Views of Generation X and Y in public accounting firms: job satisfaction, commitment and intention to remain

It is essential for professional accounting firms to understand and adapt to changes over time and shifts in employment contract thinking. Sociological and demographical changes are having the most obvious and critical impacts on the accounting industry. It is essential for business success and sustainability to develop an astute understanding of human traits, attitudes shifts, social trends and the perceptions of our youngest employees. Research can provide better understanding of the younger generations of employees in the work place. The purpose of the paper is to provide more resources for employers to use in developing the next generation of accounting professionals and leaders. Most accounting firms employ Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980 approx.) and Generation Y (born between 1981 and 2000 approx.). Employers are living in the reality of recruiting and retaining these two distinct cohorts. This requires an understanding of each distinctive generation and their overall values, attitudes and expectations. Currently there are limited reports or studies directed towards public practice in relation to these generations' cohorts. The intention of the research is to understand the current environment of public practice by exploring satisfaction, commitment, and intention to remain factors relevant to recruiting, retaining and developing generation X and Y students and designated accounts (CA's, CPA's), primarily in British Columbia. The relevancy of this research is due to several factors: aging partners and managers, shifting numbers of entrants to the profession and a booming economy in British Columbia that is predicted to remain strong up to 2010. Subsequently a survey was developed to explore factors important to Generation X and Y pertaining to satisfaction, commitment, and intention to remain, and the effects of these factors on recruiting, retaining and developing generation X and Y professionals in public practice. In a survey of 162 Generation X and Y respondents of which 149 completed the qu