managerial accounting 13.16% 15.38% audit 76.32% 30.77% financial analysis, reports strategy, budgets, forecasts 23.68% 7.69% international regulations IAS-IFRS, US GAAP 92.11% 86.15% 1.2. practical knowledge previous experience 23 .68% 7.69% experience in multinationals 68.42% 52.31% 2. personal skills 2.1. general knowledge foreign languages 68.42% 84.62% computer, certain software 42.11% 47.69% 2.2. behavioural skills communication 28.95% 43.08% motivation, initiative, honesty 42.11% 53.85% capacity of synthesis and analysis, organization 63.16% 16.92% managerial skills 36.84% 33.85% teamwork Accounting and Management Information Systems Vol. 10, No. 1 72 Table 3. Frequency situation of the skills demanded by professions: Audit, Financial accounting, Managerial accounting – only the cases when we cumulate ranking 2 and ranking 3 (specified in the ad explicitly and specified in the ad as important for employment) Audit 2+3 Financial accounting 2+3 Managerial accounting 2+3 Skills Types of knowledge Description (1) (2) ( 3) (4) (5) (6) 100.00% 83.13% 100.00% 1. professional skills 1.1. theoretical knowledge degree in the finance - accounting field; chartered accountant; additional courses 100.00% 95.18% 62.50% accounting and taxation national regulations 25.00% 22.89% 5 6.25% Cost accounting , managerial accounting 100.00% 12.05% 6.25% audit 50.00% 38.55% 93.75% financial analysis, reports strategy, budgets, forecasts 0.00% 14.46% 12.50% international regulations IAS-IFRS, US GAAP 100.00% 87.95% 87.50% 1.2. practical knowledge previous experience 50.00% 9.64% 25.00% experience in multinationals 100.00% 53.01% 75.00% 2. personal skills 2.1. general knowledge foreign languages 100.00% 78.31% 75.00% computer, certain software 100.00% 44.58% 37.50% 2.2. behavioural skills communication 75.00% 37.35% 31.25% motivation, initiative, honesty 25.00% 49.40% 56.25% capacity of synthesis and analysis, organization 75.00% 32.53% 31.25% managerial skills 75.00% 36.14% 18.75% teamwork The needs of the financial labour market in Romania and the answer of the local universities to this social demand Vol. 10, No. 1 73 REFERENCES Albu, C. 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