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An International Meeting of American Accounting
Association
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Do Accounting Faculty Beliefs About the Purpose of Grades Differ from Other Business School Faculty? |
Timothy D. Cairney
Georgia Southern University
Chris Hodgdon
University of Vermont
Abstract: This study presents the results of a web-based survey about the grading beliefs of a sample of U.S. business school faculty. Two dimensions of grading beliefs are examined: the gatekeeper belief and the frame-of-reference (norm versus criterion) belief. Results suggest that different disciplines within the business school exhibit systematically different beliefs about what their grades communicate. While the grading beliefs of accounting faculty as a whole differ from those of other business disciplines, faculty in separate accounting areas (e.g., audit, tax) have similar beliefs. We find that gatekeeper beliefs may be more fundamental in that they are less influenced by individual attributes (e.g. years of experience) and by institutional pressures (e.g., departmental grading policies), but frame-of-reference beliefs are more influenced by these pressures. We also find that external pressures (e.g., employer type) influence both gatekeeper and frame-of-reference beliefs.