Resilience: "The road towards accountants’ career sustainability”

Abstract

It is widely recognized that the accounting profession is subject to different challenges and demands due to the complex and ever-evolving work environment that is dominant nowadays. Correspondingly, the need for resilience, adaptability, and the strategies to build a long-lasting career are considered as vital. This qualitative research study delved into this issue and examined the two concepts of resilience and career sustainability in the accounting profession in Cyprus, specifically in the private sector in an attempt to gain a broader understanding of the social reality of employees, and the factors that may have an impact on their potential career sustainability. Ten semi-structured individual online interviews of experienced accountants from different private audit firms were conducted and through the thematic analysis of the data, 3 main themes emerged which are: (1) the complexities of the accounting profession, (2) the resilience as a dynamic process, (3) the integrative nature of career sustainability. The research findings highlighted the way in which resilience is understood as a dynamic process, the complexities inherently linked to the accounting profession and the organizational, contextual, and personal factors that affect the career sustainability of accountants. Finally, the findings of the present study contribute to both theory and practice informing organizations on how they can promote resilience and foster career sustainability that can better assist accountants in dealing with the demands and challenges of their job role.