The job satisfaction of higher level employees in large certified public accounting firms

Abstract

This research study is divided into two parts. In the first part differences between audit, tax and management services (MS) specialists holding positions of Senior or higher and employed by large CPA firms are examined on three dimensions: (1) job satisfaction, (2) personal characteristics and (3) job features. Using multivariate analysis several differences between MS specialists and audit tax specialists as a combined group are detected. However, no statistically significant differences were found on the three dimensions between audit and tax specialists. The second part of the study concerned predicting the job satisfaction of audit, tax and MS specialists using personal characteristics and job features as independent variables in multiple regression. Moderate success was achieved in predicting the job satisfaction of audit and tax specialists, but predicting the level of job satisfaction of MS specialists was unsuccessful. The results of this study have policy implications for large CPA firms as well as research implications for job satisfaction researchers.