Abstract
In the recent past, technology has advanced greatly, and every business is looking for a way to automate its activities. However, the advancement is associated with job losses since machines replace most activities performed by humans. This paper will qualitatively assess the effects of automation on the accounting profession and employability. It will also carry out qualitative research by interviewing students from Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Nigeria. The literature review will help in building a theoretical framework and pinpointing the researchers’ thoughts about the effects of automation on employability (Fernandez and Aman, 2018). The research findings suggest that interviewees and other respondents knew the effects of automation in the job market, especially in the accounting field but believed that there were new jobs created requiring critical thinking and consultancy skills. These findings may be crucial to policymakers in both public and private institutions for shedding light on the effects on business automation.
Introduction
Automation of business activities is on the rise, and many organizations seem to be embracing innovation and technological advancement. It has positive and negative impacts since it boosts efficiency but reduces the need for human labor, causing loss of jobs (Rkein et al., 2019). However, automation tends to increase the demand for skilled personnel for running advanced systems. This paper explores the impact of automation on both employability and the accounting profession.
Research Overview
A technological advancement is a powerful tool in stimulating the economy through job creation and employability, particularly in the accounting profession. This can be argued that mechanization and computerization were meant to create jobs with a notion that as an organization gains scale, it requires higher human capital where accountants are included (Bhargava, Bester, and Bolton, 2021). In business automation, employees in highly skilled job requirements spend much time in data collection and processing experience a major shift in their work environment.
Evaluation and Synthesis of Relevant Literature
Nigeria has a significant and developed higher education sector, which absorbs about 60 percent of the students who complete secondary school education. Although the country exhibits incredible gains in equitability to formal education access, there have been plans for the country to elevate its academic and education standards to meet the job market needs. The Ministry of Education has realized improvements in all levels of middle and higher-level colleges. Today, there are many universities, both private and public, offering accounting courses.
The available research on accounting graduates focuses on the gaps between education and practice. There have been claims that accounting graduates are inadequately prepared in both technological applications and skills, which creates a big gap between professional and technical competencies. Accounting professionals usually evaluate fresh graduates’ accounting technical competencies. The outcome of this evaluation is not impressive as the majority of them are ranked below average.
The field of accounting will require focusing more on information systems syllabi, courses, surveys, and textbooks. It has been discovered that most of the current topics cover an introduction to systems, transaction processing, and internal controls. There is a need to put more emphasis on software and hardware issues of accounting information systems. According to a survey conducted by Fernandez and Aman (2018), in covering ICT areas, they focus on information security and controls, E-business, and electronically based financial reporting. Information security controls were perceived to be the most relevant topic. Bhargava, Bester, and Bolton (2021) surveyed educators to determine skills students require to attain before graduating in the accounting field.
It was found out that they were expected to have skills in using financial spreadsheets, presentation software, business graphics, and communication software, and database management. However, Rkein et al. (2019) argue that employers prefer graduates with a blend of digital technology and technical skills as well as behavioral skills. Stakeholders in academics and industry have noted the importance of developing accounting skills, including the requirement of implementing the best practices in an accounting classroom.
The accounting profession is on the decline, but account managers will be in high demand. A manager would require reduced time to monitor cash flow creating room for other managerial functions such as employee supervision (Fernandez and Aman, 2018). The aforementioned is significant in most third-world countries. The country has a government that is not proactive in the fast-tracking of technology and the changes in professions as well as new competency demands in mitigating unemployment incidents (Rkein et al., 2019). There is a rising concern about the effects of automation on the job market, becoming a central debating issue among all stakeholders. Although economic development is highly dependent on the advancement of new technologies, job automation has been associated with loss of employment.
There is a great motivation in the business realm on installing Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is moving towards replacing the workforce in most of the processes. For instance, in the accounting section, an intelligent computerized system can be helpful to traders and investors in analyzing portfolio performance as well as predicting market changes (Rkein et al., 2019). Moreover, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has changed the ancient auditing practice, as the repetitive tasks have become fully automated, thus improving business services, processes, and quality of the audit in the accounting firms.
Automation improves efficiency and enables auditors more time for other significant duties. However, it has created new competencies by opening new application fields such as predictive analysis in gathering and processing of complex data reports that save time and improves customer experience (Bhargava, Bester, and Bolton, 2021). Although this creates a notion that automation comes with new competencies and technologies, there is a lot of concern about the plight of young people graduating from colleges.
The overall effect of automation is a significant drop in employment opportunities for the new graduates. However, at a high level of education, people are irreplaceable, especially in matters strategizing, influencing, and working with the stakeholders in improving overall business and financial performance (Fernandez and Aman, 2018). Notably, automation will still be nascent, but there is a need to prepare accountants for flexibility so that they remain relevant to the dynamic work environment.
Different stakeholders have diverse attitudes towards accounts automation on the impacts it has on the job market. Accounting professionals, more so the consultants, believe that some companies may not embrace full automation of their daily activities, citing the distrust in the systems, especially on data security and technical failures (Fernandez and Aman, 2018). However, more researchers believe that automation has more positive outcomes than negative ones on the job market. Some accountants have a positive attitude towards automation as it makes their daily work easy in facilitation (Zhang, Dai, and Vasarhelyi, 2018). For instance, automation gives accounting professionals time to strategize, a key factor in becoming true business partners.
Automation unlocks accountants’ ability to judge, enrich their experience as well as perceived being of value to the organization. Instead of putting more emphasis on problem detection, accounting professionals are capable of anticipating the hitches before they happen with the help of Big Data (Zhang, Dai, and Vasarhelyi, 2018). Business analysts feel that automation should focus on data analysis insights to help accountants in making better financial decisions and business strategies. With this in mind, automation will be relevant to accountants in their work environment.
Methodology
The research will focus on accounting, banking, and economics students at Enugu State University to explore their perception of automation and its effects on future employability. The research will use a qualitative approach in gathering both primary data and secondary by use of questionnaires to explain and assess the claims of the research question (Bhargava, Bester, and Bolton, 2021). There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the employability of young people leaving colleges due to automation.
Research hypothesis
The future projections of this claim are also complicated, making it difficult to evaluate the impact. As such, researchers decide to use a qualitative research approach instead of the quantitative one. Since the quantitative approach is based on statistics collection as well as number crunching, it is not possible to reveal uncertainties and understand the beliefs, meanings, and experience (Fernandez and Aman, 2018). The study adopts a semi-structured research tool in obtaining information from the university participants. The tool utilizes questions or topics, which are schematically presented for the interviewer to explore.
The study will focus on all students learning to account at Enugu State University of Science and Technology. The primary data will be obtained from all students filling the questionnaires. Participants will appropriately fill dependent variable data selected for the study. In gathering the secondary data, research papers, as well as online materials will be used. Students will be divided into four different categories where they will receive different questionnaires, and categories will be labeled as A, B, C, D.
In the four designed semi-structured interviews, there will include different questionnaires where A will contain 14 questions about the awareness of automation, its application, effects, costs, and the impact on employment for future accountants (Bhargava, Bester, and Bolton, 2021). Category B will have eight questions on automation, new work applications, and their effects on the job (Zhang, Dai, and Vasarhelyi, 2018). C category will contain 13 questions that will cover automation applications, their impacts on competencies and curriculum issues, as well as the accounting profession. Finally, D the category will have ten questions that covered automation awareness, its applications, and effects on curriculum, profession, and future employability concerns.
Description and Justification of the Research Method
Upon completing the questionnaires and citing from the secondary data collection, it was revealed that students are aware of the problem of automation but feel that the current education system does not prepare them for future employability requirements (Chukwuani and Egiyi, 2020). All groups presented a better understanding of automation and its forms, the ability to highlight artificial intelligence, ICT, and the underlying accounting software applications.
The groups also discussed current curriculum requirements and what the future holds for the accounting profession. They also raised concerns of future employability but affirm that the current training focuses on software applications required rather than the technical and hardware part of training. It was also discovered that automation would not replace human labor but a way of facilitating their work. However, they admitted that automation would affect the rate of employability in the future (Zhang, Dai, and Vasarhelyi, 2018). All categories were in unison that it is not possible to automate everything, and human input will still be needed.
Discussion and Justification of the Research Objectives
The research conducted reveals that all participants were aware of automation and its outcomes on the accounting profession. Instructors, students, employers, and employees utilize software applications in accounting at different levels (Zhang, Dai, and Vasarhelyi, 2018). They are also aware of the future changes that will require all stakeholders to be proactive with new competencies that will dictate the needs of the job market. This research is one of the few carried out in Lebanon, and as such, there is a need to expound on the knowledge presented.
The outcomes of the research are encouraging, giving motivation to other Lebanese researchers who will be willing to conduct further study on this topic. Although there has been a big gap between the competencies required by the job market and those acquired by the students, the outcome of this research indicates that universities need to review their curricula to meet future market requirements (Zhang, Dai, and Vasarhelyi, 2018). All participants were in unison that human input is still needed in the automated process, which will make their work efficient.
Research Limitations
Data collection was carried out from a small sample, which limits the outcome generalization. However, the findings presented explores the effects of automation on the accounting profession, which paves the way for future research (Bhargava, Bester, and Bolton, 2021). Another limitation is that the semi-structured interview consisted of four categories, each with different questions. This can have an impact on the outcome where it may affect generalization.
Conclusion
The technological advancement has affected the global job market, Lebanon being used as a case study in this research. Automation has raised a heated debate among all stakeholders, and the opinions presented in this research by the participants give a clear picture of what is happening on the ground. Automation has an impact on employability, where machines now perform most of the tasks. This is an indication that few people will be required to do tasks that cannot be automated. Future accounting employability will require students to scale up their competencies to fit in the dynamic job market. As such, universities need to review their curricula in preparation for the next generation to enable them to gain employment regardless of job automation.
Reference List
Bhargava, A., Bester, M., and Bolton, L., (2021). Employees’ perceptions of the implementation of robotics, artificial intelligence, and automation (RAIA) on job satisfaction, job security, and employability. Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science, 6(1), pp.106-113.
Chukwuani, V.N. and Egiyi, M.A., (2020). Automation of accounting processes: Impact of artificial intelligence. International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) 4 (3), pp. 444-448
Fernandez, D. and Aman, A., (2018). Impacts of robotic process automation on global accounting services. Asian Journal of Accounting and Governance, 9, pp.123-132.
Rkein, H., Issa, Z.A., Awada, F.J. and Hejase, H.J., (2019). Impact of automation on accounting profession and employability: A qualitative assessment from Lebanon. Saudi Journal of Business Management, 4, pp.372-385.
Zhang, C.A., Dai, J. and Vasarhelyi, M.A., (2018). The Impact of Disruptive Technologies on accounting and auditing education: How should the profession adapt?. The CPA Journal, 88(9), pp.20-26.