Interviews with a sample of women in auditing reveal that they experienced women-to-women bullying throughout their public accounting careers. We define these aggressive behaviors in an accounting context and identify theoretical explanations. Since university accounting programs and accounting firms alike share responsibility for preparing and developing new accountants, we also present the interviewee's recommendations for the academy and the profession to reduce woman-to-woman social aggression. The recommendations can also address communication and interpersonal issues beyond gender-on-gender bullying.

JEL Classifications: L290; M140; M42.

The auditing profession has a complicated history with gender equality (Cohen, Dalton, Holder-Webb, and McMillan 2020; Lehman 1992; Kirkham and Loft 1993; Madsen 2013). Women enter public accounting at rates similar to men but face different struggles with advancement (Anderson-Gough, Grey, and Robson 2005; Baker and Brewis 2020; Broadbent and Kirkham 2008; Cohen et al. 2020; Madsen 2013; Ngo, N. Piquero, Mastracchio, and A. Piquero 2021). Public accounting firms have made a concerted effort to increase the number of women partners by implementing policies that promote a favorable work-life balance and by creating opportunities for networking and mentoring (Anderson-Gough et al. 2005; Baker and Brewis 2020; Cohen et al. 2020; Kornberger, Carter, and Ross-Smith 2010), but women still comprise only 23 percent of partners in public accounting firms (AICPA 2019).

Despite these policies and opportunities, women auditors may feel pressure to embrace stereotypically male (aggressive) behaviors for advancement.1 Women executives are subject to greater scrutiny and termination threats than their male counterparts (Gupta, Han, Mortal, Silveri, and Turban 2018; Gupta, Mortal, Silveri, Sun, and Turban 2020). Women executives also contend with pay disparity pressures (Wang, Markoczy, Sun, and Peng 2019). These pressures may cause female partners, directors, and managers to lash out at their subordinates, particularly younger females (Ellemers, Rink, Derks, and Ryan 2012; Staines, Tavris, and Jayaratne 1974). These behaviors can take the form of social aggression. Underwood (2003, 32) broadly defines social aggression as “all behaviors that are intended to harm others by harming their social relationships, peer status, or friendships.”

In the following sections, we theorize reasons for woman-to-woman social aggression, provide initial evidence of woman-to-woman workplace bullying based on a series of semi-structured interviews,2 and discuss how the academy and the profession can help reduce these negative behaviors.

Gender role socialization theory proposes that men generally exhibit agentic behaviors like self-reliance and independence, while women exhibit more communal behaviors (Gupta et al. 2018; Salin and Hoel 2013). To attain leadership positions, women may eschew communal behaviors in favor of more agentic behaviors (Cohen et al. 2020; Kornberger et al. 2010; Maupin and Lehman 1994). As men typify the “boss figure,” women may mirror masculine leadership styles to gain or retain status (Derks, Van Laar, and Ellemers 2016), which may result in women leaders lashing out at other women (Maupin and Lehman 1994). Audit firms' attempts to reduce traditional masculine influence are well documented (Anderson-Gough et al. 2005; Carter and Spence 2014; Dambrin and Lambert 2012; Kornberger et al. 2010; Whiting, Gammie, and Herbohn 2015). Organizational assimilation and communication climate may explain these behaviors.

Organizational assimilation is a life-cycle process wherein an accountant prepares to enter the profession/firm, assimilates to become the accountant the firm requires, transforms their role to fit personal goals, and exits the firm when the role no longer fits (Jablin 2001; Madsen 2020). Three phases of organizational assimilation and how they are germane to woman-to-woman workplace bullying are presented in Figure 1.

FIGURE 1

Phases of Organizational Assimilation

FIGURE 1

Phases of Organizational Assimilation

Close modal

Auditors form expectations about the auditing profession (i.e., anticipatory socialization) via their university coursework and internship experiences (Hart, Kremin, and Pasewark 2017). Formal and informal orientation programs create and revise expectations (i.e., encounter phase), and the metamorphosis occurs through on-the-job learning (Madsen 2020). New audit staff learn rules and norms from the behaviors and attitudes demonstrated by both peers and supervisors, which the underrepresentation of women has likely helped shape (Lehman 1992; Kirkham and Loft 1993). Organizational assimilation orients employees to both role expectations and the specific communication climates.

Communication climates are created and reproduced by organizational members who determine the focus and the manner of communication (Keashly and Neuman 2009). Poor communication climates can be destructive and lead to interactions that demean or exploit people (Coffelt and Smith 2020, Lutgen-Sandvik and Sypher 2009). Negative communication climates, including bullying behaviors and workplace incivility, reinforce the notion that embedded patriarchal structures within accounting firms may drive agentic behaviors by women leaders (Cohen et al. 2020; Lutgen-Sandvik, G. Namie, and R. Namie 2009; Waldron 2009). Negative communication climates are described in Figure 2.

FIGURE 2

Indicators of a Negative Communication Climate

FIGURE 2

Indicators of a Negative Communication Climate

Close modal

Workplace social aggression can manifest as “intimidation, persistent criticism, inaccurate accusations, ignoring or exclusion, public humiliation, malicious rumors, setting one up to fail, and work overload” (Dentith, Wright, and Coryell 2015, 28). Workplace bullying can be directed at an individual or “organizationally derived such as in the form of increased workload, the arbitrary removal of responsibilities, and excessive monitoring of one's work” (Dentith et al. 2015, 28–29).

In contrast to a negative climate, and a bullying culture, a positive communication climate promotes innovation, cooperation, and transparency as seen in Figure 3.

FIGURE 3

Elements of a Positive Communication Climate

FIGURE 3

Elements of a Positive Communication Climate

Close modal

The motivation for this study arose from personal experiences in auditing and conversations with practicing auditors. Given the high concentration of male partners in audit firms (AICPA 2019), we wanted to know whether women were bullying one another to remain in their positions of authority (Salin and Hoel 2013; Tajfel and Turner 1986).

To explore whether other auditors experienced woman-to-woman bullying, we conducted five semi-structured interviews with women currently and formerly employed in local, regional, national, and global accounting firms. These interviews provided a foundational understanding of a taboo topic, which allowed interviewees to share their experiences in their own words (Horton, Macve, and Struyven 2007). We broadly describe the participants in Table 1.

TABLE 1

Summary of Interviewees by Assigned Pseudonym

Summary of Interviewees by Assigned Pseudonym
Summary of Interviewees by Assigned Pseudonym

Participants are listed in the order in which they were interviewed and are identified by pseudonyms. Questions focused on professional experience in addition to corporate culture and its influence on practice (Keashly and Neuman 2009; Lutgen-Sandvik et al. 2009; Bazarova and Walther 2009), as seen in Figure 4.

FIGURE 4

Semi-Structured Interview Questions

FIGURE 4

Semi-Structured Interview Questions

Close modal

Each of the interviewees could recall instances of woman-to-woman social aggression. Speaking from her experience as a manager at a regional accounting firm, Catniss felt intimidated and manipulated by her female supervisor:

“Another bullying tactic: ‘you won't be paid any better than you are right now. No one else in this town pays as much as we do. This is the only firm that allows this much vacation. You'll never find anything better.'”

During that same period, Catniss described being publicly ignored:

“I would say something work-related that needed to be said, responding to her […] generic question to everybody, and if I responded she wouldn't hear my response. She would wait for someone else to answer.”

Eunice found herself the victim of malicious rumors after promotion from staff to senior at a global accounting firm:

“I have always been a super hard worker and given everything I have to the project at hand. I excelled in public accounting and many women did not appreciate that. I […] never stepped out on my marriage, but one girl would say one of the directors had a crush on me.”

Multiple women provided examples of public humiliation and persistent criticism. Speaking from her experience as a senior at a national firm, Beatrice recalled:

“[My manager] caught me on my phone during a client meeting. She yelled at me first in front of my direct reports and then in private. She told me that she had me on a very short leash because she didn't think I was as great an employee as I did.”

Meanwhile, Alice described the humiliation she felt as a staff auditor at a global firm:

“When I first got hired, my manager would scream at the entire audit and accounting staff for an hour straight. We couldn't always tell what she was screaming about, but she would scream at the top of her lungs that we were idiots.”

Multiple participants described what it felt like to be set up to fail or denied opportunities. While working as a manager in a local audit firm, Alice watched a director routinely deny promotions to qualified staff and seniors. Dallas, who reported to a female partner at a local firm, stated:

“The only advancement might have come from taking on a new client. I had a ‘one-up' in that I was already familiar with the [accounting information system platform], but a partner's wife got all of those [assignments].”

Likewise, our participants commonly described feeling depleted as a result of work overload. In her time as a senior at a national firm, Beatrice observed:

“You're expected to perform at a high level all the time. Stress gets high. I think women start to lash out when they feel the pressure.”

While all interviewees suffered some form of social aggression (Dentith et al. 2015), each woman described traditionally communal behaviors (e.g., focus on professional development, acting as a confidante, encouragement) when describing their favorite supervisor. Catniss praised a female partner at her current local firm:

“She communicates, she shares what's happening, she's very involved in making sure that her people are informed, they have the information to make good decisions.”

Unsurprisingly, each interviewee associated agentic behavior with their least favorite supervisors. At a local firm where Alice worked as a manager, a partner's extreme focus on results and disinclination to share profits led to feelings of resentment, typifying the idea that “the very self-promotion required to advance a career renders a male competent and likeable, but when performed by a female, renders her unlikeable” (Cohen et al. 2020, 20).

Interviewees were asked to suggest actions that accounting programs and firms alike could adopt to discourage woman-to-woman bullying. The following suggestions represent emergent themes. Given that negative communication climates may encourage woman-to-woman bullying, these recommendations can also address firm communication and interpersonal issues.

Public accounting firms expect their new hires to possess the skills to be successful auditors, including communication skills (Kremin and Pasewark 2020; Madsen 2020). Since anticipatory socialization begins during college, preparing accounting students for organizational communication is vital (Church 2014; Coffelt and Smith 2020; Jablin 2001; Madsen 2020).

By incorporating opportunities to practice communication and other interpersonal (e.g., interviewing, supervising, evaluating) skills in both university courses and corporate training sessions, new staff should be better leaders. The quality of the supervisor-to-staff relationship, of which communication is a component, can impact audit quality (Herda, Cannon, and Young 2019). Firm training can also contribute to building a positive culture and communication climate. Further, if classes include the theoretical underpinnings of social aggression, accountants will better understand, and possibly diffuse, social aggression. As Catniss suggested:

“I don't think [destructive communication] could be prevented in colleges, but it can be discussed: […] how you could handle some of these situations, if this is ever upon you as staff.”

Specific interpersonal communication topics that could be incorporated include: trust-building communicative strategies (Gill and Sypher 2009), changing the nature of interactions (Keashly and Neuman 2009), and changing the nature of conversations and relationships (Pfeffer 2009). Several interviewees also stressed a need for assertiveness training.

Historically, low management representation meant female employees lacked “access and visibility to corporate decision makers” and were excluded from corporate decision making (DOL 1995). Although men and women executives are equally likely to promote mentorship (Ellemers et al. 2012; Ragins and Scandura 1994), woman executives' willingness to mentor women is driven by and dependent upon perceptions of gender discrimination (Cohen et al. 2020; Ellemers et al. 2012). Mentoring relationships can foster positive relations as highlighted by the interviewees. During her employment as a manager at a local firm, Beatrice described:

“[She] took me under her wing and mentored me. She scheduled weekly meetings with me so I could brief her on the project, but really she wanted to know what skills I had and what opportunities she should recommend.”

Mentoring arrangements reduce structural impediments and create communal structures (Cohen et al. 2020). Supervisor-to-novice relationships help facilitate career development through sponsorship for promotions, coaching, protection from adverse forces, provision of challenging work assignments, and increased protégé visibility (Ragins and Cotton 1999). The academy can initiate these supervisor-to-novice relationships through leveraging existing partnerships with accounting firms and organizations. For example, student internships could include “professional development” as a graded learning objective. Accounting faculty can participate in professional accounting organizations (e.g., State CPA Societies) to promote and cultivate these supervisor-to-novice relationships.

Several interviewees described the benefits of networking with peers. For instance, Catniss described the natural evolution of ideas that occur in communal organizations. Alice described the informal networking that occurred among managers in her local firm:

“We [four women] built our own environment. We didn't compete. […] Most of us were the same level and we weren't reporting to each other. We interacted and worked together.”

Firm-sponsored social events, such as post-training happy hours and off-site gatherings, encourage peer-to-peer networking, as does using work time to engage in team-building activities. Student accounting associations and organizations like Beta Alpha Psi promote student-to-student networking; students continue to widen their networking circles by inviting alumni and auditing personnel to these regularly scheduled events.

While programs targeted at removing barriers to promotion (Carter and Spence 2014; Ellemers et al. 2012) and reducing sexual harassment (Ngo et al. 2021) have had some success, our exploratory interviews revealed that woman-to-woman bullying and social aggression occurs across a range of firm sizes and experience levels. Extant research suggests that when the organizational community environment is removed, employee relationships become more distant and transactional (Keashly and Neuman 2009; Pfeffer 2009; Rubin and Brody 2011). With more and more accounting professionals working remotely—due to work-life policies and the COVID-19 pandemic—these covert bullying behaviors can become even more pronounced. As Alice, former manager at a local accounting firm, observed, “Actual physical interactions are going down, but subtle discriminations are going up.”

Remote working situations present challenges for developing effective working relationships (Rosen, Furst, and Blackburn 2006). Best practices for virtual teams include face-to-face team building, cross-cultural training, and shaping a collaborative team culture (Rosen et al. 2006). Virtual video gatherings can also help build cohesion and community (Lepsinger and DeRosa 2015). Given the permanency of hybrid and remote work environments (KPMG 2021), the value of building a positive communication climate carries into the virtual world. Auditors need to create and support a positive climate that is antithetical to workplace bullying. This concern requires cooperation between academia and accounting professionals, and should be a topic of continued research.

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1

Maupin and Lehman (1994, 429) cite Brannon's (1986) four characteristics of “stereotyped masculine male role behavior.” These characteristics include “(1) the need to be different than women, (2) the need to be superior to others, (3) the need to be independent and self-reliant, and (4) the need to be more powerful than others.”

2

The authors' Institutional Review Board granted an exemption for this study.