Motherhood: The key to the glass ceiling ? the case of the big four in France

Women in public accounting firms are still proportionally much fewer in the highest levels of the hierarchy than men, whereas the recruitement at a junior level tends to be more and more gender balanced. The aim of this paper is to propose ana analysis of the mechanisms that explain the barriers encountered by auditor mothers in their hierarchical progression within the Big Four in France.case study; glass ceiling; gender; public accounting firms; motherhood.

Mothering or Auditing? The French Big 4's Desperate Auditors

Les femmes restent proportionnellement moins nombreuses dans les plus hauts niveaux de la hiérarchie des cabinets d'audit, alors qu'au moment du recrutement, la parité est désormais quasiment respectée. L'objectif de cet article est de proposer une analyse des mécanismes à l'origine des obstacles rencontrés par les mères auditrices au sein des Big 4 en France. A partir de 24 entretiens menés auprès d'auditeurs et d'auditrices de niveaux hiérarchiques variés, nous montrons que les femmes sont confrontées à un dilemme en termes de gestion de leur vie personnelle/ vie professionnelle qui les amène à modifier leurs habitudes de travail et à opter pour des trajectoires spécifiques (spécialisations ou fonctions support). A terme, l'ensemble des contraintes s'imposant à elles les conduisent souvent à se retrouver exclues du groupe de « ceux (celles) qui sont susceptibles de devenir associé(e)s ».genre, plafond de verre, cabinets d'audit, maternité

"Be yourself or rather be your Brand"! care of the self as a control tool in a cosmetics firm

Care of the self, a technique for governing the individual in society, proves to be equally a control technique for the individual in the firm. In a firm dedicated to the cult of beauty, there is a blurring of the lines between employee and consumer individual. This blurring makes care of the self a control tool whose rising power over individuals is all the greater because it is nurtured and maintained by the individuals themselves.brand; marketing; individual behavior; human resources management

Who is she and who are we? A critical essay on reflexivity in research into the rarity of women executives in accountancy

This paper proposes a critical stance on research into the rarity of women at the highest levels of accountancy. The authors aim to unravel the discourses produced on this topic in the accounting literature and question their own experience and perception as scholars building on Bourdieu’s work on reflexivity (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992; Bourdieu, 2001, 2003).Gender; accounting profession; methodology; reflexivity

National Learner Satisfaction Survey: Pre-employment Training

Trinh Tu, Claire Lambert, Billie Lever Taylor, Claire Lister and Angela Klei

Control and Change. Analysing the Process of Institutionalisation

This paper studies the process by which a change in the institutional logic of an organisational field is institutionalised in management control systems of a firm. In particular, three elements of organisational control, inspired by the control mix defined by Abernethy and Chua (1996), are studied: management culture, division of powers between functions, and accountability principles. The theoretical framework proposed by Hasselbladh and Kallinikos (2000) enables us to describe the institutionalisation process of management control systems in more detail by observing how ideals are translated into discourse and in turn control techniques. The paper also investigates the internalisation and “decoupling” occurring between the implementation of control systems, and their actual use when applied for monitoring operational managers. Indeed, the empirical findings, based on a field study conducted in the French subsidiary of a pharmaceutical laboratory, enable us to identify a persistent decoupling. Our results show it stems from ambiguous managerial choices and the resistance of the actors to the new norm. However, it appears that, when discourse can not be heard, it can be partially bypassed using techniques. In fact, these techniques enable an insidious institutionalisation of the new institutional logics when “what can be done can not be saidcontrol, change, process of institutionalisation

Control and change studying the process of institutionalisation

This paper studies the process by which a change in the institutional logic of an organisational field diffuses through the management control system of a firm.change; institutionalisation; management control systems; decoupling; salespeople