Emotional intelligence skills in accountancy students and graduates

Abstract

PURPOSE: The ever-changing role of the accountant has enhanced the importance of being emotionally intelligent. Therefore, this study evaluates the perceptions of warrant holders and graduates on the extent they consider emotional intelligence important for graduates working in big-four or mid-tier firms, the extent graduates have developed certain skills and the degree to which they should be developed during the University of Malta accountancy programme. Additionally, this study measures accountancy students’ emotional intelligence levels and evaluates whether it increases during course progression. DESIGN: A quantitative approach was implemented, where online questionnaires were distributed to big-four and mid-tier firm warrant holders (n=222), together with recent University of Malta accountancy graduates (n=96), to gain insight into their perceptions on emotional intelligence and graduates’ skills. Another questionnaire was distributed to University of Malta accountancy students (n=302) to measure their emotional intelligence levels. FINDINGS: The majority of respondents agreed that future accountants should possess emotional intelligence skills and perceived such skills as important for graduates employed with big-four and mid-tier firms. Overall, respondents perceived graduates have good development of the skills provided, suggesting that the University of Malta is in a good position in relation to developing certain skills. Respondents considered particular skills to require good development during university. Fifth-year students obtained a greater mean emotional intelligence score than first-year students, possibly indicating that the programme assists in improving students’ emotional intelligence. CONCLUSION: Although it was perceived that graduates have adequately developed certain skills and that such skills require good development at university, strategic maps derived from the Extent and Where Indices indicated that there is still room for improvement in relation to the development of certain skills, given their level of importance in big-four and mid-tier firms. VALUE: This study contributes to local literature by providing UoM accountancy curriculum preparers insight regarding perceived skill development in graduates and accountancy students’ emotional intelligence levels. In this regard, several recommendations were provided.