Accounting and the CMA Examination

The CMA (Certificate in Management Accounting) examination is administered by the Institute of Management Accounting of the National Association of Accountants. The examination is given in the first week of December in major cities throughout the United States. Candidates must satisfy one of the following admission requirements:

• hold a baccalaureate degree in any field from an accredited college or university;
  
• achieve a satisfactory score on the Admission Test for Graduate Study in Business (ATGSB), or
  
• be a certified public accountant or hold a comparable professional qualification in a foreign country.
  
  
  

The examination covers the following syllabus:

Part 1: Economics and Business Finance

• Enterprise economics
  
  
• Institutional environment of business
  
  
• National and international economics
  
  
• Working capital management
  
  
• Long-term finance and capital structure

Part 2: Organization and Behavior, Including Ethical Considerations

• Organization theory and decision-making
  
  
• Motivation and perception
  
  
• Communication
  
  
• Behavioral science application in accounting
  
  
• Ethical considerations

Part 3: Public Reporting Standards, Auditing and Taxes

• Reporting requirements
  
  
• Audit protection
  
  
• Tax accounting

Part 4: Periodic Reporting for Internal and External Purposes

• Concepts of information
  
  
• Basic financial statements
  
  
• Profit planning and budgetary controls
  
  
• Standard costs for manufacturing
  
  
• Analysis of accounts and statements

Part 5: Decision Analysis, Including Modeling and Information Systems

• Fundamentals of the decision process
  
  
• Decision analysis
  
  
• Nature and techniques of model building
  
  
• Information systems and data processing

The first CMA examination was offered in December 1972, and there is in-sufficient data at this point to develop a reliable profile of candidates. The Institute of Management Accounting expects a steady increase in demand for the examination and a continuing buildup in the prestige of the CMA certificate.

Psychologist Selwyn W. Becker has described the accountant in less than serious terms as the "most likely to straighten a picture in a house where he was a visitor, and most likely to play a practical joke. And, after bankers, most likely to beat his children for disobeying. Compared with others, the accountant is also seen as most likely to run away and join a circus."

More serious inquiries conclude otherwise. One study concludes that "the CPA's prestige is impressive. He seems to be regarded by business executives as an efficient professional man, highly respected for his technical competence, for his personal integrity, and for his genuine interest in promoting the financial success of his clients."

Don T. DeCoster and John Grant Rhode have summarized many of the studies which relate to the accountant's stereotype as it exists in the minds of the general public and/or students. They admit that while the stereotype exists, it is largely undeserved. Their conclusions rest on personality test scores for public accountants as contrasted with other occupational groups. Several studies indicate that accounting students do better scholastically, despite a more rigorous curriculum, than students majoring in other business fields. A 1956 study by the U.S. Department of Labor has rated 4000 occupations and concluded that "accountants are perceived as being in the upper 10 per cent of the working population in the aptitudes of intelligence and numerical skills, and in the upper 20 per cent of the working population in verbal skills, with the exception of public accountants who are in the upper 10 per cent."

J. T. Gray, utilizing the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (EPPS) and Miller Occupational Values Indicator (OVI), compares secondary teachers, accountants, and mechanical engineers and arrives at this descriptive statement of the accountant: "The single factor which seems to be most distinguishing for accountants is the high level of striving; it is of extreme importance to workers in this group to do things well, particularly difficult tasks that will bring recognition . . . Accountants are hard workers, they insist on closure and will remain at a task until it is finished . . . The primary value accountants place on an occupation is that of the intrinsic rewards to be gained from it. Prestige is also important to accountants, while social rewards mean little to this occupational group."

C. Richard Baker has shown that accounting versus non-accounting majors exhibit significant differences with respect to the following values, as measured by the Rokeach Values Scale (RVS):

1. Accountants were less concerned with a "comfortable life" than non-accounting majors.
   
   
2. Accountants placed greater value on a "world of beauty)" than non-accounting majors.
   
   
3. Accountants were less "ambitious" than non-accounting majors.
   
   
4. Accountants were more "imaginative" than non-accounting majors.
   
   
5. Accountants had less sense of "responsibility" than non-accounting majors, particularly in terms of "public responsibility."

Rhode and others have conducted a longitudinal study of accounting majors from the point where they decide on an accounting career through induction into the profession and during the first three years as staff accountant. Their studies show that instructors in accounting play the prominent role in attracting students toward accounting careers, as opposed to the role of parents, friends, or other sources of influence. Accounting majors develop high expectations regarding their future careers, and these expectations are met for the most part in the actual work experience. The ten qualities about the work experience in accounting which appealed most (and least) to the respondents in the study, following the first year of experience in the job, were (in rank order):

The Ten Best Qualities about Careers in Public Accounting

1. Contact with a wide range of people, firms, accounting systems-diversity or variety of work situations.
   
   
2. Personal development, learning and work experience, training.
   
   
3. Challenging work-enjoyable work.
   
   
4. Responsibility-recognition.
   
   
5. Professionalism.
   
   
6. Working with high caliber, intelligent, competent, interesting colleagues and clients.
   
   
7. Salary.
   
   
8. Opportunity to use technical skills and personal abilities, e.g., those learned in school.
   
   
9. Freedom and independence.
   
   
10. Opportunity for advancement.

The Least-Liked Qualities about Careers in Public Accounting

1. Dull work-which does not require brains or education.
   
   
2. Long or irregular hours.
   
   
3. Time constraints and budgets-pressures.
   
   
4. Firm attitudes toward personnel, attitudes required of personnel, un professionalism.
   
   
5. Salary and salary increases.
   
   
6. Travel (too much).
   
   
7. Job insecurity.