Abstract. This study, based on Holland's theory, examines the relationship between accountants' personality types and their commitment to work in various occupational settings and organizational levels. Empirical evidence on this subject may have useful implications for personnel selection and job design in public accounting firms as well as in industry. The results show that conventional and enterprising types were the most frequent among the 1206 Canadian CAs and 810 California CPAs who participated in the study. In addition, a larger proportion of sole practitioners and partners in small firms tend to be of the conventional type, whereas the enterprising type comprises the largest proportion of partners in large firms. Canonical correlations indicate that accountants' commitment to both profession and organization is essentially related to their scores as conventional and enterprising types. Résumé. Fondée sur la théorie de Holland, cette étude porte sur les relations entre les types de personnalités de comptables et leur dévouement au travail, à l'intérieur de milieux de travail et de niveaux organisationnels divers. Les informations de nature empirique issues de cette question peuvent possiblement influencer les activités de sélection de personnel et de conception de tâches au sein des cabinets d'experts‐comptables et de l'industrie. Les résultats indiquent une fréquence élevée des types de personnalité conformiste et entreprenant parmi les 1206 c.a. canadiens et les 810 c.p.a. de Californie ayant pris part à l'étude. De plus, une forte proportion de practiciens autonomes et d'associés de petits cabinets se trouve dans le type de personnalité conformiste, tandis que le type entreprenant est composé surtout d'associés de grands cabinets. Des corrélations canoniques montrent que le dévouement des comptables à l'organisation et à la profession est surtout relié à leurs scores de types conformiste et entreprenant.

Abstract This article presents comments of the author on the paper "The Auditor-Firm Conflict of Interests: Its Implications for Independence," by A. Goldman and B. Barlev that was published in the October 1974 of the periodical "The Accounting Review." In their paper, the authors attempted to analyze the set of factors affecting the relationships between auditors and firms, and in particular the problem of auditors' independence. In doing so, they touch upon areas of sociological analysis which have been developed in the past few decades, especially the sociology of professions. Their use of the relevant literature, however, leaves much to be desired. The authors ignore a basic distinction between interpersonal and institutional autonomy-problems. Scholar E. Friedson refers to it as private interaction versus public interaction, that is, between the micro-level and macro-level phenomena. The autonomy of a particular auditor vis-a-vis his client is a product of a set of factors affecting their specific mode of interaction, but the autonomy of the profession of public accountancy is determined by collective variables, not reducible to interpersonal relationships.

Abstract ABSTRACT: This study analyzes the antecedents and outcomes of the organizational-professional conflict of accountants working in government, industry, and the profession. Hypotheses were generated and examined for a sample of 2,016 U.S. and Canadian accountants. The findings indicated that: (1) the organizational-professional conflict of accountants working in professional organizations was lower than that of accountants employed in nonprofessional organizations; (2) within professional organizations, ,the level of perceived conflict varied inversely with position in the hierarchy; and (3) the perception of conflict was negatively related to job satisfaction and positively related to employee turnover intentions.