LOS MEDIOS DE ENSEÑANZA Y PARA QUE SIRVEN

3.6.1 Sample and population

The population for this research included accounting students and accountants from Saudi Arabia. However, considering the scope of the research, the researcher decided to choose 120 accounting students at the six main universities (Universities 1-6) and

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51 accountants from the nine largest workplaces (Workplaces 1-9) in Saudi Arabia as the sample from which to collect data. Surveys were distributed to these selected participants over a 3-month period. The total number of participants was 171. This allowed comparison between accounting students with respect to their university education and accountants with respect to their workplace. The comparison between these groups helped to answer the research questions about the need for important generic and technical accounting skills in these two areas. The research aimed to compare essential generic and technical accounting skills in the six universities and the nine workplaces to determine which generic and technical accounting skills should be emphasised and taught at university to meet the generic and technical accounting skills needs of graduates in their future work.

3.6.2 Data collection techniques

Two data collection techniques were used initially: email and delivery by hand. These techniques have the advantage of being cheap to implement.

A structured questionnaire was administered to the respondents. This was done through the use of both hand-outs and email for male respondents. For female respondents, only the email technique was used because Saudi Arabia’s cultural norms forbid one-on-one interviews with Saudi women when the researcher is male. A copy of the cover sheet and the questionnaire as presented to the survey respondents is presented in Appendices B and C.

3.6.3 Questionnaire

Once the sample to be studied was identified, the questionnaire method of data collection was used.

The primary data collection tool used was confidential questionnaires, developed by the researcher in an attempt to identify the most important generic and technical accounting skills for accounting students in the six universities and the nine workplaces in Saudi Arabia. Use of questionnaires provided the researcher with an appropriate tool to collect large numbers of responses in a relatively short time span. Moreover, questionnaires could accommodate a large range of questions and a high number of participants. As previously mentioned, questionnaires are also more appropriate for mixed method studies such as this one.

A questionnaire (see Appendices B, C, D and E) was given to participants from the six main universities (Universities 1–6) and to accountants at the nine main workplaces in Saudi Arabia (Workplaces 1–9). There were three demographic questions relating to study participants in this questionnaire: occupation (including the level of study and the university name for accounting students and the type of

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company and the company name for accountants), gender and email address (see Appendix C).

There were three main research questions (see section 3.5) in the questionnaire. The first question had three sections; the first used a 7-point Likert-like scale ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” and provided data relating to the main generic and technical accounting skills, and the second and third sections had a 7-point Likert-like scale ranging from “exceptional” to “very poorly” and provided data relating to the teaching of these skills in the university and the application of these important generic and technical accounting skills in the university. This question was for both accounting students and practicing accountants.

The second question had two sections. The first section was just for accounting students and had two statements. The first one used a 6-point Likert-like scale (“Not required”, “Basic”, “Intermediate”, “High”, “Advanced” and “Do not know”) covering skill levels, which provided data about the students’ perceptions of the level of generic and technical accounting skills that would be required for them to get the job they want. The second statement used a 5-point Likert-like scale (“None”, “Basic”, “Intermediate”, “High” and “Advanced”), which addressed the level of these skills the accounting students had. The second section was similar but had different questions that were aimed solely at practicing accountants, related to the workplace.

The last question in the questionnaire had three sections. The first one asked participants to rank the main generic and technical accounting skills from 1 as most important to 7 as least important, while the second section had a qualitative open- ended question about generic and technical accounting skills the participant considered to be important but which had not been covered in the questionnaire. The last section asked participants to rate the importance of technical accounting skills compared with other skills using a percentage scale. The questionnaire was created for this study. These responses were analysed using Microsoft Excel to draw up frequency tables and figures.

3.6.4 Analysis of survey questions:

The first question provided data relating to the teaching of generic and technical accounting skills in the university and the application of technical accounting skills and the important generic skills in the university including: communication skills, problem-solving skills, interpersonal skills, teamwork skills, presentation skills and analytical skills. Analyses compared the participants’ responses to these questions, i.e. responses were compared between accounting students at six universities and accountants at the nine main workplaces in Saudi Arabia. Responses were expressed as percentages and displayed graphically.

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3.6.5 The level of important generic and technical accounting skills required versus the level of skill respondents possessed

The second question concerned the level of important generic and technical accounting skills required to get a job, and what generic skills (communication skills, problem-solving skills, interpersonal skills, teamwork skills, presentation skills and analytical skills) and technical accounting skills they currently had. The results were displayed as percentages in seven graphs.

The second section of the second question was similar, but had different statements that were just for accountants, related to the workplace. These statements were analysed in the same manner as described above.

The last question had three sections. The first one asked participants to rank the main generic and technical accounting skills from most important to least important. The analysis showed the groups’ responses graphically and showed how each group ranked each skill from 1 (most important) to 7 (least important). The second section of the last question asked about any important generic skills which had not been mentioned, using open-ended questions. This section was analysed to determine whether any of the participants thought there were any important generic skills omitted from the survey. The final section asked participants to use a 0–100% scale to indicate the importance of technical accounting skills relative to generic skills.