An Examination of Perceived Barriers to Mentoring in Public Accounting

While both mentoring and peer relationships exist among some auditors in public accounting, little is known about these relationships. The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence on perceived barriers to mentoring and peer relationships in public accounting. Analysis of responses indicated three interpretable factors representing barriers to forming mentoring relationships. First, participants without a mentor perceived greater barriers from access to mentors and from willingness of the mentor. Gender differences were significant in all three factors. Partners perceived barriers from access to mentors to be lower than those perceived by the other ranks. Finally, willingness of the mentor was perceived to be a greater barrier by local firm participants than by intermediate or Big 5 firm participants.