Reducing turnover intentions of Black employees in the accounting profession: The roles of racial centrality, racial identity affirmation and supervisor closeness

Cynthia S. Wang, Alexis N. Smith, Edward E. Scott, Bryan D. Edwards and Seth E. Smart

Accounting, Organizations and Society, 2024, vol. 113, issue C

Abstract: Within the accounting profession, a persistent organizational issue is higher turnover rates among Black employees compared to White employees. Yet, there is currently no clear theoretical understanding of the reasons behind this higher turnover and how to reduce it. Drawing from focus groups of Black certified public accountants and in-depth interviews with both Black accountants and White supervisors of Black accountants, we developed a theoretical framework highlighting crucial psychological, behavioral, and relational factors that we predict are associated with reduced turnover intentions by Black employees. We propose that Black employees' racial centrality is associated with racial identity affirmation—attempts to affirm one's racial identity by expressing and highlighting positive aspects of one's racial group. Furthermore, we posit that the relationship between racial identity affirmation and reduced turnover intentions is weaker for Black accountants who feel less close to their supervisors, as their affirmations are less likely to be validated. We tested these hypotheses using a sample of 222 Black accountants, and our findings supported our predictions. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory, practice, and future research.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361368224000321
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:113:y:2024:i:c:s0361368224000321

DOI: 10.1016/j.aos.2024.101572

Access Statistics for this article

Accounting, Organizations and Society is currently edited by Christopher Chapman

More articles in Accounting, Organizations and Society from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().