Auditors' Communication Requirements: A Study of Five MNCs in Singapore

Abstract

This article contributes to the research on preparing new auditors for their work. It investigates the work and communication needs of newly graduated auditors, their senior colleagues, and their managers in five MNCs (multinational companies ) in Sin gapore. Much research indicates that accountancy graduates entering the profession are perceived to be lacking some important communication abilities. This study investigates how important auditors perceive interpersonal, oral, and written skills to be to them at different stages of their professional careers and the degree to which they perceive that they need to improve in these skills. As expected, the newly graduated audit assistants perceived the greatest need for improvement in all three skills. However, they also per ceived that written skills were of lesser importance to them than interpersonal and oral skills. We suggest that accounting courses could prepare undergraduates more effectively in the oral/interpersonal skills needed in the initial stages of their auditing careers by introducing more case studies and by exploring the potential of the hypertext Internet environment to dovelop realistic simulations. These changes might involve the introduc tion of cross-disciplinary team teaching.