Accounting Question

Critical Perspectives on Accounting 39 (2016) 1–24
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Critical Perspectives on Accounting
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cpa
Attracting Millennials: Legitimacy management and
bottom-up socialization processes within accounting ﬁrms
Sylvain Durochera,* , Merridee Bujakib , François Brouardc
a
Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, 55 Laurier East, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada
Sprott School of Business, 1010 Dunton Tower, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada
c
Sprott School of Business, 1725 Dunton Tower, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada
b
A R T I C L E I N F O
A B S T R A C T
Article history:
Received 26 August 2014
Received in revised form 5 February 2016
Accepted 6 February 2016
Available online 17 February 2016
The competition to attract trainee accountants is ﬁerce among accounting ﬁrms.
Millennials seemingly have expectations in terms of work experiences and work
environments that arguably cannot be ignored by accounting ﬁrms. This paper draws
on a legitimacy framework to examine legitimacy management strategies utilized by large
Canadian accounting ﬁrms in website communications directed at future employees. Our
results demonstrate accounting ﬁrms appear to devote considerable effort to manage their
legitimacy in the eyes of prospective employees and apparently use website communications to depict a work environment largely in accordance with Millennials’ system of
values and beliefs. This suggests a bottom-up socialization process is taking place whereby
accounting ﬁrms adapt the workplace in response to future employees’ expectations.
Interviews with partners, managers and human resource advisors working in accounting
ﬁrms support the idea of a bottom-up process. We conclude a two-way socialization
process exists, where the ﬁrms and the new employees are both instigators and targets of
socialization, jointly inﬂuencing what it is to be an accountant today.
ã 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Accounting ﬁrms
Legitimacy theory
Millennials’ career expectations
Sociology of professions
1. Introduction
Recruiting talented individuals is critical to organizational success and survival (Carlson, Connerley, & Mecham, 2002)
and the ﬁeld of accountancy is no exception (Smith & Graves, 2002). Like all other organizations, accounting ﬁrms need to
manage their legitimacy in the eyes of salient stakeholders to ensure their continued existence (Suchman, 1995). Employees
are important organizational stakeholders (Agle, Mitchell, & Sonnenfeld, 1999) and the ability to attract prospective trainee
accountants is crucial for accounting ﬁrms, especially in a context of a shrinking market of qualiﬁed accountants (AAA &
AICPA, 2012; Bloom & Myring, 2008; Gramling & Rosman, 2009; JobWings Careers, 2012; Matthews, 2014; Malthus & Fowler,
2009; Wells, 2005) and high turnover rates in accounting ﬁrms (Big Four Firms Network, 2014; Nga & Mun, 2013; PwC, 2013;
Randall, 2010). This situation is nowadays exacerbated given the higher propensity of members of the current generation –
that is to say Millennials – to readily quit their jobs if they do not get what they want (Ng, Schweitzer, & Lyons, 2010;
Petroulas, Brown, & Sundin, 2010). We are in a context where competition among accounting ﬁrms to attract good
candidates is ﬁerce.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: durocher@telfer.uOttawa.ca (S. Durocher), Merridee.Bujaki@carleton.ca (M. Bujaki), Francois.Brouard@Carleton.ca (F. Brouard).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2016.02.002
1045-2354/ ã 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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S. Durocher et al. / Critical Perspectives on Accounting 39 (2016) 1–24
Legitimacy is deﬁned as a “generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or
appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, and deﬁnitions” (Suchman, 1995; p. 574).
Depending on their particular circumstances, organizations strive to gain, maintain or repair their legitimacy in the eyes of
signiﬁcant stakeholders. Accounting ﬁrms are arguably not currently experiencing major legitimacy crises that might
jeopardize their survival in the short run. However, well-known accounting scandals (Addison & Mueller, 2015; Carnegie &
Napier, 2010; Unerman & O’Dwyer, 2004), instances of accounting professionals serving private interests (Lesage,
Hottegindre, & Baker, 2016), the beancounter stereotype (Jeacle, 2008; Warren & Parker, 2009), the marginalisation of
personal life that characterizes the ﬁeld of public accounting (Anderson-Gough, Grey, & Robson, 1998; Lupu & Empson, 2015)
and the lack of diversity in accounting ﬁrms’ work environments (AAA & AICPA, 2012; Edgley, Sharma, & Anderson-Gough,
2016; Haynes, 2013; Kokot, 2015) are all issues that might affect accounting students’ perceptions of the legitimacy of
accounting ﬁrms. This may increase their reluctance to envision a career in public accountancy. Following the ‘marketization’
(Picard, 2016) of the ﬁeld of accountancy, Picard, Durocher and Gendron (2015) demonstrated large accounting ﬁrms devote
considerable marketing efforts to attract prospects, not least in terms of website communications directed at future workers.
In so doing, accounting ﬁrms arguably strive to manage their legitimacy in the eyes of prospective trainee accountants. This
leads to our ﬁrst research question:
RQ1. To what extent do accounting ﬁrms’ web recruitment communications take into consideration their prospective
employees’ career expectations?
This paper draws on a legitimacy framework (Suchman, 1995) to answer this question and examines legitimacy
management strategies1 utilized by large Canadian accounting ﬁrms in website communications directed speciﬁcally at
future employees.
Today’s workforce consists of individuals from four distinct generations: the Silent Generation (born 1925–1945), the
Baby Boomers (born 1946–1964), Generation X (born 1965–1981), and Millennials (born 1982–1999) (Twenge, Campbell,
Hoffman, & Lance, 2010; p. 1118). Authors differ slightly in the period attributed to each generation. For example, Foot and
Stoffman (1996) and Ng et al. (2010) consider that the Millennials are individuals born between 1980 and 1995. Today
accounting ﬁrms are mainly recruiting Millennials (PwC, 2013). Millennials have expectations in terms of work/life balance,
pay and beneﬁts, advancement prospects, work experiences and working environments (Ng et al., 2010) that accounting
ﬁrms arguably cannot ignore when they compete to hire good candidates. Millennials’ career expectations can be viewed as a
system of norms, values and beliefs (Suchman, 1995) that characterize members of this new generation of accountants. A
promise to satisfy these expectations may strengthen the ﬁrms’ legitimacy in the eyes of future accountants.
Through content analysis of the early 2013 recruitment materials published on the websites of the Big Four and Next Four
largest national accounting ﬁrms in Canada, we assess whether the work experiences and expected outcomes presented to
prospective trainee accountants in these written texts are framed to meet the career expectations of the Millennial
generation. This paper does not compare generational values/expectations, it rather assesses whether the Millennials’
expectations, as depicted by Ng et al. (2010) and other relevant literature, are taken into consideration by accounting ﬁrms in
their website communications.
Our results suggest accounting ﬁrms are seemingly keen on managing their legitimacy in the eyes of prospective
employees. For instance, they stress: the meaningful work experience and career development opportunities they offer to
their recruits; the possibility for recruits to have a real impact on their business clients and in their communities; and the
ﬁrms’ commitment to diversity. The ﬁrms’ recruitment websites also emphasize the training and support they offer in a
friendly work environment where teamwork prevails. They furthermore highlight the good remuneration and beneﬁts
offered, including several work-life balance programs. These legitimacy management strategies are all aligned with
Millennials’ expectations generally depicted in the literature. Accounting ﬁrms thus present a work environment that is
generally aligned with Millennials’ system of values and beliefs. These ﬁndings suggest that there might be a two-way
socialization process taking place within accounting ﬁrms: a top-down process where new recruits learn how to be and
behave like an accountant, as suggested in prior research (e.g. Anderson-Gough et al., 1998) but also a bottom-up process
under which accounting ﬁrms adapt to meet Millennials’ expectations. This leads to our second research question:
RQ2. Have accounting ﬁrms adapted the workplace to meet the career expectations of the current generation of
employees?
In order to explore this possible two-way socialization process, we conducted interviews with accounting ﬁrm
representatives and ﬁnd indications that large ﬁrms adapted the work environment and work experience to retain the best
employees, not least in terms of instituting formal processes and developing new programs to offer more ﬂexibility, more
feedback, and more variety.
Our study contributes to the nascent accounting literature that has examined the content of accounting ﬁrms’
recruitment documents. Jeacle (2008) utilized Goffman’s work on impression management to examine the recruitment
literature of the Big Four accounting ﬁrms and six of the professional institutes in the United Kingdom to highlight
1
In this paper, the term ‘strategy’ refers to the means by which accounting ﬁrms strive to demonstrate to prospective employees how they will meet their
career expectations. Further use of the term ‘strategy’ is consistent with its use by Suchman (1995) referring generally to actions taken to manage legitimacy.
S. Durocher et al. / Critical Perspectives on Accounting 39 (2016) 1–24
3
techniques deployed by the profession to “camouﬂage the spectre of the stereotype” (p. 1296) of the conservative
accountant. Although this is not our main objective, we add to Jeacle’s ﬁndings by examining how Canadian ﬁrms strive to
manage their legitimacy by downplaying the conservative stereotype. Picard, Durocher and Gendron (2014) drew on Barthes’
semiotic approach to examine the relative cultural shift from professionalism to commercialism in the accounting
profession, based on an analysis of the promotional brochures used by the Ordre des comptables agréés du Québec, over the
last forty years, to attract new members. Although commercialism and professionalism might characterize Millennials’
expectations and accounting ﬁrms’ promises, our emphasis is more on the extent to which accounting ﬁrms frame their
recruitment documents in a way that suggests they strive to meet the expectations of prospective trainee accountants, thus
maintaining their legitimacy and hopefully ensuring a sufﬁcient level of stafﬁng.
This study also contributes to the sociology of professions literature. Although previous research mainly examined how
trainee accountants are socialized in the early stage of their career (Anderson-Gough et al., 1998; Anderson-Gough, Grey, &
Robson, 2000; Anderson-Gough, Grey, & Robson, 2001; Jeacle, 2008; Kornberger, Carter, & Ross-Smith, 2010; Ladva &
Andrew, 2014) and later on (Covaleski, Dirsmith, Heian, & Samuel, 1998; Kornberger, Justesen, & Mouritsen, 2011), it
overlooked the possibility that accounting ﬁrms might adapt the workplace to meet employees’ career expectations.
Professional identities (Hamilton, 2013) may thus be shaped by socialization processes that work bi-directionally. Although
trainee accountants are apparently quickly socialized by ﬁrms on how to behave as professionals, the trainees’ expectations
might also induce accounting ﬁrms to adapt the ﬁrms’ environments and work conditions, contributing to changes in what it
means to be a professional accountant today.
Our study is relevant for business students considering accounting as a career choice. They might be interested in learning
the extent to which accounting ﬁrms, as employers, share what is typically depicted as their values. Our study may also be
pertinent for accounting ﬁrms of all sizes that want to learn more about Millennials’ expectations and about current
recruitment practices in terms of website communications directed at prospective employees and in terms of processes and
programs arguably implemented to meet these expectations.
The rest of the paper is structured as follows. In the next section, we ﬂesh out the theoretical underpinnings of our study,
highlighting how legitimacy theory, career expectation theory and the sociology of professions literature altogether provide
a meaningful frame to make sense of our empirical data. We then present methodological aspects of our research, followed
by a discussion of our results in relation to our two research questions. Finally, we present our conclusions, the main
contributions and implications of our ﬁndings, and areas for future research.
2. Theoretical framing
A combination of legitimacy theory and writings on career expectations and on the sociology of professions is fruitful to
make sense of the discourse included in recruitment documents by large Canadian accounting ﬁrms and to understand the
changes they have undertaken to attract and retain Millennial employees. Stakeholders – such as job seekers – will attribute
legitimacy to an organization if they perceive that the actions of that entity are “desirable, proper or appropriate within some
socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs and deﬁnitions” (Suchman, 1995; p. 574). Large accounting ﬁrms
arguably need to display values and beliefs that are congruent with the commonly depicted career expectations of the
current generation of workers if they want to recruit the best candidates. These expectations might thus inﬂuence the work
environment and the values promoted by accounting ﬁrms, contributing to shaping the professional identity of today’s
accountant (Hamilton, 2013).
2.1. Millennials’ career expectations
Accounting ﬁrms are mainly recruiting Millennials (PwC, 2013). Ng et al. (2010) provided a thorough review of the
literature on career expectations of the Millennial generation and conducted a large-scale study of Canadian Millennials’
attitudes on this topic. They surveyed 23,413 Millennial undergraduate university students from across Canada. They did not
compare Millennials’ expectations with those of previous generations, they rather summarized the current expectations of
the Millennial generation. As Twenge (2010; p. 202) explains, a true generational difference study would require a time-lag
study where people of the same age are compared at different points in time.
Similarly, our paper is not a generational difference study. Our aim is to assess whether accounting ﬁrms’ current web
communications take into consideration the career expectations of the generation they are currently hiring, that is to say
Millennials. Ng et al. (2010) and other relevant literature set the stage for our study by depicting Millennials’ typical
expectations. Although we recognize that Millennials’ expectations are socially constructed and do not stem from a
predetermined “model”, this literature provides us with a set of values that are arguably important for many members of this
generation. Hence, individuals’ traits stemming from this research must be viewed as archetypical of Millennials’ views and
not as deterministic.
Ng et al. (2010) found Millennials are often looking for an adequate work/life balance. In contrast to their boomer parents,
Millennials seem to prefer “making a life” over “making a living” (Rentz, 2015; Zhang, Straub, & Kusyk, 2007). As Petroulas
et al. (2010) summarize, members of this generation typically do not “live to work”, they “work to live” in the sense that their
job enables them to do the various things they want to do. They usually look out for fun, quality friendships, and a fulﬁlling
purpose (Roberts, 2005). For many of them, a good work ethic involves working a 36-h week, whereas their Boomers parents
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typically believed it involved a 60- to 70-h week (Petroulas et al., 2010). The higher level of education of Millennials seems to
lead them to negotiate better work/life balance working conditions (Corporate Leadership Council, 2005; McDonald & Hite,
2008). They often attribute a lot of importance to reward systems such as time off, paid parental leave, subsidized education,
career breaks, and overseas travelling (EY, 2015; Petroulas et al., 2010; Southard & Lewis, 2004). Millennials are more likely
than preceding generations to quit a job because of a lack of ﬂexibility (EY, 2015).
Millennials also often expect good pay and beneﬁts and have high expectations in terms of promotions and pay raises (EY,
2015; Ng et al., 2010). For Millennials, money is typically not the incentive for effort. Good pay and beneﬁts are rather a
reﬂection of their need for feedback. Millennials perceive that they are well positioned to reap the beneﬁts of labor shortage
and that they are in demand as workers (Petroulas et al., 2010). As such, they consider themselves entitled to good monetary
rewards if they are performing appropriately (Ng et al., 2010). Millennials often have higher levels of narcissism and selfesteem than previous generations (Rentz, 2015; Twenge & Campbell, 2008), which adds to their level of expectations and
leads them to expect to be promoted quickly (PwC, 2011). Millennials are used to receiving what they wantwhich is the
result of a pampered up-bringing (Corporate Leadership Council, 2005). They are likely to leave if they do not get it (Ng et al.,
2010).
Ng et al. (2010) also found that Millennials are usually looking for meaningful work experiences; beyond monetary
rewards, they are hoping for work that is fulﬁlling. For instance, they cherish good training opportunities and the possibility
of developing new skills. Their Boomer parents inculcated in them the view that education is the key to success. Thus
Millennials tend to prize organisations that are committed to development and learning (Petroulas et al., 2010).
Consequently, Millennials put a high importance on training and education programs (Roberts, 2005). Millennials also
typically want constant feedback and encouragement and want their efforts to be recognized (Rentz, 2015; PwC, 2011). Their
desire for constant feedback might be the result of growing up with technology that has given them a sense of immediacy
(Martin & Tulgan, 2001). However, what they need seems to be positive feedback and continual praise. Millennials’ higher
level of narcissism and self-esteem often leads them to have an inﬂated view of their own performance and to be defensive in
response to criticism (Petroulas et al., 2010; Twenge & Campbell, 2008). Millennials will move on to the next job if their
contributions are not sufﬁciently recognized (Twenge & Campbell, 2008).
The variety of work experiences is a key concern for Millennials (PwC, 2011). They often have a very low tolerance for nonchallenging work (Corporate Leadership Council, 2005) or ‘unclean tasks’ (Morales & Lambert, 2013) and are usually looking
for work that is meaningful (Petroulas et al., 2010). Millennials also prize opportunities to have a personal impact. This
generation is the most socially conscious (Martin & Tulgan, 2001) and their members often attribute high importance to
social responsibility (Ng et al., 2010). This generation also has a desire to “save the world” (Ng et al., 2010). They seemingly
want to make a contribution and prize high-impact assignments (Corporate Leadership Council, 2005). A “sense of purpose”
is often part of the reason they chose to work for a speciﬁc employer (Deloitte, 2015). Corporate social responsibility is critical
to them and they increasingly examine employers’ values and mission statements and prefer those that go beyond simply
making money (Corporate Leadership Council, 2005). They tend to believe businesses are too ﬁxated on their own agendas
and not focused enough on helping to improve society (Deloitte, 2015). Millennials’ view thus seems consistent with
Lamberton’s (2015) idea that the primary objective of business should be to contribute to happiness.
Millennials tend to favor a nurturing work environment, emphasizing the social aspects of work (Ng et al., 2010). They
generally need a sense of belonging and enjoy working closely with co-workers and learning from colleagues (Corporate
Leadership Council, 2005; Petroulas et al., 2010). They often have less respect for hierarchy and authority (Rentz, 2015). They
usually prize teamwork and a fun environment (EY, 2015; Roberts, 2005). Human connections are important to them
(Petroulas et al., 2010). It is worth recalling that Millennials were frequently assigned to group projects and presentations at
school, which might explain the importance they attribute to friendly co-workers, fun and teamwork (Lyons, 2003).
In sum, Millennials seemingly “want it all” and “want it now” (Ng et al., 2010; p. 282). The sense of urgency that
characterizes several of the Millennials’ expectations mentioned above might be related to their use of technology and their
afﬁnity with the digital world (PwC, 2011). As PwC (2011) summarizes, “they have grown up with broadband, smartphones,
laptops and social media being the norm and expect instant access to information”. All in all, Millennials’ archetypal
expectations can be seen as the result of the system of values that characterizes this generation. It is reasonable to think that
employers who want to appear legitimate in the eyes of these prospective employees need to take these values into
consideration:
A better understanding of the Millennials’ career expectations and priorities helps employers to create job offerings and
work environments that are more likely to engage and retain [M]illennial workers (Ng et al., 2010; p. 281).
2.2. Millennial accountants
Although accounting students may have been subjected to pre-professional socialization processes through their
education (Picard et al., 2014), there are no a priori reasons to think that accounting students would hold different general
values than other students of their generation. Ng and Burke (2006) found very similar attitudes towards career expectations
for business students as compared to the whole sample of Canadian students surveyed by Ng et al. (2010). Accounting
students, however, represented only three percent of Ng and Burke’s (2006) sample. To our knowledge, only two studies
focused exclusively on accounting students or recruits. Petroulas et al. (2010) interviewed Millennials in a Big Four
S. Durocher et al. / Critical Perspectives on Accounting 39 (2016) 1–24
5
accounting ﬁrm in Australia and found their career expectations were generally consistent with those documented in the
literature. Elam and Mendez (2010) surveyed accounting students from two universities in Texas and found students hold
similar values as the ones documented by Ng et al. (2010) pertaining to work/life balance, promotion and work experience.2
One interesting ﬁnding of Elam and Mendez (2010) is that students genuinely believe their preferences match the
expectations of the workplace, which suggests they are conﬁdent they will ﬁnd an employer that will share their values.
Given that the retention of promising accountants represents a major issue for accounting ﬁrms (Elam & Mendez, 2010), it is
reasonable to expect the ﬁrms to make considerable efforts to address Millennials’ expectations in their recruitment
documents.
Accounting ﬁrms are also expected to address concerns speciﬁc to Millennials studying in the ﬁeld of accountancy in their
recruitment documents. One concern speciﬁc to Millennial accountants is the conservative stereotype of accountants. As
Picard et al. (2014) summarize, accountants are often represented in ﬁlms (Beard, 1994; Dimnik & Felton, 2006), humour
(Bougen, 1994; Miley & Read, 2012), business periodicals (Czarniawska, 2008; Ewing, Pitt, & Murgolo-Poore, 2001), literature
and poetry (Evans & Jacobs, 2010; Evans & Fraser, 2012) and popular music (Smith & Jacobs, 2011; Jacobs & Evans, 2012) as
dull and boring professionals. As Friedman and Lyne (2001; p. 423) noted:
The image of the beancounter who is single-mindedly preoccupied with precision and form, methodical and
conservative, and a boring joyless character has [ . . . ] been widely recognized as the clear stereotype of the accountant.
Such a negative portrayal of accountants is understood to represent an important disincentive to join accounting ﬁrms as
trainee auditors (Bloom & Myring, 2008; Carnegie & Napier, 2010; Friedman & Lyne, 2001; Malthus & Fowler, 2009).
Millennials are typically looking for meaningful work experiences and a nurturing work environment, which clearly
contradicts the beancounter stereotype. Millennials often want to be reassured they have made a good career choice and that
the beancounter stereotype misconstrues the work of public accountants. Indeed, Jeacle (2008) demonstrated Big Four
accounting ﬁrms in the UK strove to deconstruct this negative stereotype in their recruitment documents. It is reasonable to
expect Canadian accounting ﬁrms to do the same when describing the requirements, work experience and work
environment to prospective employees.
An additional concern for Millennial accounting students relates to the lack of diversity that characterizes the ﬁeld of
accountancy (AAA & AICPA, 2012; Edgley et al., 2016; Haynes, 2013; Kokot, 2015; PwC, 2014), which may be a key concern in
the eyes of candidates from visible minorities. Indeed, the Pathways Commission (AAA & AICPA, 2012; p. 18) identiﬁed
diversity as a major issue for the accounting profession:
The failure to attract and retain qualiﬁed entrants that reﬂect the diversity within the population will negatively impact
the profession in a signiﬁcant way. The differing perspectives that these entrants, who are currently underrepresented,
bring to the workplace will be critical to the long-term success of the profession. If this issue is not addressed soon, there
will be a growing shortage of qualiﬁed accounting professionals to meet the needs of the economy.
Accounting ﬁrms might thus strive to manage their legitimacy by highlighting their desire to have a workforce that
reﬂects the diversity of the population.
2.3. Managing legitimacy in recruitment processes
To succeed in their recruitment processes, we argue accounting ﬁrms will strive to manage their legitimacy in the eyes of
prospective employees by trying to demonstrate their actions are congruent with the Millennials’ system of norms, values,
and beliefs (Suchman, 1995). In other words, accounting ﬁrms have to convince potential recruits that the ﬁrm will meet the
candidates’ career expectations.
Legitimacy is a fruitful concept to study how organizations manage their relations with important stakeholders. For
instance, legitimacy theory has been widely used in accounting research to highlight how corporate managers draw on social
and environmental reporting strategies to respond to legitimacy threats, gain support from relevant audiences, and justify
the ﬁrm’s continued existence (see Deegan, 2002; Chelli, Durocher, & Richard, 2014; for a review). Legitimacy theory has also
been used to assess how standard-setting organizations secure support and stakeholder involvement in their activities (see
Durocher & Fortin, 2010 for a review). Legitimacy theory has also been applied to understand how professional accounting
bodies respond to crises (e.g. Carnegie & O’Connell, 2012). We contribute to the accounting literature by using legitimacy
theory to make sense of strategies adopted by accounting ﬁrms in recruitment documents targeted at prospective trainee
accountants.
Facing various demands from numerous stakeholders, accounting ﬁrms arguably have to “be active in creating
legitimacy” (Deephouse & Suchman, 2008; p. 54) to survive. Considering that legitimacy ultimately exists in the eye of the
beholder (Zimmerman & Zeitz, 2002) and that constituencies tend to have varying interests and use diverse criteria to assess
2
Another stream of research examined factors that encourage students to choose accounting as a major. Apart from a few exceptions (e.g., van Zyl & de
Villiers, 2011), this body of research mainly surveyed Baby Boomers and was published in the 1980s and 1990s. Authors did not assess accounting students’
career expectations per se. They identiﬁed factors that prompted students to initially select accounting as a ﬁeld of study. For instance, factors that can
inﬂuence students’ decisions include pressure from signiﬁcant referents (e.g., parents), perceived behavioral control (e.g., cost of education) and expected
outcomes (e.g. expected salary).
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S. Durocher et al. / Critical Perspectives on Accounting 39 (2016) 1–24
an organization’s legitimacy (Ruef & Scott, 1998), accounting ﬁrms may be inclined to carefully monitor the expectations of
prospective employees to inform their recruitment processes. Employees are salient organizational stakeholders (Agle et al.,
1999) and represent a critical resource, especially for knowledge-intensive organizations like accounting ﬁrms. Future
employees’ expectations are thus arguably non-trivial for these ﬁrms.
In his classic work on organizational legitimacy, Suchman (1995) adopts a comprehensive view of legitimacy that
captures both strategic (e.g. Dowling & Pfeffer, 1975) and institutional (e.g. Meyer & Rowan, 1977) views of legitimacy. He
suggests a legitimacy typology which includes three types3 of organizational legitimacy – with several forms of legitimacy
within each type – that can be managed to inﬂuence stakeholders’ perceptions. One of our contributions is to adapt
Suchman’s types and forms of legitimacy to the accounting ﬁrm recruitment context. These types and forms are then linked
with various attributes of Millennials’ career expectations. By managing various types and forms of legitimacy in their
written recruitment documents, accounting ﬁrms can strive to inﬂuence prospective trainee accountants’ perceptions, in the
hope of attracting good candidates.
The ﬁrst type of legitimacy in Suchman’s (1995) typology is pragmatic legitimacy. This type of legitimacy relates to selfinterested calculations of an organization’s immediate audiences who scrutinize organizational behavior to determine the
practical consequences, for themselves, of its activities. Pragmatic legitimacy includes two forms relevant to our purposes:
exchange and dispositional legitimacy. Exchange legitimacy relates to support often granted by a particular group of
constituents to an organizational policy, which arises from the expected value of that policy within a self-interested
evaluation (Suchman, 1995). In our context, typical Millennials’ expectations related to good pay and beneﬁts and prospects
of rapid advancement (Ng et al., 2010) fall within these self-interested evaluations. Accounting ﬁrms might strive to manage
exchange legitimacy in the eyes of prospective employees by emphasizing these facets in their recruitment documents
(Fig. 1).
Dispositional legitimacy is often granted by a group of constituents to an organization that shares the group’s values or
has its best interests at heart (Suchman, 1995). As Ng et al. (2010) point out, a good work/life balance is at the core of
Millennials’ values. Typically, Millennials do not want to spend all their time working, to the detriment of their personal life.
Accounting ﬁrms may attempt to manage dispositional legitimacy by highlighting work/life balance opportunities in their
recruitment documents (Fig. 1).
The second type of legitimacy in Suchman’s (1995) typology is moral legitimacy. Moral legitimacy reveals a positive
normative evaluation of the ﬁrm and its activities. Unlike pragmatic legitimacy that mainly rests on utilitarian self-interested
assessments, moral legitimacy is “sociotropic” as it rests on judgments about whether the activity is “the right thing to do”.
These judgments commonly incorporate issues of societal welfare, as part of the audience’s socially constructed value
system (Suchman, 1995). Three types of moral legitimacy are relevant to our purposes: consequential, procedural and
structural legitimacy.
Consequential legitimacy refers to the assessment of organizational outputs and consequences. Audiences often judge
the organization based on what it accomplishes, on the socially valued consequences of their activities. Accounting ﬁrms
might make efforts to manage consequential legitimacy in recruitment documents by highlighting the meaningful work
experiences (Ng et al., 2010) they can offer prospective employees. As Ng et al. (2010) explain, Millennials are often looking at
a company’s values and mission and seemingly prefer joining a ﬁrm that goes beyond simply making money. Accounting
ﬁrms might thus highlight their societal responsibility, for instance their role in protecting the public. They might also stress
the versatile nature of their work to show how accountants can “make a difference” and have an impact in various contexts
(Picard et al., 2014) (Fig. 1).
Procedural legitimacy refers to socially accepted techniques and procedures, while structural legitimacy relates to
structural characteristics which are morally favored (Suchman, 1995). Procedures logically encompass training and
evaluation. Structures reasonably comprise relations between employees. In our context, procedural and structural
legitimacy can be associated with the nurturing work environment that Millennials are looking for (Ng et al., 2010). The new
generation of workers often prefers procedures and structures that favor social aspects of work, allowing for collaboration
with colleagues and managers and opportunities to learn from colleagues and supervisors. Millennials typically want to
develop friendships with coworkers and they often value contexts where superiors are available for feedback (Ng et al.,
2010). Accounting ﬁrms might strive to manage procedural and structural legitimacy in recruitment documents by
underlining the nurturing work environment they can offer and the friendly-type structures that characterize this
environment, including the social aspects of the work and the “colourful” nature of the professional accountant (Jeacle,
2008). Just like “professional accounting bodies [attempted] to overcome the traditional accountant stereotype in order to
maintain or regain legitimacy” (Carnegie & Napier, 2010; p. 374), accounting ﬁrms might do the same in their recruitment
documents.
Fig. 1 summarizes our theoretical framing by linking Suchman’s types of legitimacy with Millennials’ typical career
expectations. Using Suchman’s (1995) typology adds rigor to our analysis because it requires specifying which legitimation
dynamics are examined. In this paper, we speciﬁcally look at how accounting ﬁrms strive to manage exchange, dispositional,
3
These three types are pragmatic, moral and cognitive legitimacy. The ﬁrst two types are relevant to our needs because they relate to discursive
evaluations that can be linked to Millennials’ expectations. Since the third type relates to taken-for-grantedness and unconscious considerations, it can be
linked to these expectations only with difﬁculty, and is therefore not addressed in this study.
S. Durocher et al. / Critical Perspectives on Accounting 39 (2016) 1–24
Legitimation dynamics
(Suchman, 1995)
Pragmatic Legitimacy
Exchange
Dispositional
Moral Legitimacy
Consequential
Procedural
Structural
7
Millennials’ expectations
(Ng et al., 2010 and other
relevant literature)
Good pay and benefits, rapid
advancement
Work-life balance
Meaningful work experience,
social responsibility, possibility
to make a difference
Nurturing work environment,
such as training, mentoring and
feedback
Social aspects of work, such as
team work and a friendly work
environment
Fig. 1. Legitimacy types in relation to Millennials’ expectations.
consequential, procedural and structural legitimacy in the hope of attracting trainee accountants. Suchman (1995) also
speciﬁes that legitimacy management strategies might differ depending on the objective pursued through legitimacy
management, i.e. gaining, repairing or maintaining legitimacy. Firms that enter a new market or line of activities usually
need to gain legitimacy. For example, North American accounting institutes needed to gain legitimacy when they sought to
enter the e-commerce assurance, in particular through the WebTrust project (Gendron & Barrett, 2004). Firms which
encounter severe legitimacy crises will often proactively seek to repair their legitimacy in the eyes of salient stakeholders.
For example, Carnegie and O’Connell (2012) examined the various strategies put forward by the Australian accounting
professional bodies in response to the early-1960s crisis while Brivot, Cho and Kuhn (2015),Rogers, Dillard and Yuthas (2005)
and Baker, Bealing, Nelson and Staley (2006) analysed how the AICPA reacted to the crisis of conﬁdence following the Enron
scandal. Carnegie and Napier (2010) argue the downfall of Arthur Andersen in 2002 following the Enron accounting scandal
threatened the survival of the four other largest accounting ﬁrms. The crisis of conﬁdence following other scandals and
collapses such as WorldCom in the USA, HIH Insurance in Australia, Parmalat in Italy, Royal Ahold in the Netherlands and
Equitable Life Assurance Society in the UK also had negative consequences on accountants’ reputations (Carnegie & Napier,
2010; Cooper, Everett, & Neu, 2005). Professional accounting associations thus have had to strive to repair legitimacy at
various points. However, it does not seem the ﬁeld of accountancy is currently experiencing a critical legitimacy crisis, maybe
because these accounting scandals were considered isolated events (Cooper et al., 2005) and substantive legislation has been
enacted in response to these events (Baker et al., 2006). This legislation includes the Sarbanes–Oxley Act that notably
involved the creation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, new auditing standards on topics such as fraud
detection and independence, and new accountings standards pertaining to issues such as stock-based compensation and
variable interest entities. These initiatives may explain why accounting students seem to hold rather positive perceptions of
the accounting profession (Allan, 2004; Germanou, Hassall, & Tournas, 2009; Hammani & Hossain, 2010; Nga & Mun, 2013),
although these perceptions might be quite fragile and require continuous management.
Once legitimacy is granted or repaired, organizations usually need to maintain their legitimacy, which involves
anticipating future challenges and protecting past accomplishments (Suchman, 1995). Maintaining legitimacy thus means
sustaining favorable perceptions from stakeholders. It requires constantly learning about audience values and beliefs
(Suchman, 1995). We believe accounting ﬁrms are in a “maintaining legitimacy” mode currently, in which they arguably
endeavor to be constantly aware of prospective employees’ values and expectations in order to strategically manage future
workers’ perceptions about the nature and implications of work in an accounting ﬁrm environment.
2.4. Millennials’ expectations and the “making up” of the accountant
Hopwood (1994) urged accounting scholars to study the processes that shape accounting identities. We contend that
Millennials’ career expectations contribute to these processes of professional identity construction. As Kornberger et al.
(2011) summarize, a number of studies drawing on the sociology of professions literature examined the socialization
processes trainee accountants go through during the early years of their careers in large accounting ﬁrms (Anderson-Gough
et al., 1998, 2001; Coffey, 1994; Grey, 1998). This body of literature demonstrated that being a professional is viewed much
more in terms of performing appropriately from a behavioral perspective, rather than in terms of possessing a body of
distinctive knowledge. Trainee accountants soon learn how to dress appropriately, how to credibly present themselves and
behave in front of clients, how to “work hard, play hard” and how to adequately manage their timewhich involves a
commitment to work long hours (Khalifa, 2013; Ladva & Andrew, 2014; Lupu, 2012; Whiting, Gammie, & Herbohn, 2015).
In other words, the early formative years in the career of accountants transform them into performers who are able to act
out the script delineating what it means to be a professional convincingly (Kornberger et al., 2011; p. 515).
8
S. Durocher et al. / Critical Perspectives on Accounting 39 (2016) 1–24
Table 1
Data Set As of 6 January 2013.
Rank by revenue
2011
Accounting ﬁrm
1
2
Deloitte & Touche
www.mycareer.deloitte.com/ca/en/students
PricewaterhouseCoopers www.pwc.com/ca/en/campus-recruiting/index.
jhtml
KPMG
www.kpmg.com/Ca/en/JoinUs/Students/Pages/
Default.aspx
Ernst & Young
www.ey.com/CA/en/Careers/Students
Grant Thornton
http://www.grantthornton.ca/careers
BDO
http://www.bdo.ca/en/Careers/pages/default.
aspx
MNP
http://www.mnp.ca/en/careers
Collins Barrow
http://www.getacblife.com
Total
3
4
5
6
7
8
a
Website address (links that were active at time Number of web pages (links)
of data collection)
on web sites
Number of pages in PDF
ﬁlesa
63
121
62
138
178
565
121
25
32
69
28
33
4
17
561
6
81
982
The content of each web page was measured at the nearest quarter of a page and the total number for each ﬁrm was rounded to the next whole number.
This last quote suggests the socialization processes only work one way, that is to say accounting ﬁrms transforming
trainee accountants into well-scripted professionals. Anderson-Gough et al. (1998; p. 131) also adopt such a stance:
If trainees understand being a professional primarily in terms of behaviour, it is because this is what they have been
taught in the socializing process.
Although we agree that trainee employees are targets of socialization, we believe future accountants may also inﬂuence
professional identities within the ﬁeld of accountancy. The possibility of such two-way inﬂuence has been largely overlooked
in prior research. To our knowledge, only Picard et al. (2015) indirectly recognized this possibility when they mentioned
accounting ﬁrms mandated marketing experts to strategically frame their recruitment strategies to attract good candidates.
This two-way inﬂuence process suggests structures and practices within accounting ﬁrms are always evolving in response to
what Malsch and Gendron (2013) call “institutional experimentation” in which structure and agency intertwine and
inﬂuence one another in complex ways. By taking into consideration newcomers’ expectations in recruitment documents,
accounting ﬁrms send the message they are adapting to Millennials’ expectations and hence modifying accountants’
professional identity. Furthermore, our interviews with ﬁrm representatives show indications that changes occur in the ﬁeld
in response to Millennials’ expectations. This is not to overstate the power of newcomers over employers; it is only to
recognize socialization is a two-way process where employers also adapt to a certain extent to the values held by the new
generation of employees.
We thus ﬁll a gap in the literature on early socialization of trainee accountants by recognizing that newcomers’
expectations – the Millennials’ expectations in our case – induce accounting ﬁrms to adapt their discourse and behavior in
trying to match values held by prospective employees.
3. Methodology
In order to answer our ﬁrst research question and capture the range of legitimacy management strategies adopted by
Canadian accounting ﬁrms, we examined the website content of the Big Four accounting ﬁrms (Deloitte & Touche,
PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, and Ernst & Young) and that of the next four largest Canadian national accounting ﬁrms
(hereafter the “Next Four”—Grant Thornton, BDO, MNP and Collins Barrow). These ﬁrms represent the eight largest Canadian
accounting ﬁrms ranked by revenue for 2011 (Jeffrey, 2012). We focused exclusively on the recruitment and careers segments
of the websites and considered all the text appearing within these segments.4 All web pages of the career and recruitment
segments were captured on January 6, 2013 using NCapture and saved as PDF ﬁles. A total of 561 web pages comprise our
data set. The size of these PDF ﬁles varies from one to about 40 pages, for a total of 982 letter size pages of content. Table 1
summarizes information about our data set. KPMG has much lengthier web content. This might be explained by the fact that
this ﬁrm includes a web magazine of at least 40 pages on their website and provides more biographic information of different
KPMG people involved in recruiting. Conversely, Deloitte presents the shortest web content. Their site presents a limited
number of pages under the following headings: the experience, the people, the work, the opportunities, the beneﬁts, ofﬁces
and frequently asked questions. MNP’s website almost exclusively focuses on clients and has only four web pages devoted to
prospective employees.
This web content was imported into NVivo, a qualitative data analysis software designed to help researchers process nonquantitative data such as text-based documents. We performed detailed content analysis (Krippendorff, 2013) by carefully
reading all pages. Each relevant segment of text was coded using NVivo. This software is useful to develop a hierarchy of
4
This paper assumes that website communications play an important role in accounting recruits’ choice of employers. However, we recognize that other
factors such as networking, friends, family, university careers ofﬁces, professors, etc. can also be important in this decision.
S. Durocher et al. / Critical Perspectives on Accounting 39 (2016) 1–24
9
codes, to perform searches queries through the entire database and to apply the constant comparative method (Glaser &
Strauss, 1967) by allowing the review of every portion of text coded under the same category to ensure consistency of coding
and interpretations. A hierarchy of codes was ﬁrst introduced in the software based on the literature review. For instance, all
sub-types of legitimacy were ﬁrst inserted with related Millennials’ broad types of expectations. Additional codes were
added as new categories emerged from the data, especially in terms of speciﬁc expectations addressed in web
communications.
To answer our second research question and assess whether actual changes took place within accounting ﬁrms in
response to Millennials’ expectations, we conducted in-depth interviews with Big Four and Next Four representatives. A total
of 13 interviews were conducted with 14 individuals from all Big Four ﬁrms and three of the Next Four ﬁrms. Interviewees
had on average, 20 years of work experience. Partners, senior managers, senior auditors and human resource managers and
advisors were interviewed to obtain diverse perspectives on ﬁrms’ adaptation to Millennials’ expectations (Table 2).
Interviews lasted 55 min on average and generated about 400 pages of raw data (double-spaced, font size 12). Respondents
were asked to share their views about Millennials’ career expectations and to explain any changes that they have witnessed
within their ﬁrm in response to these expectations. Interview transcripts were sent to respondents providing them with the
opportunity to make any changes they felt were necessary.5 As was the case for the web site content, interview data was
analysed using the NVivo software. The same researcher performed all the web content and interview coding to ensure
consistency. Discussion between team members was conducted to ensure agreement on ﬁnal interpretations.
4. Results
4.1. Legitimacy management strategies used in web recruitment communications
Our ﬁrst research question asks to what extent accounting ﬁrms take their prospective employees’ career expectations
into consideration in their web recruitment communications. Table 3 presents the various types of legitimacy management
strategies put forward by accounting ﬁrms in relation to Millennials’ expectations. This table lists all themes that recurred
across accounting ﬁrms. It is worth noting the Big Four and three of the Next Four (BDO, Collins Barrow and Grant Thornton)
present similar legitimacy management strategies. MNP’s website content related to careers was limited (see Table 1),
perhaps explaining why several legitimacy management strategies were absent.6 Table 3 clearly shows which legitimacy
management strategies were used by which ﬁrms. Overall, we can afﬁrm that the results discussed below apply to the seven
largest Canadian accounting ﬁrms, with only a few exceptions for speciﬁc legitimacy types. We now introduce some
representative quotes from the websites to illustrate our ﬁndings.
4.2. Managing consequential legitimacy
Accounting ﬁrms devote important efforts to managing consequential legitimacy in the eyes of prospective employees.
This type of legitimacy management strategy is the most popular for both the Big Four and the Next Four ﬁrms. Indeed, more
than 60% of their web communications address issues of consequential legitimacy (Table 4). Seemingly to attract good
candidates, the ﬁrms’ recruitment websites emphasize the meaningful work experience they can offer candidates, the
professional growth recruits will undergo at the ﬁrm, the opportunity candidates have available to them to have a real impact
for clients or in the community, and the ﬁrm’s commitment to diversity. These are all elements that are usually important for
Millennials (Ng et al., 2010).
While managing consequential legitimacy, both Big Four and Next Four ﬁrms give priority to highlighting the meaningful
work experience they can offer to new recruits (frequencies of 33.2% and 26.0%, respectively). They both highlight the
diversity of their client base, which will broaden recruits’ exposure to a range of clients, providing a variety of work
experience. Unsurprisingly, Big Four ﬁrms are in a position to serve a broader range of types of clients and they devote a
greater percentage of communication efforts than the Next Four ﬁrms to that matter (18% vs. 8.5%):
[w]e offer services to individuals and businesses in a variety of industries as well as a mixture of privately owned
companies, public corporations, not-for-proﬁt organizations, and the public sector. Becoming a member of our team
provides you with exciting challenges and interesting prospects. (KPMG)
I can be working on a multimillion-dollar manufacturing company engagement one day and helping a small, not-forproﬁt organization with its audit the next, meaning I’m constantly learning and growing as a professional. (Collins
Barrow)
Firms also stress the wide range of career prospects offered and the opportunity to work in a multidisciplinary ﬁeld,
providing recruits with an array of professional experience opportunities. Interestingly, the Next Four ﬁrms devote a greater
5
Three respondents made changes to their transcripts. However, these changes were minor and did not modify the substance of their testimony.
Since 2013 MNP launched an aggressive expansion strategy, primarily through the acquisition of small and medium sized ﬁrms in Ontario. The careers
section of their website has expanded somewhat in the same period.
6
10
S. Durocher et al. / Critical Perspectives on Accounting 39 (2016) 1–24
Table 2
Respondents.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7b
8b
9
10
11
12
13
14
a
b
Role in accounting ﬁrma
Type of ﬁrm
Work Experience (years)
Type of interview
Director
Partner
Partner
Senior Manager
Senior Accountant
Partner Learning Leader
Organizational Development Advisor
Human Resources Advisor
Partner and COO
Partner Human Capital
Partner
Human Resources Professional
Partner
Partner
Big Four
Next Four
Big Four
Big Four
Big Four
Big Four
Next Four
Next Four
Next Four
Big Four
Big Four
Big Four
Next Four
Next Four
18
21
30
19
3
17
2
5
24
19
33
31
24
29
Skype
Face-to-face
Face-to-face
Face-to-face
Face-to-face
Face-to-face
Face-to-face
Face-to-face
Skype
Telephone
Face-to-face
Telephone
Face-to-face
Face-to-face
All respondents were involved in recruitment and/or training/mentoring.
Respondents 7 and 8 were interviewed simultaneously.
percentage of their communication efforts to this feature (7.9% vs. 3.4%), suggesting they might be signalling that they can
compete with Big Four ﬁrms in this respect, or that they are establishing their own legitimacy relative to Big Four ﬁrms:
What type of services does BDO offer? BDO’s core services are: Assurance and Accounting, Taxation, Financial Advisory
Services, Financial Recovery Services, Risk Advisory Services, Greenhouse Gas Advisory Services, and IFRS Consulting.
(BDO)
Table 3
Legitimacy management strategies deployed by accounting ﬁrms.
Big Four
Next Four
D
EY
KPMG
PwC
BDO
GT
MNP
CB
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
Managing procedural legitimacy
Good training and support
Mentoring
Feedback
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
Managing structural legitimacy
Teamwork
Quality of co-workers
Friendly environment
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
Managing dispositional legitimacy
Work-life balance programs
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
Managing exchange legitimacy
Good remuneration
Good beneﬁts
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
Managing various types of legitimacy
Employer awards as legitimating devices
p
p
p
p
p
p
Managing consequential legitimacy
Meaningful work experience
Diverse client base/variety of work
Multidisciplinary ﬁeld/Wide range of career prospects
Challenging/interesting work
Travel opportunities
Career development
Professional growth
Development of new skills
Build relationship
Career adapted to one’s needs
Have an impact for client or in community
Commitment to diversity
D: Deloitte; EY: Ernst & Young; PwC: PricewaterhouseCoopers; GT: Grant Thornton; CB: Collins Barrow.
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
S. Durocher et al. / Critical Perspectives on Accounting 39 (2016) 1–24
11
Table 4
Frequencies of legitimacy management strategies by group of ﬁrms.
Big Four
Next Four
Coding frequency
Percent
Coding frequency
Percent
Managing consequential legitimacy
Meaningful work experience
Variety of work
Multidisciplinary ﬁeld/wide range of career prospects
Challenging/interesting work
Travel opportunities
Career development
Professional growth
Development of new skills
Build relationships
Career adapted to one’s needs
Have an impact for clients or in community
Commitment to diversity
1363
731
396
74
102
159
197
56
44
61
36
390
45
61.8%
33.2%
18.0%
3.4%
4.6%
7.2%
8.9%
2.5%
2.0%
2.8%
1.6%
17.7%
2.0%
320
131
43
40
20
28
70
25
19
12
14
97
22
63.5%
26.0%
8.5%
7.9%
4.0%
5.6%
13.9%
5.0%
3.8%
2.4%
2.8%
19.2%
4.4%
Managing procedural legitimacy
Good training and support
Mentoring
Feedback
319
165
137
17
14.5%
7.5%
6.2%
0.8%
67
40
15
12
13.3%
7.9%
3.0%
2.4%
Managing structural legitimacy
Teamwork
Quality of co-workers
Friendly environment
337
27
99
211
15.3%
1.2%
4.5%
9.6%
66
7
35
24
13.1%
1.4%
6.9%
4.8%
Managing dispositional legitimacy
Work/life balance
80
80
3.6%
3.6%
16
16
3.2%
3.2%
Managing exchange legitimacy
Advancement opportunities
Good remuneration
Good beneﬁts
70
23
9
38
3.2%
1.0%
0.4%
1.7%
31
12
2
17
6.2%
2.4%
0.4%
3.4%
Managing various types of legitimacy
Awards
35
35
1.6%
1.6%
4
4
0.8%
0.8%
2204
100%
504
100%
Total
Promises of diversiﬁed, challenging, and interesting work are numerous in ﬁrms’ web sites—as if Millennials cannot be
attracted unless the image of a dull and boring professional is rebutted. The work of the accountant is presented as anything
but boring:
As a part of our group, you will work on complex, engaging and critical projects, from building ﬁnancial models in support
of client ﬁnancing to investigating a patent infringement and assisting with anti-money laundering programs. Much of
what you do is highly conﬁdential and all of what you do is essential to our clients’ success. (Deloitte)
Notwithstanding the practical challenges that this might entail in terms of work organization, accounting ﬁrms do not
hesitate to promise variety to Millennials: variety of clients, variety of career possibilities and variety of types of assignments.
Another strategy to attract Millennials is to offer meaningful work experience through travel opportunities. Firms thus
provide various information on secondment and other travel opportunities and post employee testimonials about rich travel
experiences on their websites:
Once I ﬁnished work I took 4 weeks to backpack around Australia solo. I climbed the Grampians and drove the Great
Ocean Road to Melbourne. I spent a week on the wild island of Tasmania where I saw Tasmanian devils and wombats, and
sat on the peak of Cradle Mountain. I grew a beard and lost my camera. I travelled 3,500 km north from Melbourne to
Cairns. Along the way I saw a play at the Sydney Opera House and hundreds of penguins on Philips Island. I slept on buses
and on beaches, chased dingos, and stood in quicksand. I went scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef and surfed at Byron
Bay. I spent three days on a ship at The Whitsundays and drank cheap wine by night and snorkeled all day. I met a lot of
people and made some really good friends. I even saw a kangaroo or two! (Grant Thornton)
Travel opportunities ﬁt very well with Millennials’ desire to “work to live”. This quote indicates to future employees that
working in this ﬁrm can make their dreams come true.
Emphasizing career development is another strategy used by accounting ﬁrms to attract good candidates, and Next Four
ﬁrms devote a slightly greater proportion of their communication energies to this matter (13.9% vs. 8.9%). The ﬁrms strive to
12
S. Durocher et al. / Critical Perspectives on Accounting 39 (2016) 1–24
convince prospective employees that a spirit of professional growth will endure from the very beginning of their
employment until the end of their career:
What is the company culture at BDO like? At BDO, we believe in the “one-ﬁrm” concept. As part of our team, you will be
surrounded by mentors and colleagues who will support your career development. Our Partners take an active interest in
your progress, and our Managers and Senior Managers will give you day-to-day technical guidance and feedback. (BDO)
Even our partners never stop learning. Our Leadership Development Program ensures that the people running our
business are in top form. That could be you someday. What professional designation do you want after your name? We
can support you in your pursuit to add a few important letters behind your name including: CA CBV CFA CGA CIA CIP
CMA CMC CPA CISA IFA HR/Marketing professional designations. Got the drive? We have the GPS. We know you
have the drive to succeed. What you need is the opportunity. Deloitte will give you the tools and experience to put your
career on the fast track, and the assessment tools to make sure you’re in the right lane. (Deloitte)
Developing new skills is an essential component of career development, and ﬁrms emphasize the importance of skills
development for their pool of professionals:
As a world-class learning and development organization, one of the most signiﬁcant rewards we offer our people is to
continuously improve their skills and knowledge as they build their capacity to serve our clients. Using our internal
expertise, and in collaborating with member ﬁrms around the world, we aim to provide best in class people programs and
learning opportunities. (Grant Thornton)
Ongoing learning opportunities in terms of professional growth and skill development will arguably be attractive to
Millennials who attribute so much importance to learning. The preceding quotes suggest learning is “implicit” in a
professional accounting ﬁrm setting.
Large ﬁrms also stress how working with them will allow recruits to build relationships and connections that will be of
utmost importance over their entire career.
When you join Ernst & Young, you do more than launch a career. You may spend your entire career with us or you may
seek new challenges elsewhere at some point. Regardless, we believe you’ll want to stay connected with your Ernst &
Young colleagues, as these relationships will prove invaluable throughout your career. As an Ernst & Young alumnus,
you’ll be offered many opportunities to network with your peers. So whatever direction you choose to take your career,
you’ll beneﬁt from your time with us. (EY)
This quote recognizes the propensity of Millennials to change jobs. It however emphasizes that working in the ﬁrm will
provide invaluable relationships that will beneﬁt Millennials for their entire career, inside and outside the ﬁrm.
Another common feature of ﬁrms’ recruitment strategies is to emphasize the idiosyncratic nature of possible career paths
for each individual. The ﬁrms try to convince future prospects they will have opportunities to tailor their careers to fulﬁll
their personal aspirations in accordance with their preferences and needs:
KPMG offers a variety of routes you can venture down as you grow your career. While the Direct-to-Audit path is the
traditional choice, it’s not the only path you can take. Changes to the qualiﬁcation model have given KPMG the
opportunity to train you in areas other than Audit. The Direct-to-Tax and Direct-to-Advisory paths are ideal for those who
want to pursue a long-term career with the ﬁrm and would like to focus on Tax or Advisory from the beginning. (KPMG)
Big Four and Next Four ﬁrms devote similar proportional efforts (17.7% and 19.2%) to stress the extent to which they offer
new recruits opportunities to have an impact for their clients and in the community. The ﬁrms put great emphasis on client
service. Helping clients meet their objectives is presented as the raison d’être of all professionals working in the ﬁrms, as
suggested in previous accounting research (e.g. Anderson-Gough et al., 2000). Recruits will join not only an audit ﬁrm; they
will join a business advisory ﬁrm, and will have real impact on the ﬁrm’s business clients:
Our clients face complex challenges. They need comprehensive solutions. So our Assurance & Advisory Services practice
goes far beyond basic auditing we provide value-added service that anticipates issues and helps our clients make the
most of their opportunities. As part of the team, you’ll develop a deep understanding of speciﬁc business sectors.
(Deloitte)
It is worth noting that accounting ﬁrms put much more emphasis on the impact they can have as advisors for their
business clients, compared to the role they play to protect the public as independent auditors. This is in line with the greater
emphasis on commercialism rather than professionalism that has been documented in the literature (e.g. Malsch & Gendron,
2013; Picard, 2016; Picard et al., 2014).
Accounting ﬁrms are arguably aware that corporate social responsibility is often critical to Millennials (Ng et al., 2010).
They not only emphasize the opportunities new recruits will have to make a difference for their business clients, they also
highlight at length the opportunities recruits have to make a difference in the wider communities in which they live and
work.
At Ernst & Young, you’ll be encouraged to make a real difference in everything that you do — for our clients and in the
wider communities in which we live and work. Interested in promoting eco-friendly business practices? Or helping new
businesses thrive in emerging economies? When you join us, you’ll have the opportunity to get involved in causes that
matter to you. In communities around the world, our people use their workplace skills to create positive social and
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13
environmental change through education, mentoring and other local initiatives. It’s our way of giving back — and it could
change your life. (Ernst & Young)
BDO supports local initiatives in our external communities with charitable activities, volunteerism and donations. In fact,
we grant our employees one Community Day per year to participate in a cause of their choice to volunteer their services.
As a ﬁrm, we are proud to sponsor many different campaigns and events, including the nationwide Farm Credit Canada
Drive Away Hunger food drive and the BDO Canadian Open — part of the annual Grand Slam of Curling tournament. (BDO)
Some ﬁrms even extend performance measurement to charitable activities by computing the number of hours devoted to
community service by their employees:
Our commitment to volunteerism continues. In FY2012, 2,287 staff and partners participated in 315 ﬁrm-led team
volunteer initiatives contributing 17,100 total volunteer hours back to the community. We also took the next step and
started to measure the socioeconomic outputs related to our volunteer experiences using the scorecard created in FY2011.
Based on those metrics and in order to ensure we are creating positive change, in FY2013 PwC will undergo a “Theory of
Change” process to help the ﬁrm think differently about its community initiatives and map out a strategy to maximize the
social outcomes and impacts of its work, including measurement and evaluation methods. (PwC)
Millennials often attribute great importance to diversity in work environments (Ng et al., 2010). Diversity in accounting
ﬁrms has been a concern for a while (e.g. AAA & AICPA, 2012; Anderson-Gough, Grey, & Robson, 2005; Brennan & Millar,
2014; Cohen, Pant, & Sharp, 1993), and ﬁrms address this issue in their web communications:
More than numbers. But the numbers don’t lie. We’re making sure that the faces of Deloitte are the faces of an
increasingly diverse country. Last year, over 38% of new partners were women or visible minorities, up more than 10%
from last year. And 17% of current leaders at Deloitte are women. (Deloitte)
BDO is committed to providing an inclusive working environment where everyone feels valued and respected. Diversity
includes, but is not limited to, age, gender, ethnicity, physical and mental disabilities, sexual orientation, race, nationality,
marital and/or parental status, lifestyle, religion, and education. At BDO, we recognize, respect and celebrate the valuable
differences that each of us bring to the ﬁrm. We believe that diversity is a long-term commitment and our goal is to break
down barriers and create an environment that maximizes the contributions of all our employees. It is embedded in our
culture and is reﬂected in our people. In recognition of the value that people from different backgrounds and experiences
bring, the ﬁrm constantly evaluates its policies and procedures to ensure diversity initiatives are incorporated. (BDO)
Highlighting their intention to break barriers is arguably beneﬁcial to accounting ﬁrms in their efforts to recruit the best
individuals in a diverse pool of candidates.
In sum, our analysis of website content suggests accounting ﬁrms devote important efforts to manage consequential
legitimacy in the eyes of prospective trainee accountants. Although Big Four ﬁrms have more web site content than Next Four
ﬁrms (1363 instances vs. 320) that addresses this type of legitimacy, the two groups devote a similar high proportion of their
web communications to manage consequential legitimacy. Accounting ﬁrms are probably aware they will be judged on the
type of work they can offer to recruits and on the social consequences of their activities. They thus may try to attract recruits
by emphasizing the meaningful work and professional growth recruits can experience at the ﬁrm, and by stressing the real
impact recruits can have on business clients and in the community. The ﬁrms also emphasize their commitment to diversity.
4.3. Managing procedural and structural legitimacy
Accounting ﬁrms also seemingly devote considerable efforts to manage procedural and structural legitimacy, responding
to Millennials’ hope for a nurturing work environment. As was the case for consequential legitimacy, Big Four ﬁrms have
more lengthy web content than Next Four ﬁrms addressing these issues, but both group devote a similar proportion of their
web communication to them (Table 4).
Speciﬁcally, in terms of procedural legitimacy, accounting ﬁrms highlight the good training and support, mentoring and
feedback they offer to recruits.7 Millennials are often looking for an employer that will provide them with appropriate
training in the workplace (Ng et al., 2010). Accounting ﬁrms emphasize the various training opportunities offered to their
employees throughout their entire career:
At BDO, as with the entire accounting and consulting profession, there is a signiﬁcant commitment to training. It is a
major part of the culture. Speciﬁc training depends on your needs, and may be offered within the ﬁrm or through an
outside training organization. We want to be sure that you are appropriately trained to do your job, so we support training
programs that increase your job skills and enhance your career development. (BDO)
On average, each Deloitte employee spends 144 hours in training each year. [ . . . ] And last year, our people had access to
60,900 hours of online learning courses. (Deloitte)
Altogether, these two quotes suggest Millennials can beneﬁt from an important level of tailored training. Accounting
ﬁrms also put important emphasis on the support they provide to accounting trainees in preparation for the national
7
As Suchman (1995, p. 584) highlights, various forms of legitimacy coexist and are closely interrelated. For instance, training and support (procedural
legitimacy) is closely linked to and reinforces professional growth (consequential legitimacy).
14
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qualiﬁcation examination. This issue is often critical for trainee auditors (Anderson-Gough et al., 2001) who aspire to obtain
their professional designation:
What type of support does Grant Thornton give to students preparing for the UFE [Canada’s national qualiﬁcation exam]?
We’ve developed a comprehensive UFE preparation program designed to help you achieve your CA designation. Over an
8 month period, we lead you through the process and reinforce the concepts necessary to ensure success! There are four
main components to our program: An orientation course to get you started on the right foot. An early preparation
component focused on study plan preparation and exam-writing strategies. An intensive exam-writing workshop
providing many opportunities for individual coaching. A follow-up meeting to help you ﬁnalize your mental preparation.
(Grant Thornton)
Accounting ﬁrms also signal they attribute a great importance to mentoring, as Millennials often expect. Big Four ﬁrms
devote a slightly greater proportion of their web communications to this issue:
Sink or swim? Not here. You’re not alone at Deloitte. In addition to the people on your engagement team, you’ll have a
coach who’s always a call or email away, for questions large and small. We also pair you with a “buddy” a peer who can
help you learn the ropes. Eventually, you may be a coach yourself. (Deloitte)
Millennials not only attribute great importance to training, they also often “want an atmosphere where supervisors and
managers are constantly available for feedback” (Ng et al., 2010; p. 283). Millennials’ high need for feedback is recognized by
accounting ﬁrms. This is highlighted on their websites, with Next Four ﬁrms attributing a slightly greater proportion of their
efforts to this matter:
Our focus on business growth ensures a wide variety of assignments from numerous clients, each with their own set of
requirements. In your ﬁrst year, you will work on a ﬁle from start to ﬁnish, and acquire excellent preparation for your
professional exams. Our leaders provide day-to-day technical guidance and ongoing feedback, providing you with an
accurate assessment of your progress. (BDO)
Big Four ﬁrms also emphasize upward feedback opportunities offered to employees. To paraphrase, it is a way to give
employees a voice in evaluating their supervisors:
At Deloitte, we have a conﬁdential, web-based Upward Feedback program that allows you to provide feedback on your
manager’s performance. Your feedback becomes part of an evaluation that is tied to annual reviews for all business
leaders. One more important way for us to make sure our employees’ voices are heard and heeded. (Deloitte)
Accounting ﬁrms also seemingly devote important efforts to manage structural legitimacy to convince Millennials they
offer a nurturing work environment. They emphasize the social aspects of the work environment, pointing out the good
people recruits will work with, the friendliness between co-workers and the fun atmosphere that prevails.
Millennials usually prize a teamwork atmosphere in which they collaborate closely with, and learn from, colleagues and
managers (Ng et al., 2010; PwC, 2013). Accounting ﬁrms are seemingly responsive to this expectation:
Of course we look for smart people. We also look for people with imagination, curiosity, and drive. And so do other
professional services ﬁrms. What makes us different is our belief in teamwork. Other ﬁrms work in teams, but our entire
culture is built on it. When we win, we win together. (Deloitte)
In response to Millennials’ typical hopes for quality co-workers (Ng et al., 2010), accounting ﬁrms underscore the quality
of the team members recruits will have the opportunity to work with. This aspect is proportionally touched on slightly more
by Next Four ﬁrms:
I was offered multiple positions at various accounting ﬁrms and chose CB because of the people, knowing I would be
spending more time with coworkers than my own family. At CB there is a strong group of knowledgeable young
accountants, so we feed off each other’s energy levels. (Collins Barrow)
Moreover, accounting ﬁrms are keen on specifying that this teamwork with outstanding individuals takes place in a
friendly work environment, locally and internationally. The “work hard, play hard” philosophy that prevail in accounting
ﬁrms (Anderson-Gough et al., 1998) is highlighted on ﬁrms’ websites arguably to convince Millennials their expectations for
a meaningful work experience in a fun environment will be fulﬁlled. Big Four ﬁrms put proportionally slightly more
emphasis on this issue:
Work. And play. With 56 ofﬁces across the country, you can be sure that there is always a Deloitte team in action
somewhere. Our people have fun playing everything from extreme Frisbee to hockey, baseball, volleyball, and basketball.
Like the water? Join the folks who race on dragon boat teams. It’s all about creating an atmosphere where we celebrate
achievements and help build collegial team spirit. (Deloitte)
These structural legitimacy management strategies put forward by accounting ﬁrms might also contribute to Millennials’
comfort about their career choice by demonstrating a career in accounting has nothing to do with the dull and boring
beancounter stereotype.
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15
4.4. Managing dispositional legitimacy
In order to attract good candidates, accounting ﬁrms have to demonstrate they have the recruits’ “best interests at heart”
(Suchman, 1995). Millennials typically have high expectations about work/life balance issues (Ng et al., 2010; PwC, 2013):
Millennials do not believe that productivity should be measured by the number of hours worked at the ofﬁce, but by the
output of the work performed. They view work as a “thing” and not a “place” (PwC, 2013; p. 8).
Despite the commitments required by a career in accounting (Lupu & Empson, 2015), accounting ﬁrms nonetheless
devote a small portion of their web communications (3.6% and 3.2%) to emphasize the various programs they have
established to favor work/life harmony. Depending on the ﬁrm, these programs include ﬂex time, part time, compressed
week, telecommuting, leaves of absence, sabbatical leaves, parental leaves, adoption leaves and even concierge service.
Accounting ﬁrms stress they care for their employees’ personal lives, and are seemingly ready to make arrangements to
ensure their employees’ continuous performance at work:
Flexible working conditions are part of PwC’s culture. We all have social and family lives outside of work at PwC we get
that. We really do. We understand you have other commitments. Whether it’s playing on a sports team, spending more
time with your family, volunteering at your local charity, or even getting together with friends for a social event, we know
it’s important to you. And it’s important to PwC too. You may be surprised to know that it’s part of PwC’s culture to
recognize and support ﬂexible working conditions. (PwC)
At Grant Thornton we work hard. But we also know how to have fun and we respect the fact that our people have lives
outside of work, which sometimes requires a ﬂexible schedule or work arrangement. One of the many programs we offer
our people is the ability to moderate their work week by participating in our “Moderate the work week”, “Weekend
getaway”, or “Summer sojourn” programs. All permanent, full-time employees are eligible to participate in any and all
program options, which may allow you to reduce your work week by one or two days, or apply for a summer sojourn of
between two and 12 weeks. (Grant Thornton)
As this last quote suggests, accounting ﬁrms do not try to downplay the important amount of work required from
Millennials. This facet of the work in accounting ﬁrms is well documented. They, however, emphasized how they can adapt to
Millennials’ desire to “work to live”.
4.5. Managing exchange legitimacy
Millennials often have high expectations in terms of remuneration and beneﬁts (Ng et al., 2010). Although accounting
institutes publicize members’ average remuneration levels by sector (see for instance Picard et al., 2014’s study of the Ordre
de comptables agréés du Québec), accounting ﬁrms are much more discreet about their employees’ remuneration. Firms tend
to manage exchange legitimacy by emphasizing the competitive nature of the salaries and performance bonuses they offer.
We ﬁnd that Next Four ﬁrms devote a slightly larger proportion of their web communications than Big Four ﬁrms to this
issue, maybe to suggest they can compete with Big Four on this matter:
Grant Thornton is committed to providing competitive compensation to ensure that our ﬁrm is able to attract and retain
the best people. In order to ensure that our salaries are competitive in all the markets [where] our people work, we
conduct extensive research, benchmarking our compensation practices externally at least annually, and more frequently
as required. We offer a competitive total compensation package including competitive base salaries, ﬂexible beneﬁts,
reimbursement for professional fees, training and paid time off to study and write professional designation exams, as well
as many other rewards and incentives. We understand our people’s desire for intellectually, emotionally and ﬁnancially
rewarding careers. We offer an environment that truly values each individual, with competitive compensation being just
one aspect of what makes Grant Thornton a really great place to work. (Grant Thornton)
Firms also seemingly manage exchange legitimacy by highlighting other beneﬁts that complete the compensation
package. These beneﬁts are varied, as the following web site excerpt suggests:
BDO employees enjoy several additional beneﬁts when working at our ﬁrm. These include: Firm-supported training for
CA students. Reimbursement of student fees and professional dues (for employees with, or working towards, a
professional designation). Three weeks of annual paid vacation for full-time employees with no waiting period. One paid
day per year for volunteerism that supports our strong commitment to corporate social responsibility. Paid maternity
leave “top-up” (in addition to Employment Insurance beneﬁts). Paid parental/adoption leave “top-up” (in addition to
Employment Insurance beneﬁts). Paid paternity leave days. Employee assistance program, which offers conﬁdential allday access to information, counseling and referral services to support employees and their families. Short-term disability.
Long-term employee service recognition. (BDO)
Each ﬁrm publicizes its own list of beneﬁts to attract employees. They stress the need to provide competitive beneﬁt
packages to attract and retain talented people:
We understand that our people are our most important asset. We also understand that if we want to attract and retain the
most talented people, we need to offer you rewards that ﬁt your immediate needs, as well as your long-term goals. That is
why we have developed a “total rewards” package, which provides options that are more than just numbers on your pay
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cheque. They include beneﬁts, time off and learning and development and are ﬂexible enough to ﬁt your changing
lifestyle. (KPMG)
It is worth noting that accounting ﬁrms’ recruitment websites tend not to elaborate about career advancement issues, an
aspect often considered important by Millennials. However, the ﬁrms’ websites include extensive disclosures, as discussed
above, about the tailored nature of career development opportunities in the ﬁrm.
4.6. Employer awards as legitimating devices
In the competition for good candidates, accounting ﬁrms do not hesitate to foreground various employer awards they
have earned. These awards can be viewed as external attestations of their ability to fulﬁll Millennials’ expectations and as
such, constitute important legitimating devices. The employer awards cover various forms of legitimacy discussed above and
arguably act as legitimacy consolidators. For instance, KPMG manages consequential legitimacy by highlighting its
designation as one of the best Canadian employers in relation to diversity:
In 2012, for the ﬁfth year in a row, KPMG was chosen as one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers and as one of the Best
Employers for New Canadians. These awards recognize the efforts of all of our people, led by the Diversity, Equity &
Inclusion team, who work together to make the ﬁrm an inclusive organization. KPMG is the only employer in Canada to
have received both awards in the ﬁve consecutive years they have been awarded. (KPMG)
Highlighting the existence of a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion team clearly suggests diversity values are embedded in the
ﬁrm’s structure, which might be attractive for prospective employees. Another example8 is the following website excerpt
where PwC seemingly manages various forms (consequential, procedural and exchange) of legitimacy by highlighting its
designation as a Top 100 Employer:
For the ninth consecutive year, PwC was selected by Mediacorp Canada Inc. as one of the Top 100 Employers for 2013. This
recognition honours PwC’s commitment and investment in helping its people develop, advance and succeed. The skills,
experiences, and relationships people build at PwC are career deﬁning. Some of our popular people programs that were
highlighted in our recognition include: Training & development opportunities to enhance your skills and experiences
through frequent coaching, job shadowing and our “teach-don’t-tell” approach to learning, helping our staff learn faster.
Community involvement experience hands-on involvement in the community through our corporate responsibility
initiatives, such as team volunteer days. Rewards & recognition be rewarded through our various incentive programs,
everything from “Acclaim” points to bonuses to the CEO Award. Flexible work schedules– an environment that promotes
the opportunity to balance your personal and professional goals to meet your needs in our supportive workplace. (PwC)
KPMG was also recognized as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers for 2013. The ﬁrm not only described this award, it also
posted an icon on each page of its website highlighting this award. This further supports our contention that awards
constitute important legitimating tools.
4.7. Big Four vs. Next Four ﬁrms
Although we have identiﬁed some slight differences between Big Four and Next Four ﬁrms, our data indicate that these
two groups generally use similar legitimacy management strategies to demonstrate to prospective employees that they will
meet their career expectations. This ﬁnding conﬁrms that of Jeacle (2008, p. 1308) who highlighted that “the medium/small
ﬁrm follows a similar strategy in counteracting the conservative image of the accounting stereotype”. As Table 3
demonstrates, if MNP is excluded from the analysis, most strategies are followed by all ﬁrms. Furthermore, Table 4 clearly
shows that by and large, a similar level of efforts is devoted by all ﬁrms in relation to the management of the various forms of
legitimacy. A high level of isomorphism seems to prevail among all accounting ﬁrms who follow a similar logic in striving to
persuade Millennials to join their ranks. Apart from a few exceptions (Alam & Nandan, 2010; Lander, Koene, & Linssen, 2013),
most research related to micro-processes taking place within accounting ﬁrms focuses on Big Four ﬁrms. Our study
contributes to the literature by highlighting the similarities of these processes across the seven largest Canadian accounting
ﬁrms.
In sum, our results clearly demonstrate that large Canadian accounting ﬁrms generally align their web communications
with career expectations that typically prevail among the Millennial Generation. This suggests a two-way socialization
process under which accounting ﬁrms not only socialize new recruits but are also socialized by them. However, there might
be a certain level of symbolism (Mobus, 2005; Suchman, 1995) and self-laudatory language in web communications directed
at prospective employees that could challenge our argument about the existence of a two-way socialization process. In other
words, do accounting ﬁrms really “walk the talk”? More empirical evidence is thus needed to substantiate this two-way
socialization process. In addressing our second research question (see results below), we document this evidence.
8
The objective here is not to list the awards earned by each ﬁrm. We have selected some excerpts from the website content to support our argument.
S. Durocher et al. / Critical Perspectives on Accounting 39 (2016) 1–24
17
4.8. Evidence of a bottom-up socialization process
Our second research question asks whether accounting ﬁrms adapted the workplace to meet the typical career
expectations of the current generation of employees. Our objective while conducting interviews with accounting ﬁrm
representatives was to identify speciﬁc changes initiated in the workplace in response to Millennial’s expectations.
Accounting ﬁrm representatives were able to identity several changes that took place over the last decade in response to
Millennials’ career expectations. These changes relate to more regular feedback, more ﬂexibility and better work-life
balance, more variety in work experience, better communication with partners, new emphasis on corporate social
responsibility, enhanced mentoring and greater use of technology. This section does not aim at comparing the promises
included in the web communications with the actual situation prevailing in practice. Indeed, some of the features described
on the web may have existed for a while and might have been offered to previous generations. Our aim is rather to focus on
the changes that took place in recent years, as reported by interviewees, to highlight how ﬁrms adapted to evolving
expectations.
Our analysis indicates that accounting ﬁrms proactively seek input from their employees to better understand what their
needs are. They all seemingly recognize that they have to adapt the workplace to retain Millennials as this generation jumps
more easily from one job to another as compared to previous generations. Apparently, Millennials do not worry about the
impact of job rotation on their resumés.
They’re not in things for the long haul. They’ll certainly change their careers and their jobs at a moment’s notice. (Big Four
Representative)
4.9. More regular feedback
All respondents mentioned that Millennials presumably want more regular feedback and that this led to real changes in
the ﬁeld. As a Big Four representative noted, “gone are the days of, [ . . . ], doing this major comprehensive performance
assessment based on [ . . . ] all of these capabilities”. Firms had to change their mechanisms to offer more regular feedback. A
Next Four ﬁrm representative mentioned that the ﬁrm now meets every employee at least twice a year, in addition to
providing feedback as often as possible. Some ﬁrms have instituted mechanisms for “rapid feedback”:
So basically you know I will send a request to a manager or one of my subordinates and say you know I’ve worked with you
on this job. Can you quickly give me a couple of points of improvement and a couple things that you thought I did well.
(Big Four representative)
More continual feedback is also provided through mechanisms such as reviews taking place after each client
engagement:
Generally that would be done on some of the larger engagements, [ . . . ], more than two weeks in duration. (Big Four
representative)
Various recognition mechanisms were also put in place to sustain employee engagement. For instance, a Big Four ﬁrm put
in place a project team recognition program to ensure that all team members feel recognized throughout the course of an
engagement and a thank you program to ensure senior auditors get frequent feedback from their leadership team. Other
ﬁrms instituted recognition programs where employees receive credits for outstanding accomplishments, similar to Air
Miles points or gift cards that can be used to purchase goods from different vendors. As providing feedback requires training,
ﬁrms train managers to provide feedback:
It’s a three part program and the ﬁrst part actually is about communication, how do you communicate good, bad, [ . . . ],
and just trying to give them the tools to learn that skill set. (Big Four representative)
These changes suggest providing feedback is crucial to attract and retain Millennials. The overarching assumption is that
members of this generation want to know how they are performing, and they want to know it soon.
4.10. Flexibility and work life balance
All ﬁrm representatives mentioned that Millennials typically attribute great importance to ﬂexibility and that ﬁrms had
no choice but to adapt to this expectation:
There’s certain things Millennials won’t live without. [ . . . ] A good example is around workload. So you know the key
words are work ﬂexibility; work is a thing; not a place. (Big Four representative)
We have to adapt because it’s here to stay. [ . . . ] We can’t change how they are, we have to make concessions to adapt to
new realities. (Next Four Representative)
A Big Four ﬁrm introduced what they call the ﬂexibility calendar to change the culture around ﬂexibility and include
ﬂexibility considerations directly within the audit steps:
So when an Audit team sits down to talk about the client and who’s doing what work and getting into the team dynamic,
one of the mandatory steps is the team discusses ﬂexibility needs. And they have a calendar. So for example Joe wants to
go to spin class on Tuesdays at 5 pm, or Marcie knows that she’s got a bunch of different medical appointments or needs to
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go walk her dog or something at lunch time. It goes in the ﬂexibility calendar, so they have the dialogue up front. So that
people don’t feel awkward or guilty about leaving when they need to, and we can balance the workload. So we kind of
sometimes have to force it a little bit to actually get them having the dialogue. It doesn’t work if you just say please talk
about ﬂexibility. They don’t know what to do. It’s awkward, it’s difﬁcult. So we put some very clear, basically audit steps in
place to drive the culture change. Now it’s a lot more natural. (Big Four Representative)
Firms now offer what they call “ﬂextime” to their employees. In addition to their annual holidays, employees are entitled
to take a certain number of additional days off for personal reasons. Some ﬁrms add four or ﬁve days off during the year to
allow for long week-ends. Flexible hours are also commonplace in all large ﬁrms now, allowing employees to manage their
time within the limits of appropriate client service:
It’s less about the 9 to 5 and it’s more about empowering them. Like you’re responsible. So you’re professional, you’re
responsible, you know what the deadlines are, you know what the commitment is, so you now communicate that up front
and let them know and so if they decide they want to work at 10 o’clock at night, they leave at 6 to go for dinner or
5 o’clock to go for dinner and then get back on line later. Like that’s how we’ve adapted. We’ve provided them with the
ﬂexibility. (Big Four Representative)
Sabbatical leaves are also permitted during the less busy season. For instance, a Next Four ﬁrm allows its employees to
take between two weeks and up to three months off during which they receive 25% of their salary. A Big Four ﬁrm provides
opportunities for taking four to six weeks off during non-busy times with a monetary supplement of $1200 or $1500.
Another one allows taking a whole summer off to compensate for accumulated overtime, “something you would have never
seen in the past in an accounting ﬁrm” (Next Four representative). Parental leaves are now also commonplace in accounting
ﬁrms. Programs identiﬁed by our respondents include four weeks off in addition to the period covered by the government
parental program and ﬂexible hours for new mothers, for example the possibility to work three to four days a week.
Firms have also implemented health care spending accounts or ﬁtness allowances. According to a Big Four representative,
“[Millennials] want the wellness programs”. These include programs where:
Basically every employee has a certain amount of money that they have at their discretion to use for, you know, again we
deﬁned what they can use it for, but it should be something to promote a health, the concept is it should be to promote a
healthy lifestyle. (Next Four Representative).
The implementation of these various ﬂexibility and work-life programs in response to Millennials’ expectations are
seemingly key in attracting and retaining members of this generation. Arguably, these programs serve to downplay the heavy
workload which is typical in accounting ﬁrms.
4.11. Variety of work experience
Our interviews revealed that most accounting ﬁrms tend to have a discussion about each employee’s career plan within
the formal annual evaluation process. They try to accommodate an employee who would like to have an experience in
another service area if it is possible. It could also happen informally:
[ . . . ] where various partners, senior managers who wanted to have staff work for them and gravitate towards them and
have better retention, [they] would informally offer these things through their network and their own clients. And they
ﬁnd ways to expose people to different things. Though it wasn’t necessarily a centrally coordinated type of effort. What’s
become very, very evident over the past number of years is it needs to be centrally coordinated. (Big Four Representative)
Indeed, new accounting recruits typically expect variety in work experience, and they are not ready to be as patient as
previous generations to get it: “not that we didn’t want it but, of course, I think we better accepted that there’s a process. You
had to go through this apprenticeship and then you get there” (Big Four Representative). Nowadays, ﬁrms are pressured to
satisfy this request:
We had a partners’ meeting in Toronto in October, and our very senior leadership team was on the stage with one of the
Millennials. And they asked her what do you want, and what are the challenges, right? And she just called it like it was. It
was fascinating. [ . . . ] She made that very point. We want variety. You know. We would really like to have exposure to all
the ﬁrm has. But we can’t get it because even though we say we want it, it’s not convenient because this audit has to run,
right? So she basically called the ﬁrm’s bluff on that one. So now this just got released. It’s a new program to look for
opportunities for staff to go and try this for 3 weeks and that for 3 weeks. And the partners basically have been told you
will make it work. (Big Four Representative)
This quote reveals that Millennials were disappointed because, in contrast to what they were promised, they were not
exposed to the various services within the ﬁrm. In response to this request, the ﬁrm introduced a “rotation program [ . . . ]
where people can go on and post on a bunch of opportunities, [ . . . ] so July 1 we’ll have 300 opportunities posted” (Big Four
Representative). To stimulate this program, the receiving service would not be “penalized”. For instance, “if you take an Audit
person over to Corporate Finance, [ . . . ] we said ‘Guess what Corporate Finance, we won’t charge you for [this person]”’ (Big
Four Representative), which suggests that adapting to Millennials’ expectations may involve signiﬁcant costs. Although
offering variety to Millennials is ch…

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