| Problem Statement and Results. This study proposed to determine whether competencies of licensed professional accountants vary according to accounting system; the population consisted of large international accounting firms in the United States (U.S.) and Great Britain (G.B.).; The results supported McComb's theory of disparate accounting systems through differences in perceived competencies of professional accountants from two accounting systems. Competency differences reflected a lack of harmony for newly licensed accountants within these two systems.; Procedure. Competencies of new Certified Public Accountants (U.S.) and Chartered Accountants (G.B.) were evaluated by supervisors using a validated Likert-type questionnaire designed for this purpose.; A 63-item questionnaire on competencies was generated from U.S., G.B. and International Federation of Accountants literature and a data sheet on personal characteristics was prepared to determine differences for each group. The instrument was juried by U.S. and G.B. experts, and a pilot study established internal consistency (Cronbach's Alpha = .98).; Questionnaires and personal data sheets were distributed in New York and London offices of four international accounting firms. Data were obtained for 57 U.S. and 61 G.B. newly licensed accountants; 86% and 78% of the subpopulations (Cronbach's Alpha = .94, .96, and .95 for U.S., G.B. and total questionnaires, respectively).; Discriminant analysis determined whether a set of competencies existed to differentiate the systems; Mann-Whitney U Tests determined whether each competency was distributed differently for each system.; Findings. A discriminant function containing five competencies resulted, and correctly categorized 84.8% of the cases (canonical correlation coefficient = .785 (p < .01)). Mann-Whitney U Tests indicated that 44.4% of perceived competencies (p (LESSTHEQ) .01) were distributed differently for U.S. and G.B. accountants. While a degree of harmony of competencies did exist, harmony was not indicated in a significant proportion.; Chi-square analysis and Mann-Whitney U Tests on personal characteristics data indicated that G.B. CAs tended to be male, older, trained longer, initially educated in a discipline other than accounting, and remained on audit staff throughout training, than did U.S. CPAs.; Conclusions. A lack of harmony exists between the perceived competencies of U.S. and G.B. newly licensed accountants; therefore, McComb's theory of disparate accounting systems was supported. Accounting systems within the U.S. and G.B. reflect varying competencies. |
