The Value of Incorporating Emotional Intelligence Skills in the Education of Accounting Students

The tasks and skills that are required of accounting practitioners in today’s global business environment havechanged significantly since the early 1990s. No longer are accounting practitioners required merely toundertake the tasks necessary for information provision, such as bookkeeping, data analysis and taxpreparation. Instead, they are now in a more encompassing position which has extended their roles intoinformation facilitation, thus repositioning accountants as knowledge professionals rather than accountingtechnicians. This in turn suggests a need for a greater emphasis on incorporating components of emotionalintelligence in accounting education. However, as accounting students are generally not aware of thisexpanded role, those who are attracted into accounting courses may not possess the appropriate aptitude thatwould provide a good foundation for developing the skills now required in the professional accountingenvironment. Therefore, it is important that the teaching of accounting should incorporate strategies thatenable students to understand and the need for developing these necessary, but often missing, competencies.This paper reports on two independent studies conducted at an Australian university which suggest thatincorporating emotional intelligence skills into the education of accounting students, by providing a variety oflearning environments and tasks, may be beneficial to accounting graduates as they seek employment.