Abstract ABSTRACT: In this study, an exploratory analysis of the work of the audit manager was undertaken using the critical incident methodology. Eighty-eight critical requirements of managerial work were identified from a total of 582 critical incidents that were reported in a series of 69 structured interviews involving partners, managers, and senior field staff from five national and international public accounting firms in Canada. Critical task requirements were assigned to one of ten managerial roles originally identified by Mintzberg [1973] by a panel of seven judges. Analysis of the pattern with which critical incidents were reported was undertaken. Significant differences were found to exist in the pattern with which partners, managers, and field staff reported particular incidents. The role of the individual within the firm thus seemed to be associated with the character of the incident reported. When the pattern of critical incidents reported was analyzed for partners, managers, and senior field staff on a firm-by-firm basis, only the character of the incidents reported by senior field personnel seemed to be associated with their firm affiliations.

Abstract In this article, the author responds to comments of the analyst Paul A. Ryder on his research paper "The Nature of Managerial Work." The author says that Ryder raises a number of general methodological issues about organizational research and the critical incident methodology which have been well documented in the literature. Issues raised are ones regularly revisited by organizational theorists and are, in general, issues which have not been unambiguously resolved. Measures which intrude may elicit atypical roles and responses, and, to the extent that they do, these measures are said to be reactive. Research methods may be obtrusive without necessarily being reactive, and conversely research methods may be reactive while not being particularly obtrusive. For the purpose of describing the nature of managerial work in large organizations, a number of research methodologies have been used. Suggestions that stereotyped perceptions from different organizational levels is a product of the methodology applied, is a critique which provides some cause for concern.

Abstract ABSTRACT: A description was developed of external auditors' subjective decision environment in the case of a normal manufacturing company audit. Eighty partners and managers from six national public accounting firms in Canada responded to an extensive questionnaire asking them to evaluate potential environmental components at several stages in the audit engagement: (1) before the beginning of the work, (2) at several operational stages and (3) after the audit's completion. The audit environment was revealed to be complex: though some components were perceived to be consistently important throughout the audit, the importance of others waxed and waned as the audit progressed. A highly interdependent, client-oriented environment was portrayed by respondents.