A Mile in Their Shoes
Accounting Research That Puts People First
by Anna Mitchael
Often, it’s all too easy to keep doing what everyone before you has done. For Owen Brown, PhD, associate professor and holder of the KPMG-Thomas L. Holton Endowed Chair in Accounting, there was an important factor in accounting and auditing research he felt needed more attention: people.
Before receiving his PhD from Virginia Tech and transitioning permanently to the world of academia, Brown spent three years in a “Big 4” accounting firm as an auditor. He knew that world from the perspective of someone who had boots on the ground. He understood tensions. He remembered what he struggled with during his time in the profession.
When it came time for Brown to begin asking questions for his research in his doctoral studies, he learned that most business research, and especially research within the accounting and auditing fields, typically uses archival data. Yet, that type of data would never be able to answer the questions Brown was wondering.
“The audit profession is a people profession,” Brown said. “Our capital is the work we do. When you’re a service provider, the work your people do is so valuable.”
Brown wanted to know how to better equip auditors to do their work well. He wanted research that would equip companies to move forward.
“We had some estimates that accounting firms were spending millions of dollars on evaluations of staff,” Brown said. “We wanted to make sure the process was appropriate, and that people were being rewarded and incentivized correctly.”
Brown thought back to what he had experienced as an auditor. He knew there could be frustration if individuals felt their reviews weren’t performed using accurate measurements. When he looked into the matter further, he started to realize all the effects it could have if an auditor believed their review was unbalanced, inaccurate or biased. An auditor’s motivation to do their job well, as well as loyalty to their company, and maybe even their chosen career path, could decrease.
To give this issue further examination, Brown and his co-researcher wouldn’t simply be able to sift through data. They decided perspective-taking was important in their scenario.
“It’s like the adage from our grandparents’ day: Before you judge or evaluate someone, walk a mile in their shoes,” Brown said.
Brown and his co-researcher established two groups to give auditors a firm answer on whether their evaluations were accurate representations of their work. One was a control group, where evaluations proceeded as usual with no factors changed. In the second, they offered the evaluator a perspective-taking prompt. This prompt would encourage the evaluator to think about the staff auditor’s experience and some of the challenges they faced, and to jot a few things down before moving on.
“When we looked at the two groups together, we were able to see that the auditors who received the perspective-taking prompt evaluated the staff auditors more fairly and impartially than those who did not receive the prompt,” Brown said. “This could give auditors faith in their evaluations. If they received constructive feedback, they would know it is trustworthy information.”
Ultimately, the hope is that this study can be a tool of encouragement for the auditors and their firms who spend countless hours conducting performance evaluations.
Because of the behavioral nature of his research, Brown says his studies align closely with marketing or psychology research. For Brown, all of his work in academia – whether research or teaching – pours into the larger goal of holding the accounting profession to the highest standards of integrity. Anything he can do to reinforce those values – whether showing students how to make a positive impact through their profession or equipping those already in the accounting profession to continue growing and moving forward – is a win.
“I often use the platform of teaching ethics and integrity as a way to talk about my faith,” Brown said.