STEREOTYPES OF AUDITORS IN SLOVENIA

Ko govorimo o stereotipih lahko na kratko njihovo definicijo opišemo kot posploševanje lastnosti na celotno skupino. Ne oziramo se na individualne lastnosti posameznikov, ampak vsakemu individuumu pripišemo lastnosti, ki jih nosi njegova pripadajoča skupina. Ker lahko takšno dejanje – namerno ali nenamerno – povzroči posameznikom nesrečo, je priporočljivo, da stereotipiziranja posamezniki ne vzamejo preveč osebno. Ker sem se sama odločila za študij računovodstva in revizije in imam željo v tem poklicu tudi nadaljevati svoje delo, se mi je zdelo zanimivo raziskati, kakšno mnenje imajo ljudje o revizorjih. Iz pretekle literature sem ugotovila, da so se te teme v zvezi z računovodji že dotaknili, manj pa je bilo raziskanega o revizorjih. Podatki, ki sem jih dobila, pa so bili predvsem iz tuje literature. Pri raziskavi stereotipov revizorjev v Sloveniji sem najprej pregledala že narejene raziskave po svetu. Za primerjavo sem vzela tudi že raziskane stereotipe računovodij. Ugotovila sem, da je te literature veliko več. Očitno je poklic računovodja stereotipsko še toliko bolj zanimiv in izrazit kot poklic revizorja. Obe raziskavi sta podali precej podobne rezultate. Računovodji in revizorji naj bi bili dolgočasni in umirjeni ljudje, k temu naj bi jih silil njihov stil dela, ki je prav tako monoton in vse prej kot zanimiv. Osivel, starejši, možakar v nemoderni elegantni obleki, ki se ne najde v sodobni družbi in množici, je tako predstava mnogih o računovodji in revizorjih. To sliko, ki je zrastla v očeh nepoznavalcev, se močno trudijo znebiti sodobna revizijska podjetja. Predvsem štiri velike revizijske družbe - Deloitte&Touche (D&T), Ernst&Young (E&Y), KPMG in PricewaterhaoseCoopers (PWC) – imajo misijo izločiti zastarel pogled na delo revizorjev in ga posodobiti predvsem v očeh mladih iskalcev zaposlitve. Kako jim to uspeva, sem se želela prepričati kar sama, zato sem opravila intervjuje z dvema skupinama ljudi. V prvi so bili malo večji poznavalci dela revizorja in revizorjev samih, v drugi pa popolni laiki. Z zanimanjem sem opazovala vzorec odgovorov, ki je nastajal pri moji analizi. Poznavalci so odgovarjali precej manj stereotipno, saj so govorili iz svojih osebnih izkušenj in poznanstev. Tisti, ki pa se s poklicem ne srečujejo, niti nimajo stika z revizorji, pa so odgovarjali čisto po mojih pričakovanjih – stereotipno. Tako sem dosegla vse moje cilje, preučila sem literaturo, ki se dotika moje teme, opravila sem intervjuje, analizirala dobljene rezultate in ugotovila, kateri temeljijo na resnični podlagi, kateri pa so zgolj posledica stereotipov. Rezultati so mi pomagali pri potrditvi oziroma zavrnitvi mojih hipotez. Po mojih pričakovanjih sem ugotovila, da imajo ljudje precej enotno mnenje o delu revizorjev in o njih samih. Iz izkušenj stereotipov tudi pri moji raziskavi vidimo, da se njihovo mnenje ne sklada vedno z dejanskim stanjem. Prevečkrat nastaja njihovo mnenje kot posledica preveč napihnjenih afer revizorjev, ki obstajajo v medijih ali pa kot posledica opisa izmišljenega revizijskega lika, ki igra v kakšnem filmu ali nadaljevanki.When we talk about stereotypes we can summarize their definition as a generalization of qualities to an entire group. We do not take into account separate qualities of individuals but we ascribe the individuals the qualities that a group they belongs to has. Because such doing – intentional or unintentional – can cause an individual misfortune, it is advised that individuals do not take stereotyping too personal. Because I decided to study accounting and auditing and have a desire to continue my career path in this field, I thought it would be interesting to research the opinion that people have towards auditors. From past literature I found out that this has already been researched concerning accountants, but there was little research concerning auditors. Most of the data that I gathered was from foreign literature. When researching stereotypes of auditors in Slovenia, I firstly checked the already carried out research around the world. As a comparison I also took into consideration the already researched stereotypes of accountants. I found out that there is a lot more research concerning this topic. Obviously the profession of accounting is even more stereotypically interesting than the profession of auditing. Both researches gave very similar results. Accountants and auditors are supposed to be boring and calm people, this is supposed to be due to the type of their work, which is just as monotonous and everything but interesting. That is why many imagine an accountant and auditor as an elderly man with gray hair wearing an out of fashion elegant suit, who cannot find his way in modern society and crowd. Modern auditing firms are trying very hard to get rid of this image, which has grown in the eyes of non-experts. Especially four big auditing firms – Deloitte&Touche (D&T), Ernst&Young (E&Y), KPMG and PricewaterhaoseCoopers (PWC) – have taken upon them the mission of eliminating the obsolete view of the work of auditors, and to modernize it in the eyes of young job seekers. I wanted to see for myself how they are prospering, that is why I carried out interviews with two groups of people. The first were more acquainted with the work of an auditor and auditors themselves and the second were layman. I watched the pattern which was being created by my analysis with interest. The first group answered a lot less stereotypically because they were speaking about their own experiences and acquaintances. But those who do not come across this profession and have no contact with it answered according to my expectations – stereotypically. In this way I managed to achieve all my goals, I studied the literature which concerns my topic, carried out interviews, analyzed the gotten results and found out, which have truthful basis and which are merely a consequence of stereotypes. The results helped me to confirm or discard my hypotheses. As expected, I found out that people have a very uniform opinion about the work of auditors and auditors themselves. From experience with stereotypes, we can also see in my research that their opinion is not always in accordance with reality. They often arise as a consequence of too widely known affairs with auditors, which exist in medias or as a consequence of a description of a made up character of an auditor, which plays in a movie or series