Job offers of multi-national accounting firms: the effects of emotional intelligence, extra-curricular activities, and academic performance

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of academic performance, extracurricular activities (ECA) and emotional intelligence (EI) of potential accounting-major graduates on the outcomes of their respective interviewing activities and the number of final job offers given by the multinational Big 5 public accounting firms. The following outcomes are identified: (a) the number of initial job interviews is affected by both a graduate's academic performance and level of participation in ECA; (b) the number of subsequent job interviews is affected by both the number of initial job interviews as well as the level of a graduate's EI; (c) the number of final job offers is affected by the graduate's level of EI and both the number of initial and subsequent job interviews. The results indicate the relevance of EI in the job search process and will also be useful for accounting educators to plan their curricula more effectively to enhance the job placement of their graduates with the Big 5 firms.

Keywords:

• Emotional intelligence
• soft-skill competencies
• interviews
• job offers

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the kind encouragement of the Editor, the valuable and helpful suggestions of the anonymous Associate Editor and the constructive comments of the two anonymous reviewers. I would also like to thank the views provided by Hing-Wah Lee and Antonio C.P. Wong as well as participants of the Accounting Education Group Symposium of the AFAANZ 2003 Conference, Brisbane, Australia.

Notes

1. Despite its popularity, the EI concept is not without criticisms. The more common criticisms include: (a) EI is a ‘marketing term’ that is not possible to measure (Steiner, 1997); (b) EI is simply a new term for a set of established competencies (Woodruffe, 2001); and (c) there is no criterion-related validity for EI in the scientific literature (Robertson and Smith, 2001). The issues relating to conceptualization and measurement problems are further emphasized by Becker (2003). However, Luthans (2002) suggests that the relatively weak theory development and measures of EI do not preclude its potential applications in areas such as enhancing personnel performance and for leadership development. Matthews et al. (2003, p. 110) contend that, despite the absence of a general factor of emotional intelligence, ‘ … it may still be useful as a broad umbrella term for the field of inquiry.’ Their view is supported by Jordan et al. (2003) who argue for the adoption of emotional intelligence as a variable in organizational research.

2. Besides regression analysis being done using the overall EI variable, further analyses have been performed by having the respective dependent variables of initial job interviews, subsequent job interviews and final job-offers, being separately regressed against the five individual composite dimensions of the EI variable. The multiple regression results for the individual dimensions are as shown in Tables A--C in the Appendix. Generally, the coefficient results are not statistically significant (at p < 0.0100) for the respective individual dimensions. These examples show that extended exploratory analyses may be interesting in enabling which dimensions may have identification of greater predictive powers than other dimensions on the different stages of the recruitment process in Big 5 firms.