The 2 nd Accounting Conference, 1 st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008

THE ADOPTION OF TAILOR-MADE IT-BASED ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS WITHIN INDONESIAN SMES FROM ACTOR NETWORK THEORY PERSPECTIVE

Samiaji Sarosa Atma Jaya Yogyakarta University

Abstract This paper examines the adoption of tailor made computerized accounting systems within 11 SMEs. The analysis was conducted using theoretical framework proposed by Slappendel (1996) which is interactive process. Interactive process argues that adoption of innovation (IT in particular) should be viewed as an interactive process between individual member, organization, and its environment. One of the emerging theories within interactive process is Actor Network Theory (ANT) proposed by Latour, Callon, and Law (Callon 1986, 1999; Latour 1987, 1988, 1999; Law 1999). ANT defines adoption process as progressive constitution of a network in which both human and non-human actors assume identities according to prevailing strategies of interaction. Actors' identities and qualities are defined during negotiations between representatives of human and non-human actors. The most important of these negotiations is `translation`, a multi faced interaction in which actors: construct common definitions and meanings, define representatives, co-opt each other in the pursuit of individual and collective objectives. ANT classified adoption process as four stages process, namely problematisation, interrestment, enrolment, and mobilization. We used qualitative approach to gather data, analyze and draw conclusion. We argues that ANT is better in explaining the adoption of IT compared to other model due its ability to identified not only the factors but also the process of adoption.

Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 1. Introduction Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) arguably form a significant proportion of economic development in many countries including Indonesia (Aragon-Sanchez & Sanchez-Marin 2005; Drew 2003; O'Regan & Ghobadiah 2004). In Indonesia, SMEs have been promoted as one of the tools to overcome the 1997 economic crisis (Hill 2001). We observed how Indonesian SMEs struggle to acquire and deploy Information Technology (IT)-based accounting systems solutions and how in some cases they have failed. Typical adoption of innovation study such as this article used diffusion of innovation theory (Rogers 1995) to explain the phenomenon. Such approach have been heavily criticise due to pro innovation bias view and the tendency to focus more on factors (drivers and barriers) instead of the adoption process itself (McMaster 2001; McMaster & Kautz 2002). We used Actor Network Theory (Callon 1999; Latour 1999; Law 1999) to explain the adoption of IT-based accounting systems due to its ability to explain the adoption phenomenon as an interactive process between organisations and its environment rather than focusing on individual factors that may affecting the adoption (Kautz 2004; Slappendel 1996). The qualitative approach is deemed appropriate for this study since the use of a process-based perspective required a thorough analysis and understanding of the IT-based accounting systems adoption process (Kautz & Nielsen 2004; Slappendel 1996). The qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews allowed us to explore in depth all the factors and the interaction of all stakeholders within an ITbased accounting systems adoption process (Creswell 2003; Crotty 1998; Leedy & Ormrod 2005). On the next sections we will discuss the theoretical based of our study along with the methodology justification. We also reveal our respondents profile continued by our findings. At the end we present our conclusions along with possible future works. 2. Adoption of IT-based accounting systems within SMEs Studies of the adoption of IT can be considered as originating from the study of the diffusion of innovation (DOI) and more specifically diffusion of IT innovation Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 (McMaster & Kautz 2002; Rogers 1995). Within this paper, we shall consider three different terminologies: diffusion, adoption, and IT innovation. The notion of diffusion is often associated with the effort to spread innovation to a greater audience using communication channels, while adoption is often associated with the decision to accept and use the innovation (Bøving & Bøker 2003; Brown 1981; Rogers 1995; Schon 1971; Zaltman, Duncan & Holbek 1973). Innovation is associated with something new, such as ideas, artefacts or products (Rogers 1995). In this paper new systems introduced into the organisation are considered as an innovation. Furthermore, we focus solely on IT-based tailor made (bespoke) systems rather than commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products such as Accurate, MYOB, Zahir, etc. 2.1.

Definition of adoption Basically there are three different definitions of adoption of innovation. The

first refers to the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory (Rogers 1995), in which adoption means decision to make physical acquisition of technical artefacts or a commitment to implement innovation with the emphasis being on the decision to adopt (Aiken, Bacharach & French 1980; Fichman & Kemerer 1993). The commitment to use the innovation is the result of a decision to make full use of an innovation or adoption (Rogers 1995). Rogers’s diffusion of innovation theory was drawn mainly from communication theory. Accordingly, its main idea was concerned with the process of communicating the idea of innovation to the potential adopters. The main objective is to convey the innovation message and encourage the potential adopters to accept the innovation. Adoption would be achieved in the adopter’s mind and it is not important how the innovation is actually put into use by the adopter. The second definition of adoption is from the works of Thong and Yap (1995), where adoption of IT is defined as using IT to support business. This definition has similarities with the third definition of IT adoption, which is using innovations as intended by the designer (Bøving & Bøker 2003). The difference is that Bøving and Bødker (2003) argued that modification of an innovation by a user in practice or by re-invention (Rogers 1995) was not supported by their findings, therefore it was concluded that not all use of innovation was equal and could be called adoption. Only a full use of innovation as intended by the designer without reinvention can be called adoption. On the other hand Thong and Yap (1995) did not differentiate Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 between full use and modified use of IT in their studies. Still, these two definitions argue that unless the innovation is put to use, it is not an adoption. This argument is in line with Zaltman et.al. (1973), Damanpour (1987), and Damanpour and Evan (1984); they considered a new idea as innovation when implemented. Zaltman et.al. (1973) divided the innovation adoption process into initiation and implementation stages. Palen and Grudin (2003) furthermore supported this distinction by using the term adoption for the decision to begin using a technology and using the term deployment for making the technology available. For innovation adoption, in this paper, we argue that the definition of adoption should include the implementation stage. IT-based systems as innovation are not only ideas but also include artefacts. It is not enough that the use of IT-based system is only accepted or decided upon without any physical implementation. Rogers (1995) noted that all activities until the decision is made to adopt innovation were mental activities and the implementation of the innovation required physical activities. 2.2.

Interactive process perspective of adoption There are three different approaches to study adoption of innovations, which

are individualist, structuralist, and interactive process (Kautz 2004; Kautz & Nielsen 2004; Slappendel 1996). Individualist and structuralist approaches are focusing on individual actors and organizations as unit of study. Accordingly, the focus of studies is mainly on factors such as individual characteristics, size of organizations, leader’s characteristics, and the structure of organizations. In real life, those factors are not sitting in a container and staying still, there are evidence of interactions between individuals, organizations, and their environment. Interactive approach, on the other hand, offers a more comprehensive view which covers the interactions. It can be said that interactive processes offer more comprehensive perspectives of innovation within organisations. Individuals’ actions and the structure of an organisation would determine the adoption of innovation. The interactive process acknowledges that individuals might act within the organisation and its structure, yet at the same time organisational characteristics and its environment would influence the individual’s actions. Adoption of innovation is a process which involves the individual, the organisation, the environment, and the interactions Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 between them (Slappendel 1996). Research using interactive processes is also found in the Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) area. One example is the work of Palen and Grudin (2003). They investigated the adoption and deployment of calendaring application within organisation. The organisation deployed the calendar application and the process of individuals using the calendar began. Palen and Grudin called this discretionary adoption. Within interactive process perspectives, Actor Network Theory (ANT) is one of the emerging theories that attempts to explain adoption of innovation as a result of interaction process (McMaster, Vidgen & Wastell 1997; Tatnall & Burgess 2004; Tatnall & Lepa 2003). 2.3.

Actor Network Theory ANT is often accredited as the work of Michel Callon, Bruno Latour, and John

Law (Callon 1986, 1999; Latour 1987, 1988, 1999; Law 1999; Sidle & Warzynski 2003; Sismondo 2004; Tatnall & Burgess 2004; Tatnall & Lepa 2003). ANT deals with (Bardini 1997): ”… progressive constitution of a network in which both human and nonhuman actors assume identities according to prevailing strategies of interaction. Actors’ identities and qualities are defined during negotiations between representatives of human and non-human actors. The most important of these negotiations is ‘translation‘, a multi faced interaction in which actors: construct common definitions and meanings, define representatives, co-opt each other in the pursuit of individual and collective objectives.” The translation process consist of four stages (Callon 1986): 1.

Problematisation. Key actors attempt to define the problem and roles of other actors to fit the proposed solution, which was made by the key actors. Key actors proposed solutions to the problems (Tatnall 2002). The key actors persuade the other actors that they all have the same interest and the answer to the problems is in the solutions proposed by key actors (Law 1999; Tatnall & Burgess 2004). The desired result would be the other actors would accept a set of specific conventions, rules, assumptions, and ways of operating defined


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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 by heterogeneous engineers which ultimately resulted in the formation of network (Latour 1987, 1988). 2.

Interresment. Processes that attempt to impose the identities and roles defined in problematisation on other actors. The key actors and other actors enrolled in the new created network try to lock other non enrolling actors. They gradually dissolve the existing networks and replacing them with new networks created by the enrolling actors (Tatnall & Burgess 2004; Tatnall & Lepa 2003). The enrolling actors try to stabilise the new identities for the other actors.

3.

Enrolment. A process where one set of actors (key actors) imposes their will on others. The other actors will be persuaded to follow the identities and roles defined by the key actors. This will then lead to the establishment of a stable network of alliances. The enrolment process includes among other things coercion, seduction, and voluntary participation (McMaster, Vidgen & Wastell 1997)

4.

Mobilisation. This is where the proposed solutions gain wider acceptance. The network would grow larger with the involvement of other parties that were not involved previously. This growth is due to the influence of actors. When using ANT to investigate IT adoption, a researcher would focus on

issues such as network formation, human and non-human actors, alliance, and network build up (Sismondo 2004; Tatnall & Burgess 2004). Stronger alliances would be likely to influence the decision to adopt or reject IT. In conclusion, ANT recognises that adoption of innovation is initiated by individuals who build a network of individuals (in the form of an organisation) and nonhumans (machine, tools, etc.) to adopt innovations. ANT is different from DOI in several ways: •

It breaks the communication into stages (of translation).

•

It considers the details of ”resistance” (anti-program).

•

It treats non-humans as actors.

•

It explains success and failure with the same model.


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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 ANT was originally developed to explain the diffusion of science into society (for example the idea of pasteurisation in Latour 1988). It is similar to Rogers’s DOI. The difference is that Rogers’s DOI viewed the adoption as merely a communication process, while ANT viewed adoption of innovation as involving a political game where an actor (who wants to spread the innovation) builds a network that will use the innovation. Some other examples are the works of McMaster (McMaster 2001; McMaster, Vidgen & Wastell 1997) and Tatnall (Tatnall & Burgess 2004; Tatnall & Lepa 2003). In those studies, the process of translation was believed to be richer and deeper in that it acknowledged the intertwining and inseparability of technical and social issues. Ciborra has also used ANT to study the management of IT infrastructure and knowledge management (Ciborra & Hanseth 1998a, 1998b; Ciborra & Patriotta 1998; Hanseth, Ciborra & Braa 2001). Development of knowledge management and management of IT infrastructure are considered to be political processes, where different stakeholders try to win power and spread their ”ideology”. ANT is an example of a theory to explain how different stakeholders in an organisation try to spread their ideas to the other stakeholders and influence them to accept the ideas. From the ANT perspective, an actor would build a network of power to overcome other networks of power so he or she could win and impose their ideas (Latour 1996, 1999, 2005). At the end, the actors would use the network to achieve their own goals. In the context of adoption of innovation, the ANT perspective could be used to show how different actors spread their ideas (innovation) to be adopted by others through the development of a network (McMaster 2001; McMaster & Kautz 2002; McMaster, Vidgen & Wastell 1997). When their ideas (innovation) are accepted by the other stakeholders (the development of a network), the actor could use the network to achieve his or her own goals. Non human actors could be ‘act” in different way than intended or imposed by the key actors. Latour (1988, 1996) has shown how the Aramis failed to perform so it caused the abandonment of mass rapid transit project in Paris or how bacteria have been conquered by Pasteurization so it caused the jettison of Louis Pasteur into scientific stardom to show the role of non human actors.


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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 In this light of ANT process, we will identify the actors and network they build, along with the process of network development (translation). We will draw from participants’ own account of their adoption experience to explain the process. We mapped the participants’ experiences into the translation’s stages. 2.4.

Tailor-made IT-based Accounting systems IT has been adopted and used within business organisations for many years.

Research literature has shown the usefulness of IT for supporting business (Guinea, Kelley & Hunter 2005; Sarkar & Sawy 2003). Many SMEs adopt IT solutions to support their businesses and keep a competitive advantage (Bridge & Peel 1999; Drew 2003). It is believed that IT promotes more efficient ways to conduct business (Laudon & Laudon 2006; Turban et al. 2006). Different options for IT adoption within SMEs can be categorised as follows (Avison & Fitzgerald 2002; Laudon & Laudon 2006; Turban et al. 2006): •

Internal development, where SMEs develop their IT solutions from scratch using internal resources.

•

External development, where SMEs outsource their IT development from scratch to a software development company.

•

Implement Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) solutions, where SMEs acquire COTS products with or without adaptations. Typical COTS applications are packages like office suites (word processor, spreadsheet, presentation), internet access application (web browser and email client), image processing (photo manipulation, drawing), and communication application (facsimile, dial up connection).

•

Application service provider (ASP), where the applications deployment and management are managed by vendor through the internet or private networks.

•

Any combination of the three options above.

The first and second alternatives are known as tailor-made systems development. The developer (either internal or external) will craft a new systems based on stakeholders’ requirements. Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 One type of information systems, and probably the most widely used, is accounting system. Accounting systems is a systems to collect, process, store, and present accounting data (Romney & Steinbart 2006; Turner & Weickgenannt 2009). Typical accounting systems could manage accounting transactions within 4 different yet related cycles (revenue, expenditure, human resource/payroll, and general ledger/reporting). In this paper, we include participants who used any IT-based applications to handle one or more activities within those 4 cycles. 3. Research Method IT adoption within SMEs is a complex socio-technical phenomenon (McMaster 2001; McMaster & Kautz 2002; Rogers 1995; Slappendel 1996). SMEs consist of individuals and other resources that interact with each other in their daily operations. By introducing an innovation (in this case IT) the interaction both within an SME and between the SME and its environment will change. Such complexity needs to be explored in its fullness. Any effort to reduce such complexity into mere numbers and figures could obscure the real picture. A quantitative approach using tools such as surveys was considered but not adopted since the use of a survey tends to prejudge the outcome beforehand. In the end, the quantitative approach will either accept or reject the hypothesis. Instead of making an educated guess at the outcome, the qualitative approach used in this study will explore the phenomena. The outcome should provide a more complete picture drawn from the data collected by semi-structured interviews. As discussed in the previous section, the qualitative approach allows the researcher to study the phenomenon in its context and with all its complexity (Leedy & Ormrod 2005). It enables the adoption of IT within SMEs to be explored beyond just the factors influencing IT adoption by Indonesian SMEs and also allows an investigation of the complexity of adoption process experienced by Indonesian SMEs. Establishing the research approach used in this study also establishes the selection of methods and tools to collect and analyse the data from research participants. As it is the intention of a qualitative research to study the phenomenon in its context, the methods used has to enable interaction with the research participants (Crotty 1998; Leedy & Ormrod 2005). In this study, the data comes from Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 the participants’ experience in adopting IT for their organisation. One method of collecting such data is the interview, which may be structured, semi-structured, or unstructured (Creswell 2003; Gillham 2000; Leedy & Ormrod 2005; Yin 2003). A structured interview provides a set of questions prepared by the researcher and the participants are required to give answers to those questions (Gillham 2000; Leedy & Ormrod 2005). In a way, it is similar to delivering a survey orally and the data collector filling in the survey rather than asking the participants to fill the survey. Unstructured interviews do not have any detailed guidance on how the topic should be explored (Gillham 2000; Leedy & Ormrod 2005). The unstructured interview could get carried away from the main research topic and might not capture the required data. Therefore, the semi-structured interview with open-ended questions is selected as the method to collect data for this study. The semi-structured interview allows the researcher to explore participants’ experiences of IT adoption and to focus on the main issues, yet at the same time allows the interviewer to explore participants’ responses further or to clarify issues emerging during the interview (Gillham 2000; Leedy & Ormrod 2005). Once the data is collected, content analysis can be used as an analysis tool. Content analysis is used to identify patterns and themes within the data (Boyatzis 1998; Leedy & Ormrod 2005; Neuendorf 2002). From the analysis, stages of the adoption of IT within the participant’s organisation can be identified, along with other relevant information that may be important but does not directly relate to the adoption of IT. We mapped the result to 4 stages of ANT’s translations. 4. Participants profile The participants were selected from a list of Indonesian SMEs in the furniture and handicraft industry and situated in the Yogyakarta and Surakarta regions in Central Java. The list was compiled from data provided by the Indonesian Yellow Pages and the Indonesian SMEs association (ASMINDO). The furniture and handicrafts industries were chosen because they are not obviously IT intensive. These SMEs usually do not have a dedicated IT department, yet they need to use IT in their day-to-day operations. The chosen (adjacent) regions of Central Java are considered one of the main centres for furniture and handicrafts in Indonesia. As all the SMEs are from the same Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 region, they face similar business environments (transportation, raw materials sources, export markets, etc.) We had been working with various SMEs prior to this research project as an IT consultant. Some of the SMEs we have been working in the past were in the furniture and handicrafts industry. Therefore, it was easier to initiate contact and invite the participants since we were known to them. We managed to secure participations from more than 40 SMEs. However, only 11 are included for the purpose of this paper. The other participants use non accounting applications such as for product design, communications, catalogue, etc. We assign R#, where # is sequential number as code for participants. We would like to protect participants’ privacy and anonymity. Table 1 shows the profile of our participants with its original codes. Participants Developer

Status

Type of Apps. Inventory

Key Actor(s)

R01

External

Failed

R02

Internal

Success Accounting

Manager

R03

Internal

Failed

Manager

Inventory & Time

Manager/Owner

Record R04

External

Failed

ERP

Vendor

R05

External

Success Inventory

Manager/Owner

R06

External

Failed

Accounting

Manager/Owner

R07

External

Failed

Order Entry

Manager

Processing R08

External

Success Order Entry

Manager/Owner

Processing R09

Internal

Success Accounting

Manager

R10

Internal

Success Accounting

Manager

R11

External

Failed

Manager

Accounting

Table 1. Participants’ profile External developer means that the system was built by external parties, while internal means the opposite. Failed means that the system was either failed to be finished or finished but abandoned (Beynon-Davies 1999; Mitev 2000; Whittaker 1999). Success means that the system was used as initially intended (Caldeira & Ward 2002; DeLone 1988). Actor refers to the initial individual/parties who had the Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 idea and initiate the adoption process. We differentiate manager from owner since the owner might be the manager or they would hire somebody else to run their business. Type of application refers to the software used to manage accounting systems. It was ranging from inventory management to full accounting package and even an ERP system. 5. Translations process In this section, we will map the participants’ experience to the stages of translation (Callon 1986, 1999). Along the way, we will also present some quotes from our participants 1 . 5.1.

Problematisation Key actors attempt to define the problem and roles of other actors to fit the

proposed solution, which was made by the key actors. Problematisation means the actor who initiates adoption effort saw problems with their old system or opportunities for offering new system. The key actors also would like to see other actors subscribe to their view. All but R04 had internal key actors who initiated the system development effort. In R04 case, ERP consultant approached the owner to build their own ERP systems guided by the consultant. All the key actors (manager/owner, manager, and vendor) perceived that the organisation have problems with their current accounting systems. “We need more accurate accounting reports” R01 manager/owner “We need to integrate and share our accounting information” R02 manager

1

The actual interviews were in Indonesian and Javanese language. The excerpts are translated and presented in English by the author.


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Figure 1. Problematisation The key actors then persuaded other to start adopting desired solutions which was building a new accounting system. The position as manager or owner certainly was favourable for the key actors to impose their proposal. The key actors would like to impose a set of new rules, assumptions, conventions, and operating procedure in form of a new accounting system. “We want to be able to manage our production process from material requisition to sales.” R04 manager “We

want

to

reduce

error

in

the

administrative

area”

R08

manager/owner Yet, as seen in table 1, it did not necessarily translated into success or acceptance by the others. 5.2.

Interresment

Processes that attempt to impose the identities and roles defined in problematisation on other actors.


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Figure 2. Interresment In this stage, key actors then assigned other actors to start the development of new accounting systems. Key actors in five participants 2 (R01, R05, R06, R07, and R08) have to bring external actors to develop the accounting systems since nobody within their organisation able or deemed able to assume the role of systems developer. “I hired a programmer who happen to be my old colleague while I was working for a computer store” R05 manager/owner Others were utilising internal actors and even themselves as developer. “I developed the new system myself” R03 manager “One of our staff have adequate programming skills to develop the application” R09 manager In this stage, non human actors in form of computers and applications are brought in to form a new network. The new network in this context is the new accounting systems. Key actors rallied other actors (human and non human) to form set of procedure and applications to manage accounting data. “I did all the purchase, setup, and installation” R10 manager

2

R04 is excluded since the origin of new system development was originating from external parties. It was only natural that the developer would be external.


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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 “The

staff

required

computers

to

perform

their

duties”

R08

manager/owner 5.3.

Enrolment A process where one set of actors (including key actors) imposes their will on

others. The other actors will be persuaded to follow the identities and roles defined by the key actors. This will then lead to the establishment of a stable network of alliances.

Figure 3. Enrolment Once the network started to form, the key actors rallied support from other non enrolling actors. All enrolling actors made attempts to entice non enrolling actors to join the new network. The enrolling human actors would made attempts using communications channel. “We started with the marketing department which need sales applications; we hoped that the other would see the benefit.” R02 manager Enrolling non human actors in successfully doing what they intended to do, would demonstrate the “positive” aspects of the new network. Ultimately success or failure of the accounting systems would determine if the stabilisation of network formed. The failure of non human actors to perform had negative effects to the Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 network formation. Non enrolling actors did not want to join the network due to the failure. “The

inventory

system

shown

negative

balance,

I

think

the

programmers were incapable!” R01 owner/manager. “The application build was not suitable for our business process, we had to made too many adjustments which were not desirable” R11 manager 5.4.

Mobilisation

This is where the proposed solutions gain wider acceptance. The network would grow larger with the involvement of other parties that were not involved previously. This growth is due to the influence of actors.

Figure 4. Successful Mobilisation


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Figure 5. Failed Mobilisation resulted in the dissolutions of the network The accounting system, either in development process or finished product, was accepted as sole solutions to the problems. The key success factors in this stage is two which are: • Wide acceptance from other actors, especially non enrolling human actors. • The ability of non human actors and enrolling human actors to perform their pre defined roles as intended. In other words, the accounting system is demonstrating its capabilities to solve the problems. It is need to be noted that on R04 case, the ERP project eventually failed. However, the owner/manager have seen and convinced the benefit of an integrated accounting system (much like the doomed ERP project). The owner then hired the ERP consultant to be permanent employee and oversee the development of new accounting systems. The system was developed by internal staff from scratch which seemed suitable for the company. 6. Discussion Actor Network Theory with its four stages of translations arguably could better explain the adoption of IT-based accounting systems (McMaster 2001; McMaster & Kautz 2002; Tatnall 2002; Tatnall & Burgess 2004). By looking at the adoption process through translation, we could identify actors (both human and non-human). Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 We also could observe how their action (or inaction) could lead to the successful or failure of adoption. The key actors who initiated the development of new accounting systems mostly involved directly with the organisations’ daily operations. R04 have external key actors. Yet the external actors able to rallied another key actors (the owner/manager) to subscribe to the idea. Although the key actors mostly a person with the highest possible authority in the organisation, it does not guarantee acceptance. To gain acceptance, the new accounting systems need to be developed. In order to develop the accounting systems, the key actors rallied the assistance of other actors. It might be external developers (R01, R04, R05, R06, R07, R08, and R11) or internal developers and even themselves (R02, R03, R09, and 10). The key actors also include non human actors in form of computers and accounting systems applications. The key actors and their allies then try to entice non-enrolling human actors to join the network, which means accepting and using the accounting system. The key success factors for non human actors are two. The first factor is wide acceptance from other actors, especially non enrolling human actors. The second factor is the ability of non human actors and enrolling human actors to perform their pre-defined roles as intended. In other words, the accounting system is demonstrating its capabilities to solve the problems. R01, R04, and R11 were failed due to the inability of the accounting systems to accomplish their goals. All three accounting systems failed to functions properly. R01’s inventory applications showed negative balance. R04 failed to deliver ERP systems. R11 simply failed to develop a standard accounting system. R03, R06, and R07 failed to entice non enrolling human actors to join the network. R03 manager failed to convince other to use his inventory and time attendance recording system. The employee went to the owner and the owner veto the application. R06 and R07 were similar. The staff could not use the application even though they have been intensively trained. R06 cited the lack of discipline to use the accounting application, while R07 cited the lack of English language skills


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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 made them unable to use the order entry processing systems. R07’s system was designed to handle overseas order, so English language skills were essentials. 7. Conclusions and future works We have demonstrated in this article how Actor Network Theory could provide a better picture on adoption of bespoke IT-based accounting systems within Indonesian SMEs. Conventional adoption of innovation research would focus more on drivers and barriers and the characteristics of innovations. Actor Network Theory provides a view where the adoption is a social process. A process where key actors try to impose their view on the problems and their version of the solutions to toher actors by building a network of human and non human actors. The network was in form of IT-based accounting systems where a set of roles, rules, and procedures was implemented. Actor Network Theory also looks at the success and failure of such endeavour. The network formation will be success if the key actors could entice other actors either human or non human to join their new network. By forming new networks (new accounting system), the alliance dissolves the old network (the old accounting system). Non human actors need to perform their intended duties, otherwise the new network will crumble and failed to form. Some might say that the human actors responsible for making non human actors to perform yet we could see from time to time that for some reason a computer and its applications simply does not work. The fact was the system failed to perform and the network failed to gain wider acceptance. The study was conducted using organisation as unit of study. Therefore the dynamic shown are on organisational level. We could gather more fact if we also looking at individual level. We also only interviewed key actors. We did not look at non key actors especially the external developers and non human actors. We might get a better understanding on what went wrong (or what went right for that matter) if we could study the failure of non human actors performance.


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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 References Aiken, M., Bacharach, S.B. & French, J.L. 1980, 'Organizational Structure, Work Process, and Proposal Making in Administrative Bureaucracies', Academy of Management Journal, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 631-652. Aragon-Sanchez, A. & Sanchez-Marin, G. 2005, 'Strategic Orientation, Management Characteristics, and Performance: A Study of Spanish SMEs', Journal of Small Business Management, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 287-308. Avison, D.E. & Fitzgerald, G. 2002, Information Systems Development: Methodologies, Techniques and Tools, 3rd edn, McGraw-Hill, London. Bardini, T. 1997, 'Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication', Bridging the Gulfs: From Hypertext to Cyberspace, viewed 12 June 2004 . Beynon-Davies, P. 1999, 'Human Error and Information Systems Failure: The Case of The London Ambulance Service Computer-aided Despatch System Project', Interacting with Computers, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 699-720. Bøving, K.B. & Bøker, K. 2003, 'Where is The Innovation?', Proceedings of The Diffusion and Adoption of Networked Information Technologies, eds J. Damsgaard & H.Z. Henriksen, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Copenhagen, pp. 39-52. Boyatzis, R.E. 1998, Transforming Qualitative Information: Thematic Analysis and Code Development, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks. Bridge, J. & Peel, M.J. 1999, 'Research Note: A Study of Computer Usage and Strategic Planning in the SME Sector', International Small Business Journal, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 82-87. Brown, L.A. 1981, Innovation Diffusion: A New Perspective, Methuen, London.


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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Caldeira, M.M. & Ward, J.M. 2002, 'Understanding The Successful Adoption and Use of IS/IT in SMEs: An Explanation from Portuguese Manufacturing Industries', Information System Journal, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 121-152. Callon, M. 1986, 'Some Elements of Sociology of Translation: Domestication of The Scallops and The Fishermen of St Brieue Bay', in J. Law (ed.), Power, Action, Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge, Routledge& Kegan Paul, London, pp. 196-233. Callon, M. 1999, 'Actor-network Theory - the Market Test', in J. Law & J. Hassard (eds), Actor Network Theory and After, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, pp. 181195. Ciborra, C.U. & Hanseth, O. 1998a, 'From Tool to Gestell Agendas for Managing The Information Infrastructure', Information Technology and People, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 305-327. Ciborra, C.U. & Hanseth, O. 1998b, 'Toward A Contingency View of Infrastructure and Knowledge: An Exploratory Study', Proceedings of The 19th International Conference on Information Systems, Helsinki, Finland, pp. 263-272. Ciborra, C.U. & Patriotta, G. 1998, 'Groupware and Teamwork in R&D: Limits to Learning and Innovation', R&D Management, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 43-52. Creswell, J.W. 2003, Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, 2nd edn, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks. Crotty, M. 1998, The Foundations of Social Research: Meaning and Perspective in The Research Process, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards. Damanpour, F. 1987, 'The Adoption of Technological, Administrative, and Ancillary Innovations: Impact of Organizational Factors', Journal of Management, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 675-688. Damanpour, F. & Evan, W.M. 1984, 'Organizational Innovation and Performance: The Problem of "Organizational Lag"', Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 392-409. Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 DeLone, W.H. 1988, 'Determinants of Success for Computer Usage in Small Business', MIS Quarterly, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 50-61. Drew, S. 2003, 'Strategic Uses of E-Commerce by SMEs in The East of England', European Management Journal, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 79-88. Fichman, R.G. & Kemerer, C.F. 1993, 'Adoption of Software Engineering Process Innovations: The Case of Object Orientation', Sloan Management Review, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 7-22. Gillham, B. 2000, The Research Interview, Continuum, London. Guinea, A.O.D., Kelley, H. & Hunter, M.G. 2005, 'Information Systems Effectiveness in Small Businesses: Extending A Singaporean Model in Canada', Journal of Global Information Management, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 55-79. Hanseth, O., Ciborra, C.U. & Braa, K. 2001, 'The Control Devolution: ERP and The Side Effects of Globalization', Database for Advances in Information Systems, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 34-46. Hill, H. 2001, 'Small and Medium Enterprises in Indonesia: Old Policy Challenges for A New Administration', Asian Survey, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 248-270. Kautz, K. 2004, 'The Enactment of Methodology: The Case of Developing a Multimedia Information Systems', Proceedings The 25th International Conference on Information Systems. Kautz, K. & Nielsen, P.A. 2004, 'Understanding The Implementation of Software Process Improvement Innovations in Software Organizations', Information Systems Journal, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 3-22. Latour, B. 1987, Science in Action, Open University Press, Milton Keynes. Latour, B. 1988, The Pasteurization of France, Harvard University Press, Cambridge. Latour, B. 1996, Aramis, or, The Love of Technology, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.


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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Latour, B. 1999, 'On Recalling ANT', in J. Law & J. Hassard (eds), Actor Network Theory and After, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, pp. 15-25. Latour, B. 2005, Reassembling The Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory, Clarendon, Oxford. Laudon, K.C. & Laudon, J.P. 2006, Management Information Systems: Managing The Digital Firm, 9th edn, Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River. Law, J. 1999, 'After ANT: Complexity, Naming, and Topology', in J. Law & J. Hassard (eds), Actor Network Theory and After, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, pp. 1-14. Leedy, P.D. & Ormrod, J.E. 2005, Practical Research: Planning and Design, 8th edn, Pearson, Upper Saddle River. McMaster, T. 2001, 'The Illusion of Diffusion in Information Systems Research', in M. Ardis & B. Marcolin (eds), Diffusing Software Products and Process Innovations, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, pp. 67-85. McMaster, T. & Kautz, K. 2002, 'A Short History of Diffusion', Proceedings of IFIP WG 8.6 5th International Working Conference on Diffusion, Adoption, and Implementation of Information Technology, eds D. Bunker, D. Wilson & S. Elliot, IFIP, Sydney, pp. 10-22. McMaster, T., Vidgen, R.T. & Wastell, D.G. 1997, 'Technology Transfer -- Diffusion or Translation?', in T. McMaster, E. Mumford, E.B. Swanson, B. Warboys & D. Wastell (eds), Facilitating Technology Transfer Through Partnership Learning from Practice and Research, Chapman and Hall, London, pp. 64-75. Mitev, N. 2000, 'Toward Social Constructivist Understanding of IS Success and Failure: Introducing A New Computerized Reservation System', Proceedings of The 21st International Conference on Information Systems, eds S. Ang, H. Krcmar, W. Orlikowski, P. Weill & J.I. DeGross, Brisbane, Australia, pp. 84-93. Neuendorf, K.A. 2002, The Content Analysis Guidebook, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks. Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 O'Regan, N. & Ghobadiah, A. 2004, 'Short-and Long-term Performance in Manufacturing SMEs: Different Target, Different Drivers', International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, vol. 53, no. 5, pp. 405-424. Palen, L. & Grudin, J. 2003, 'Discretionary Adoption of Group Support Software: Lessons from Calendar Applications', in B.E. Munkvold (ed.), Implementing Collaboration Technologies in Industry: Case Examples and Lessons Learned, Springer-Verlag, London, pp. 159-180. Rogers, E.M. 1995, Diffusion of Innovations, 4th edn, Free Press, New York. Romney, M.B. & Steinbart, P.J. 2006, Accounting Information Systems, 10th edn, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River. Sarkar, M.E. & Sawy, O.A.E. 2003, 'The Four Tigers of Global E-Business Infrastructure: Strategies and Implications for Emerging Economies', Communications of The Association for Information Systems, vol. 12, no. 2003, pp. 1-22. Schon, D.A. 1971, Beyond Stable State, The Norton Library, New York. Sidle, C.C. & Warzynski, C.C. 2003, 'A New Mission for Business Schools: The Development of Actor-Network Leaders', Journal of Education for Business, vol. 79, no. 1, pp. 40-45. Sismondo, S. 2004, An Introduction to Science and Technology Studies, Blackwell Publishing, Malden. Slappendel, C. 1996, 'Perspectives on Innovation in Organizations', Organization Studies, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 107-129. Tatnall, A. 2002, 'Modeling Technological Change in Small Business: Two Approaches to Theorizing Innovation', in S. Burgess (ed.), Managing Information Technology in Small Business: Challenges and Solutions, IDEA Group Publishing, Hershey, pp. 83-97.


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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Tatnall, A. & Burgess, S. 2004, 'Using Actor-Network Theory to Identify Factors Affecting the Adoption of E-Commerce in SMEs', in M. Singh (ed.), EBusiness Innovation and Change Management, IDEA Group Publishing, Hershey, pp. 152-169. Tatnall, A. & Lepa, J. 2003, 'The Internet, E-Commerce, and Older People: An Actor Network Approach to Researching Reasons for Adoption and Use', Logistics Information Management, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 56-63. Thong, J.Y.L. & Yap, C.S. 1995, 'CEO Characteristics, Organizational Characteristics and Information Technology Adoption in Small Businesses', Omega The International Journal of Management Science, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 429-442. Turban, E., Leidner, D., MacLean, E. & Wetherbe, J. 2006, Information Technology for Management: Transforming Business in the Digital Economy, 5th edn, John Wiley & Sons, New York. Turner, L. & Weickgenannt, A. 2009, Accounting Information Systems: Controls and Processes, John Wiley & Sons, New York. Whittaker, B. 1999, 'What Went Wrong? Unsuccessful Information Technology Projects', Information Management & Computer Security, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 2329. Yin, R.K. 2003, Case Study Research: Design and Methods, 3rd edn, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks. Zaltman, G., Duncan, R. & Holbek, J. 1973, Innovations and Organizations, Wiley, New York.


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PENGARUH FAKTOR INFORMASI TERHADAP KEPUASAN KERJA DI KANTOR AKUNTAN PUBLIK (KAP) Studi atas Faktor Nutrient Information dan Information Consciousness

Agnes Utari Widyaningdyah Universitas Widya Mandala Surabaya

Abstract Accounting firms, as information provider, are directly impacted by the manner by which information is managed. Prior research was held in Australia, United States, and Japan indicates that information which measured by nutrient information and information consciousness construct impact job satisfaction among accountants in Accounting firms. This research investigates the influence of information factor was measured by nutrient information and information consciousness construct toward job satisfaction in accounting firms at Jakarta and Surabaya. Data was collected using questionnaire and 105 respondent was participate. The result after controlling for demographic factors, provide strong effect of nutrient information on job satisfaction, but information consciousness is not. This result means that accountants need information to increase their expertise via senior/supervisor’s feedback and recognition of performance achievement. On the other side, accounting firms are not facilitate their staff yet in order to access the information needs. Keywords: Accounting firm, Public accountant, Nutrient information, Information consciousness, Job satisfaction


AIS02 - 1

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 PENDAHULUAN Latar Belakang Masalah Di era informasi ini, para profesional dituntut untuk selalu mengikuti perkembangan yang terjadi dan mengasah kemampuan profesionalismenya secara berkelanjutan. Perkembangan informasi dan teknologi telekomunikasi ditambah dengan kompetisi global serta meningkatnya ekspektasi pelanggan/klien telah mendorong para profesional untuk bertindak responsif dan lincah (agile). Begitu pula dengan para akuntan, sebagai bagian dari komunitas profesional, mereka dituntut untuk mengikuti setiap perkembangan dan selalu meningkatkan kemampuan,

baik

berupa

skill

maupun

pengetahuan

(knowledge).

Selain

akuntan/auditor, di lain pihak, KAP juga diharapkan dapat bertindak secara profesional, antara lain layanan yang diberikan dapat memenuhi kepuasan klien dan sekaligus memenuhi kepuasan pekerjanya, yaitu para auditor. (Taylor, et al., 2001). Sesuai dengan karakteristik pekerjaan yang dilakukan oleh auditor, maka informasi merupakan salah satu komponen penting dalam mencapai kesuksesan karirnya. Ketersediaan informasi dan kemudahan mengakses informasi menjadikan auditor semakin terpacu untuk meningkatkan kemampuan profesionalismenya. Berdasarkan latar belakang tersebut, sebenarnya terdapat 2 hal penting yang menjadi landasan dalam penelitian ini, yaitu bagaimana mengelola para profesional dan knowledge mangement. Dari dua hal tersebut, didapat konsep yang relevan, yaitu: nutrient information (Shapero’s, 1985 dalam Taylor 2001) dan information consciousness (Brown and Starkey, 1994). Konsep nutrient information menurut Shapero adalah informasi yang memungkinkan profesional mengembangkan keahlian personalnya. Sedangkan Brown dan Starkey menunjukkan suatu konsep information consciousness, yaitu perilaku organisasi dalam menilai informasi sebagai suatu sumber daya, dan sebagai konsekuensinya maka organisasi harus mampu menyediakan informasi dan menciptakan lingkungan berbagi pengetahuan (knowledge sharing) bagi para knowledge workers-nya. Beberapa penelitian yang berkaitan dengan profesionalisme, khususnya auditor/akuntan publik, antara lain oleh Norris (1983) yang diteruskan oleh Gregson (1990 dan 1992). Namun penelitian yang berusaha menganalisis pengaruh faktor informasi terhadap kepuasan kerja di KAP belum banyak dilakukan. Dari hasil penelusuran literatur, diperoleh hasil ada 2 peneliti yang melakukan penelitian Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 tentang pengaruh faktor informasi terhadap kepuasan kerja di KAP, yaitu Taylor, et al (2001) dan Yamamura, et al. (2004). Kedua penelitian tersebut mengambil variabel yang sama yaitu, nutrient information, information consciousness, dan kepuasan kerja. Perbedaan utama dari keduanya adalah responden. Taylor, et al. (2001) melakukan pengujian terhadap auditor di KAP yang berkedudukan di Amerika Serikat dan Australia, sedangkan Yamamura, et al. (2004) meneliti auditor di KAP yang berkedudukan di Jepang. Hasil penelitian keduanya menunjukkan bahwa faktor informasi sangat berperan dalam mewujudkan kepuasan kerja, walaupun pada penelitian di Jepang menunjukkan sedikit perbedaan, yaitu pada tingkat signifikansi variabel kontrol dan loading factor beberapa instrumen yang menunjukkan adanya pengaruh perbedaan budaya. Oleh karena masih sedikitnya penelitian yang menguji tentang pengaruh faktor informasi terhadap kepuasan kerja auditor di KAP, dan belum ada penelitian serupa di Indonesia serta ditunjang dengan masih barunya ranah knowledge management dalam studi akuntansi serta sistem informasi, maka Peneliti tertarik untuk melakukan pengujian terhadap pengaruh faktor informasi pada kepuasan kerja auditor. Tujuan Penelitian Sesuai dengan latar belakang tersebut maka dapat dirumuskan tujuan penelitian ini adalah: 1. Untuk menguji pengaruh nutrient information terhadap kepuasan kerja akuntan yang bekerja di KAP. 2. Untuk menguji pengaruh information consciousness terhadap kepuasan kerja akuntan yang bekerja di KAP.

KERANGKA TEORITIS a. Konsep Nutrient Information Konsep nutrient information muncul dari latar belakang kebutuhan profesional akan informasi. Menurut webster dictionary dalam Mckee dan Stead (1988) mendefinisikan profesional sebagai “a vocation or occupation which requires advanced training in some art or science and usually involves mental rather than physical work” atau dengan kata lain profesional adalah seorang knowledge worker, yaitu pekerja yang

menggunakan pengetahuan (knowledge) dan keahlian


AIS02 - 3

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 (expertise) di bidangnya untuk memecahkan suatu permasalahan. Mereka sangat berbeda dengan pekerja-pekerja lain, terutama dalam hal kebutuhan dan ekspektasi terhadap lingkungan kerja. Dalam hal informasi, para profesional ini membutuhkan informasi spesifik untuk mendukung pekerjaannya (Yamamura dan Stedham, 2007). Oleh karena itu, maka diperoleh suatu konsep yang disebut sebagai nutrient information. Konsep ini sebenarnya sudah dimunculkan oleh Shapero (1985 dalam Taylor, 2001) yang kemudian diadopsi dan disempurnakan oleh Taylor et al. (2001) dan Yamamura et al. (2004). Nutrient information adalah “information that furnishes nourishment, or promotes growth and repair the natural wastage of an individual’s knowledge base” (informasi yang menyediakan sumber makanan, atau mendorong pertumbuhan dan memperbaiki kandungan yang terbuang dari pengetahuan seseorang). Dalam hal ini Shapero menganalogikan informasi seperti kehidupan organik. Konsep nutrient information membantu dalam memahami mengapa umpan balik kinerja sangat penting. Nutrient information juga berdampak pada kemampuan profesional dalam mempertahankan dan mengembangkan keahliannya. Informasi ini berkembang sejak kemampuan teknis minimal yang harus dimiliki seorang profesional yang kemudian tumbuh dengan keahlian dan pengetahuan selama menjalani pekerjaan di bidangnya (on-the-job performance). Umpan balik dari profesional lainnya, terutama dari supervisor dalam bentuk evaluasi kinerja merupakan informasi yang sangat membantu profesional muda untuk mengukur seberapa besar ia harus mengembangkan pengetahuan maupun keahliannya sampai dengan tingkat yang dikehendakinya (Taylor, 2001). Akuntan sebagai profesional juga sangat membutuhkan informasi dalam menjalani profesinya. Kebutuhan berbagai macam informasi juga digunakan untuk mempertahankan status profesional. Salah satu informasi yang penting dalam menjaga profesionalisme adalah perencanaan dan pengembangan karir. Bartlett and Goshal (1995) berpendapat bahwa profesional harus diberi kesempatan untuk selalu memperbarui pengetahuan dan keterampilannya secara berkelanjutan karena hal ini dapat kepuasan profesional dalam menjalankan pekerjaan dan profesinya.


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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 b. Konsep Information Consciousness Information consciousness merupakan suatu konsep bagaimana suatu organisasi harus menyediakan akses informasi yang memadai untuk para pekerjanya. Konsep ini diperkenalkan oleh Taylor et al. (2001) yang sebenarnya hampir sama dengan konsep logistic information yang dikemukakan Shapero (1985, dalam Yamamura dan Stedham, 2007). Logistic information berkembang dari kebutuhan atas informasi dimana jenis informasi telah diketahui namun isi (content) tidak diketahui, biasanya muncul ketika profesional mengerjakan pekerjaan khusus atau proyek tertentu. Logistic information biasanya disediakan oleh internal organisasi melalui fasilitas umum, seperti perpustakaan atau sistem informasi elektronik. Konsep information consciousness telah digunakan oleh Brown dan Starkey’s (1994) dalam penelitiannya tentang pengaruh budaya organisasi terhadap informasi dan komunikasi. Penelitian ini berhasil mengidentifikasi 5 elemen utama informasi dan komunikasi dalam konteks pekerjaan. Empat elemen berhubungan dengan bagaimana informasi tersedia dalam suatu organisasi melalui sistem informasi manajemen yang formal, komunikasi operasional selain dari sistem informasi manajemen, komunikasi lisan, dan komunikasi tertulis. Elemen kelima merupakan elemen yang berkaitan dengan tingkat information consciousness yaitu besarnya nilai

yang

diberikan

diimplementasikan

atas

dalam

informasi suatu

sebagai

sistem

suatu

informasi.

sumber

daya

Elemen-elemen

yang ini

merepresentasikan konsep information consiousness dalam organisasi. Lebih lanjut, dalam penelitiannya Brown dan Starkey’s (1994) mengidentifikasi 2 faktor penentu tingkat information consciousness, faktor pertama berhubungan dengan tingkat kerumitan pemahaman informasi sebagai suatu sumber daya dan pengelolaan informasi. Faktor kedua adalah ketersediaan fasilitas umum yang mudah diakses, termasuk sirkulasi dokumen dan informasi profesional. Shapero (1985, dalam Taylor et al., 2001) menggunakan konsep logistic information

yang

hampir

sama

dengan

information

consciousness,

fokus

penelitiannya pada ketersediaan fasilitas mengakses informasi dan membuat rekomendasi berkaitan dengan penataan kantor, sumber daya keuangan yang disediakan organisasi untuk mengakses informasi, dan adanya pelatihan untuk menggunakan fasilitas yang tersedia dalam mengakses informasi. Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Berdasarkan dua penelitian tersebut di atas, maka dapat disimpulkan bahwa tedapat 4 elemen yang dapat membentuk konstruk information consciousness, yaitu: a. Kecenderungan pekerja untuk merasa bahwa mencari informasi merupakan suatu keharusan ketika dia bekerja dalam suatu organisasi. b. Kecenderungan pekerja untuk terbiasa dengan jenis-jenis sumber informasi yang

tersedia

dalam

organisasi

dan

menerima

pelatihan

untuk

menggunakan fasilitas yang disediakan organisasi dalam mengakses informasi yang dibutuhkan. c. Kecenderungan informasi mudah disediakan dan mudah diakses. d. Besarnya sumber daya keuangan yang disediakan organisasi untuk pekerjanya dalam mengakses informasi.

c. Konsep dan Faktor-faktor yang Berpengaruh Terhadap Kepuasan Kerja Kepuasan kerja (job satisfaction) merupakan suatu konsep yang cukup kompleks dikarenakan banyak hal yang dapat mempengaruhinya. Beberapa studi menunjukkan bahwa kepuasan kerja merupakan perpaduan dari fungsi karakteristik personal dan karakteristik pekerjaan itu sendiri dengan menambahkan beberapa variabel seperti gender (Clark, 1997; Bender et al., 2005), umur (Sloane dan Ward, 2001), tingkat pendidikan (Sloane dan William, 2000; Clark, 1997; Belfield dan Harris, 2002), otonomi (Nguyen et al., 2003), dan pendapatan atau gaji (Shields dan Price, 2002). Namun menurut Nguyen et al. (2003) konsep kepuasan kerja mengandung dimensi yang bersifat multidimensional, sehingga tidak dapat diprediksikan dengan dimensi tunggal. Demikian pula dengan pendapat Taylor (1999) yang menyatakan bahwa kepuasan kerja profesional dipengaruhi oleh banyak faktor sehingga dalam mengukurnya diperlukan dimensi yang cukup kompleks. Beberapa dimensi yang digunakan oleh Taylor (1999) antara lain: kepuasan terhadap pekerjaan itu sendiri, kepuasan terhadap supervisi, kepuasan tehadap kompensasi yang diterima, kepuasan terhadap prospek promosi, dan kepuasan terhadap teman sejawat. Dimensi ini juga sebelumnya digunakan oleh peneliti lain dalam mengukur kepuasan kerja profesional khususnya akuntan (Gregson, 1992; Reed et al.,1994). Akuntan sebagai suatu profesi juga tidak terlepas dari konsep kepuasan kerja. Berbagai penelitian juga dilakukan untuk dapat menjelaskan konsep kepuasan kerja Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

AIS02 - 6

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 profesi akuntan, antara lain penelitian Paten (1995), Kenneth, et al. (2000), Moyes et al.(2006). Paten (1995) melakukan penelitian tentang pengaruh faktor supervisi terhadap kepuasan kerja. Hasil penelitiannya menyatakan bahwa elemen supervisi, seperti kepemimpinan dan mentoring, kondisi kerja, dan penugasan berpengaruh terhadap tingkat kepuasan kerja. Kenneth (2000) meneliti tentang kepuasan kerja bagi akuntan pemula yang bekerja di KAP. Hasil penelitiannya menunjukkan bahwa para akuntan pemula yang bekerja di KAP yang berdomisili di Amerika Serikat cukup puas dengan kesempatan untuk mengembangkan diri mereka dan sangat menghargai umpan balik (feedback) yang jujur dari supervisor mereka. Sedangkan Moyes et al. (2006) melakukan penelitian tentang faktor-faktor apa saja yang dapat mempengaruhi kepuasan kerja akuntan untuk ras tertentu. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kepuasan kerja berkorelasi positif dengan supervisi yang baik, kesempatan promosi yang baik dan adil, serta nilai-nilai intrinsik dari pekerjaan itu sendiri. Faktor-faktor demografi, seperti usia, gender, dan lamanya bekerja tidak berpengaruh terhadap kepuasan kerja. Penelitian yang menarik dan relatif masih baru sehubungan dengan konsep kepuasan kerja akuntan, yaitu penelitian yang dilakukan oleh Taylor et al. (2001) dan Yamamura et al. (2004) mengenai pengaruh faktor informasi. Informasi yang dimaksud adalah informasi yang dapat menumbuhkan dan mengembangkan profesionalisme akuntan serta kemudahan akses informasi yang disediakan oleh KAP tempat akuntan bekerja. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa informasi umpan balik kinerja dan pengembangan karir mempengaruhi kepuasan kerja akuntan, demikian pula ketersediaan informasi dari KAP tempat dimana obyek penelitian, yaitu akuntan bekerja.

d. Hubungan Nutrient Information dan Information Consciousness dengan Kepuasan Kerja Akuntan Publik di KAP Dewasa ini kebutuhan akan tenaga akuntan yang terlatih semakin meningkat. Tidak hanya di KAP saja, melainkan juga di internal industri dan pemerintahan menghadapi fenomena yang sama, yaitu semakin sulit untuk menarik maupun mempertahankan akuntan sebagai pekerja profesional. Sebagai seorang knowledge worker, akuntan memang berbeda dengan pekerja lain terutama dalam hal kebutuhan dan ekspektasi terhadap tempat kerja mereka. Akuntan membutuhkan Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

AIS02 - 7

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 jenis informasi khusus dalam menjalankan profesinya, sehingga seharusnya pemberi kerja dapat menyediakan informasi tersebut agar akuntan dapat bekerja dan mencapai kepuasan dalam pekerjaannya. Perbedaan utama antara profesional (dalam hal ini akuntan) dengan pekerja lainnya adalah kedudukan mereka sebagai tenaga ahli. Mereka bekerja berdasarkan pengetahuan tertentu dan menunjukkannya dalam keahlian teknis, sehingga kompeten tidaknya seorang akuntan tergantung pada kemampuannya menunjukkan keahlian di bidang yang ditekuninya. Untuk meningkatkan dan mengembangkan keahlian

teknisnya

maka

akuntan

membutuhkan

informasi

yang

relevan.

Pemenuhan kebutuhan akan informasi dengan memberikan kemudahan akses dapat meningkatkan kepuasan akuntan dalam menjalankan tugasnya (Yamamura dan Stedham, 2007). Penelitian Taylor et al. (2001) maupun Yamamura et al. (2004) menunjukkan bukti pengaruh yang signifikan antara informasi dan kepuasan kerja akuntan yang bekerja di KAP yang berkedudukan di Amerika Serikat, Australia, dan Jepang. Terdapat 4 dimensi yang digunakan untuk mengukur variabel informasi, yaitu dimensi evaluasi oleh supervisor dan informasi karir sebagai dimensi dari nutrient information dan dimensi motivasi, pelatihan, kemudahan akses, dan keuangan sebagai dimensi dari information consciousness. Informasi umpan balik yang diberikan dalam bentuk evaluasi formal dari supervisor menjadi hal penting bagi akuntan dalam meningkatkan kinerjanya, demikian pula dengan informasi tentang kesempatan berkarir dan pengembangan karir. Sedangkan ketersediaan informasi, dengan segala fasilitas, serta kemudahan mengakses dan pelatihan yang diberikan organisasi tempat akuntan bekerja juga memberi andil dalam meningkatkan kepuasan kerja akuntan sebagai profesional.

Hipotesis a. Pengaruh Nutrient Information terhadap Kepuasan Kerja Telah dijelaskan sebelumnya bahwa informasi adalah komponen yang sangat penting bagi profesional sebagai seorang knowledge worker, dan tentu saja diharapkan dapat berdampak pada kinerja individu yang pada akhirnya membentuk suatu kepuasan kerja. Penelitian Gregson. T (1990) menunjukkan bahwa informasi yang berkaitan dengan persepsi karyawan dan umpan balik atas kinerja karyawan Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

AIS02 - 8

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 merupakan faktor penting dalam membentuk kepuasan dan intensi berpindah di KAP. Penelitian Patten (1995) juga menunjukkan bahwa informasi berupa umpan balik atas kinerja karyawan merupakan komponen penting dalam membentuk kepuasan kerja para akuntan. Konsep nutrient information dapat menjelaskan mengapa informasi berupa umpan balik atas kinerja karyawan sangat penting dalam membentuk kepuasan kerja. Nutrient information berdampak pada kemampuan seorang profesional dalam mengembangkan keterampilan dan keahliannya. Informasi tersebut dikembangkan mulai dari informasi teknis pada tingkat minimum dan kemudian berkembang seiring dengan pekerjaan yang dilakukan. Umpan balik yang diberikan oleh profesional lain, terutama oleh supervisor menyediakan informasi bagi profesional baru dalam mengukur tingkat keterampilan maupun keahliannya. Dengan kata lain, umpan balik atas kinerja dapat memberikan informasi apakah keterampilan atau keahlian seorang profesional telah dikembangkan sampai pada tingkat yang diinginkan (Taylor, et al., 2001). Para akuntan yang bekerja di KAP juga memperhatikan status profesional mereka.

Untuk

mempertahankan

status

profesional,

para

akuntan

publik

membutuhkan informasi yang berkaitan dengan kesempatan pengembangan karir yang tersedia, baik di dalam maupun di luar organisasinya. Oleh karena itu maka dapat dikembangkan hipotesis sebagai berikut: H1 : Nutrient Information berpengaruh secara signifikan terhadap kepuasan kerja akuntan publik di KAP yang berkedudukan di Indonesia

b. Pengaruh Kesadaran Informasi Organisasi (Organisational Information Consciousness) terhadap Kepuasan Kerja Kesadaran informasi dalam suatu organisasi menunjukkan perilaku organisasi terhadap informasi, salah satunya adalah dengan menyediakan sumber daya yang dapat digunakan untuk aktivitas pencarian, evaluasi, dan penyebaran informasi. Konsep ini dikemukakan oleh Brown dan Starkey’s (1994) dalam penelitiannya tentang hubungan antara budaya organisasi, komunikasi, dan informasi. Terdapat 2 faktor yang dapat digunakan untuk mengukur kesadaran informasi organisasi, yaitu tingkat pemahaman profesional atas informasi sebagai sumber daya dan pengelolan


AIS02 - 9

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 informasi serta ketersediaan informasi publikasi yang dibutuhkan , termasuk di dalamnya sirkulasi dokumen. Penelitian berikutnya yang berkaitan dengan organisational information consciousness adalah penelitan Shapero (1985) yang menitikberatkan pada fasilitas yang disediakan organisasi untuk mengakses informasi, pengaturan layout kantor, sumber daya keuangan untuk mendukung akses informasi, dan adanya pelatihan dalam mengakses informasi melalui fasilitas yang telah disediakan. Dengan menyediakan fasilitas yang memadai dalam mengakses informasi yang dibutuhkan akuntan, maka diharapkan KAP yang merupakan representasi tempat bekerja akuntan dapat mempertahankan stafnya dengan meningkatkan kepuasan dan menurunkan intensi akuntan untuk berpindah tempat kerja. Berdasarkan latar belakang tersebut maka dapat dikembangkan suatu hipotesis berikut: H2 : Information Consciousness berpengaruh secara signifikan terhadap kepuasan kerja akuntan publik di KAP yang berkedudukan di Indonesia. Model Penelitian Nutrient Information Kepuasan Kerja Information Consciousness

Gambar 1 Model Penelitan

METODA PENELITIAN a. Sampel Penelitian Populasi penelitian ini staf profesional (akuntan publik) yang bekerja di KAP yang berkedudukan di 2 kota besar, yaitu Jakarta dan Surabaya. Lokasi ini dipilih karena mewakili lebih dari 50% KAP di Indonesia. Pengambilan sampel dilakukan dengan menggunakan purposive sampling, yaitu auditor di bawah level partner yang bekerja di KAP yang terdaftar di www.akuntanpublikindonesia.com sampai dengan 2 Februari 2008 dan berkedudukan di Jakarta dan Surabaya. Partner tidak Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

AIS02 - 10

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 diikutsertakan sebagai sampel penelitian karena peneliti berpendapat level partner adalah level tertinggi di KAP dan mereka bertugas mengatur staff yang lain serta bertanggung jawab dalam memenuhi kebutuhan staf bawahannya. Jumlah KAP yang berkedudukan di Jakarta dan Surabaya yang terdaftar di website www.akuntanpublikindonesia.com baik kantor pusat maupun cabang sampai dengan 2 Februari 2008 adalah 325 KAP. KAP yang dijadikan sampel sebanyak 167 kantor dengan rincian sebagai berikut: Tabel 1 Sampel Penelitian

Domisili

Populasi KAP

Jumlah KAP

Jumlah

Sampel

Responden

Jakarta

275

122

366

Surabaya

50

45

135

Total

325

167

501

b. Jenis dan Sumber Data Data yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah data primer. Sumber data dalam penelitian ini adalah skor masing-masing indikator variabel yang diperoleh dari pengisian kuesioner yang telah dibagikan kepada auditor yang bekerja pada KAP sebagai responden. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan metode survei. Data diperoleh dengan menggunakan kuesioner yang dibagikan secara langsung kepada para auditor yang bekerja pada KAP di Jakarta dan Surabaya yang terdaftar pada website www.akuntanpublikindonesia.com. Kuisioner dibagikan mulai tanggal 28 Februari 2008 dan ditutup tanggal 25 Mei 2008.

c. Identifikasi Variabel, Definisi Operasional, dan Pengukuran Variabel Variabel yang digunakan adalah meliputi variabel tegantung (dependent variable), variabel bebas (independent variable) dan varibel kendali (control variable). Variabel-variabel tersebut adalah sebagai berikut:


AIS02 - 11

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 a. Variabel Tergantung (Dependent Variable) Variabel tergantung yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah kepuasan kerja yang

diukur

dengan

menggunakan

Job

Descriptive

Index

(JDI)

yang

dikembangkan oleh Bowling Green State University sebanyak 90 items (Bowling Green State University, 1997). JDI telah banyak digunakan dalam penelitian perilaku dan menunjukkan hasil analisis faktor yang memadai apabila digunakan untuk mengukur kepuasan kerja profesional (Taylor, 2001). b. Varibel Bebas (Independent Variable) Terdapat 2 variabel bebas dalam penelitian ini, yaitu Nutrient Information dan Information Consciousness. Dimensi yang digunakan untuk kedua variabel tersebut diadopsi dari penelitian Taylor (2001). Nutrient Information diukur dengan menggunakan dimensi Evaluasi dan Karir, sedangkan Information Consciousness diukur dengan menggunakan dimensi Motivasi, Pelatihan, Kemudahan Mengakses Informasi, dan Dukungan Keuangan/Finansial dalam Mengakses Informasi. c. Variabel Kendali (Control Variable) Variabel yang digunakan untuk mengendalikan pengujian adalah Otonomi (diambil dari Job Diagnostic Survey), Umur, Divisi, Jenis Kelamin, Jabatan/Level, Pengalaman Kerja. Otonomi diduga berkaitan dengan kepuasan kerja auditor sebagaimana diungkapkan oleh Mckee dan Stead (1988) yaitu bentuk organisasi KAP yang birokratis, dimana senior menjadi superior cenderung membatasi otonomi auditor, sehingga berpotensi menaikkan tingkat frustasi yang pada akhirnya

menimbulkan

ketidakpuasan

kerja.

Beberapa

penelitian

lain

menunjukkan bahwa umur, jenis kelamin, jabatan, dan lamanya bekerja mempengaruhi kepuasan kerja auditor (Hooks dan Cheramy, 1994; Hayes dan Hollman, 1996; Bender, et al., 2005)


AIS02 - 12

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Identifikasi Variabel yang telah disebutkan di atas dapat dirinci dalam tabel berikut ini: Tabel 2 Variabel dan Pengukurannya

Variabel

Pengukuran

Dependent Variable Kepuasan Kerja

Job Descriptive Index (90 items)

Independent Variable -

Evaluasi

-

Karir

Information

-

Motivasi

Consciousness

-

Pelatihan

-

Kemudahan Mengakses Informasi

-

Dukungan

Nutrient Information

Finansial

dalam

Mengakses

Informasi Control Variable Otonomi

dalam Job Diagnostic Index (3 items)

pekerjaan Umur responden

1=20-24; 2=25-29; 3=30-34; 4=35-39; 5=40-44; 6=45-49; 7=50+

Divisi

1=Audit; 2= Pajak; 3=Consulting; 4= Mix

Jenis Kelamin

0=Pria; 1=Wanita

Jabatan

1=Staf;

2=Senior;

3=Supervisor;

4=Manajer;

5=Senior Manager Lama bekerja

...tahun

Sumber: Taylor et al. (2001) dan Yamamura et al. (2004)


AIS02 - 13

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 d. Teknik Analisis Data (a) Analisis Faktor Analisis faktor dilakukan untuk mengekstraksi sejumlah indikator pembentuk variabel, serta pemeriksaan validitas dan reliabilitas instrumen penelitian. Melakukan confirmatory factor analysis untuk masing-masing variabel akan diketahui indikatorindikator pembentuk variabel serta validitas dan reliabilitasnya. Nilai loading factor atau lambda value (λ) serta nilai signifikansinya menunjukkan kecocokan atau unidimensionalitas dari indikator-indikator pembentuk dimensi dan variabel. Indikator yang loading factornya ≤ 0,4 atau p value lebih besar dari 0,05 tidak disertakan dalam model. (b) Pengujian Validitas dan Reliabilitas Uji validitas dilakukan untuk memastikan bahwa masing-masing item dalam instrumen penelitian mampu mengukur variabel yang ditetapkan dalam penelitian ini. Sebuah instrumen dikatakan valid, jika mampu mengukur apa yang diinginkan dan mengungkapkan data dari variabel yang diteliti secara tepat (Ghozali, 2001:45). Uji validitas dilakukan dengan analisis faktor. Validitas yang diuji adalah validitas konstruk, yaitu dengan melihat nilai muatan faktor (factor loading) yang relatif tinggi berkisar 0,7 (Fornell dan Larcker, 1981 dalam Jogiyanto, 2008). Uji reliabilitas dimaksudkan untuk mengetahui sejauhmana hasil pengukuran tetap konsisten apabila dilakukan pengukuran dua kali atau lebih terhadap pernyataan yang sama menggunakan alat ukur yang sama pula. Uji reliabilitas dalam penelitian ini menggunakan teknik Cronbach Alpha (α), dimana suatu instrumen dapat dikatakan handal (reliabel), bila memiliki cronbach alpha ≥ 0,6 (Sekaran, 2000 : 204). (c) Pengujian Asumsi Klasik Sebelum dilakukan pengujian hipotesis, maka data yang diperoleh dalam penelitian ini akan diuji terlebih dahulu untuk memenuhi asumsi dasar, dan pengujian yang dilakukan diantaranya: (1) multikolinieritas, yaitu untuk mengetahui apakah ada hubungan antar variabel bebas (2) heteroskedastisitas untuk mengetahui korelasi variabel dengan residualnya. Pengujian autokorelasi tidak dilakukan karena data tidak berbentuk time series.


AIS02 - 14

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 (d) Metoda Analisis Data Metoda analisis data yang digunakan adalah regresi berganda dengan variabel tergantung kepuasan kerja dan variabel bebas nutrient information dan information consciousness beserta beberapa variabel yang diduga menjadi variabel kontrol yaitu jenis kelamin, otonomi, umur, divisi, lamanya bekerja, dan jabatan.

ANALISIS DATA DAN PEMBAHASAN a. Gambaran Umum Responden Sebelum menyebarkan kuisioner kepada responden yang sesungguhnya, dilakukan pengujian pendahuluan berupa pilot test. Hal ini dilakukan mengingat instrumen penelitian diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Indonesia. Pilot test dilakukan kepada 20 orang staf junior dan senior auditor di KAP Surabaya. Revisi minor dilakukan berdasarkan masukan dari responden dan juga praktisi auditor lain, diharapkan instrumen dapat lebih mudah dipahami. Responden penelitian ini adalah akuntan publik/auditor yang bekerja di KAP yang berkedudukan di Jakarta dan Surabaya. Sebanyak 501 responden dikirimi kuisioner melalui jasa kurir dimulai sejak 28 Februari 2008 dan ditutup tanggal 25 Mei 2008. Jumlah kuisioner yang kembali 111 kuisioner dari 37 KAP. Dari 111 kuisioner yang dapat diolah lebih lanjut hanya 105 kuisioner dikarenakan 6 kuisioner tidak memenuhi persyaratan sampel, yaitu mereka pada tingkat partner dan kuisioner tidak diisi dengan lengkap. Gambaran umum responden dapat dilihat pada tabel berikut ini: Tabel 3 Rincian Pengembalian Kuisioner Keterangan Kuisioner yang dikirim Kuisioner tidak kembali Kuisioner kembali Kuisioner tidak lengkap/tidak memenuhi syarat Kuisioner diolah Tingkat pengembalian (response rate) Tingkat pengembalian yang digunakan (usable response rate) Sumber: data diolah peneliti (2008)


Jumlah Total 501 390 111 (6) 105 22,16% 20,96%

AIS02 - 15

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 b. Statistik Deskriptif Statistik deskriptif dari variabel yang diteliti terlihat dalam lampiran beserta demografi responden.

Dari data demografi jenis kelamin responden maka

jumlah pria sebanyak 53 orang dari total 105 responden. Jumlah ini mewakili 50,5% dari responden. Sehingga dapat disimpulkan jumlah responden pria dan wanita tidak berbeda jauh atau hampir sama dalam prosentasenya. Dari tabel jabatan dapat dilihat bahwa jumlah responden kebanyakan berkedudukan sebagai junior auditor yaitu sebanyak 39%, senior auditor sebanyak 33,3%, dan manajer hanya sekitar 4,8% dari total responden. Dengan demikian dapat disimpulkan bahwa sebagian besar responden mempunyai kedudukan sebagai junior dan senior auditor. Kebanyakan responden telah bekerja di KAP selama 2 tahun (28,6%) dan 3 tahun (23,8%). Hanya ada 1 orang responden yang bekerja kurang lebih 8 tahun di KAP. Selain itu, data tersebut diperkuat dengan tabel umur yang kebanyakan responden (sekitar 71%) berumur antara 20-29 tahun Apabila dihubungkan antara tabel demografi maka dapat diambil kesimpulan bahwa sebagian besar responden berkedudukan sebagai junior dan senior auditor yang rata-rata mereka adalah akuntan baru (entry-level accountant). Sedangkan divisi tempat bekerja akuntan ini sebanyak 70,5% pada divisi audit dan 20% pada divisi pajak.

c. Analisis Faktor Analisis faktor dilakukan untuk mengekstraksi sejumlah indikator pembentuk variabel,

serta

pemeriksaan

validitas

dan

reliabilitas

instrumen

penelitian.

Persyaratan pokok yang harus dipenuhi untuk dapat melakukan analisis faktor adalah angka Measure of Sampling Adequacy (MSA) harus lebih dari 0,5; artinya instrumen variabel dapat dianalisis lebih lanjut. Dari hasil pengujian Kaiser-MeyerOlkin (KMO) dan Bartlett’s Test di atas diperoleh angka 0,720 dengan signifikansi sebesar 0,000. Angka 0,720 berada di atas 0,5 dengan signifikansi lebih kecil dari 0,5 sehingga variabel dan data dalam penelitian ini dapat dianalisis lebih lanjut. Setelah melakukan pengujian MSA maka analisis faktor dilakukan untuk menguji apakah indikator-indikator mencerminkan faktor yang akan dianalisis lebih lanjut. Hasil analisis faktor terlihat pada lampiran. Hasil dari analisis faktor dengan menggunakan metoda principal component analysis dan metoda rotasi varimax menunjukkan hasil terdapat 6 faktor dengan nilai eigenvalue lebih besar dari 1. Hasil Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

AIS02 - 16

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 ini konsisten dengan penelitian sebelumnya yang juga mengelompokkan item pernyataan/indikator ke dalam 6 faktor. Faktor EVALUASI meliputi item-item yang berkaitan dengan informasi umpan balik dari supervisor kepada staf auditor. Faktor kedua adalah PERENCANAAN KARIR yang meliputi item-item pernyataan yang berhubungan rencana karir staf auditor, yaitu peluang kerja di masa depan dan pengakuan terhadap pencapaian kinerja oleh senior. Kedua faktor di atas masuk di dalam konsep nutrient information. Faktor yang ketiga adalah faktor MOTIVASI dengan item-item pernyataan yang meliputi dorongan untuk meningkatkan pengetahuan

(knowledge)

melalui

kegiatan

membaca,

berpartisipasi

dalam

organisasi dan membentuk jaringan dengan profesional lainnya. Faktor keempat adalah PELATIHAN, item-item pernyataan dalam faktor ini berkaitan dengan cukup tidaknya pelatihan diberikan oleh organisasi; dalam hal ini KAP, kepada staf auditornya sehubungan dengan sumber daya/fasilitas yang tersedia. Faktor kelima berkaitan dengan kemudahan berbagi informasi di KAP dan kemudahan akses informasi yang dibutuhkan, faktor ini diberi nama KEMUDAHAN Faktor terakhir berkaitan dengan penggantian biaya menghadiri pertemuan-pertemuan profesi atau berlangganan/membeli majalah profesi. Faktor terakhir ini diberi nama KEUANGAN, atau lebih spesifik lagi pembayaran kembali (REIMBURSEMENT).

d. Uji Validitas dan Reliabilitas Pengujian validitas terhadap konstruk nutrient information dan information consciousness dilakukan dengan menggunakan analisis faktor. Menurut Fornell dan Larcker (1981 dalam Jogiyanto, 2008) validitas konstruk tercapai apabila nilai muatan faktor (factor loading) lebih besar dari 0,7. Dari hasil analisis faktor hanya ada satu item pertanyaan yang nilainya kurang dari 0,7 yaitu f1, pertanyaan yang terkait dengan penggantian biaya menghadiri pertemuan profesional. Pengujian reliabilitas dilakukan dengan melihat nilai cronbrach alpha dimana suatu instrumen dapat dikatakan handal (reliabel), bila memiliki cronbach alpha ≥ 0,6 (Sekaran, 2000 : 204). Hasil pengujian reliabilitas dapat dilihat pada lampiran yang menunjukkan bahwa semua variabel yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah reliable, yaitu dapat dilihat dari nilai cronbach alpha di atas 0,6.


AIS02 - 17

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 e. Uji Asumsi Klasik Pengujian asumsi klasik yang diperlukan adalah uji multikolineritas, uji autokorelasi, dan uji heterokedastisitas . Hasil pengujian dapat dilihat pada lampiran dan dapat disimpulkan bahwa data yang akan diolah telah memenuhi asumsi klasik pengujian regresi berganda.

f. Uji Regresi dan Uji Hipotesis Untuk menguji pengaruh faktor nutrient information dan information consciousness terhadap kepuasan kerja staf auditor di KAP digunakan analisis regresi berganda. Pada tahap pengujian awal akan dilakukan pengujian dengan 2 variabel bebas di atas. Jika hasil dari pengujian menunjukkan terdapat faktor yang signifikan berpengaruh, maka akan dideteksi kemungkinan adanya variabel kontrol/pengendali yang diduga dapat

mempengaruhi hasil pengujian variabel

pertama dengan memperhatikan konsep/teori yang ada. Hasil uji regresi variabel nutrient information dan information consciousness terhadap kepuasan kerja dapat dilihat pada lampiran. Dari tabel terlihat bahwa variabel nutrient information yang terdiri atas faktor evaluasi dan perencanaan karir berpengaruh signifikan terhadap kepuasan kerja staf auditor di KAP. Hal ini terlihat dari nilai signifikansi masing-masing faktor yaitu evaluasi 0,41 yang dan faktor perencanaan karir 0,43 yang keduanya < 0,05.Variabel information consciousness yang

terdiri

atas

faktor

motivasi,

pelatihan,

kemudahan,

dan

keuangan/reimbursement hanya ada 1 faktor yang berpengaruh signifikan yaitu faktor keuangan/reimbursement, terlihat dari nilai signifikansinya < 0,05. Dengan demikian dapat disimpulkan dari hasil analisis statistik regresi berganda bahwa hipotesis 1 terdukung, sedangkan hipotesis 2 hanya terdukung parsial/sebagian faktor saja yaitu keuangan. Nilai R2 sebesar ,209 menunjukkan bahwa variabel bebas yang terdiri atas faktor-faktor pembentuk konsep nutrient information dan information consciousness berkontribusi/dapat menjelaskan kepuasan kerja staf auditor di KAP sebesar 20,9%. Sisanya sebesar 79,1% dijelaskan oleh variabel lain. Selain itu nilai signifikansi F juga menunjukkan bahwa model fit dan secara keseluruhan variabel bebas yang diteliti mempunyai pengaruh terhadap kepuasan kerja.


AIS02 - 18

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Untuk melihat lebih lanjut apakah variabel kepuasan kerja dapat dipengaruhi oleh faktor demografi ataupun faktor lain, maka dilakukan analisis regresi dengan variabel umur, lamanya bekerja, jenis kelamin, otonomi, jabatan/level pekerjaan, dan divisi. Hasil pengujian dengan memasukkan variabel pengendali terlihat bahwa nilai R2 = ,321 mengalami peningkatan dari semula (R2 = ,209), sehingga dapat disimpulkan beberapa variabel yang ditambahkan dalam uji regresi lanjutan berkontribusi terhadap variabel tergantung. Beberapa tambahan variabel tersebut dapat dikategorikan sebagai pengendali, yaitu variabel yang mempunyai nilai signifikansi < 0,05 atau berpengaruh signifikan, variabel-variabel tersebut adalah: jabatan dan otonomi. Berdasarkan hasil pengujian regresi di atas maka dapat disimpulkan variabel nutrient information berpengaruh signifikan terhadap kepuasan kerja staf auditor di KAP, maka hipotesis pertama penelitian ini terdukung. Hipotesis kedua yang menduga adanya pengauh variabel information consciousness terhadap kepuasan kerja

staf

auditor

di

KAP

hanya

terdukung

secara

parsial,

yaitu

faktor

keuangan/reimbursement saja, secara keseluruhan hipotesis kedua tidak terdukung.

g. Pembahasan Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menguji pengaruh faktor informasi, khususnya nutrient information dan information consciousness terhadap kepuasan kerja staf auditor yang bekerja di KAP. Penelitian yang sama telah dilakukan di tiga tempat berbeda, yaitu di Amerika Serikat dan Australia (Taylor, 2001) dan Jepang (Yamamura, 2004). Berdasarkan faktor analisis yang dilakukan dalam penelitian ini, terdapat 6 faktor yang serupa dengan 2 penelitian tersebut, dengan hasil pengelompokan indikator yang sama dengan penelitian Taylor (2001). Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa indikator-indikator pembentuk konstruk nutrient information dan information consciousness teruji secara statistik, diperkuat dengan uji reliabilitas yang menunjukkan bahwa indikator pembentuk konstruk dapat diandalkan (reliable) walaupun dalam kondisi wilayah responden yang berbeda. Hasil pengujian regresi berganda menunjukkan adanya pengaruh signifikan atas variabel nutrient information, sedangkan variabel information consciousness menunjukkan hasil yang agak berbeda, untuk penelitian di Australia dan Amerika Serikat hasilnya signifikan, sedangkan untuk staf auditor di Jepang terdapat 2 faktor Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

AIS02 - 19

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 yang tidak berpengaruh terhadap kepuasan kerja yaitu kemudahan dan pelatihan. Penelitian ini menggunakan jenis sampel yang agak berbeda dengan 2 penelitian sebelumnya, yaitu sebagian besar sampel adalah KAP lokal yang tidak berafiliasi dengan KAP besar/internasional/The Big Four.

Karakteristik inilah yang diduga

dapat mempengaruhi hasil pengujian. Variabel nutrient information berpengaruh secara signifikan terhadap kepuasan kerja, hasil ini konsisten dengan 2 penelitian sebelumnya. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa staf

auditor membutuhkan informasi umpan balik dari supervisor atau

seniornya untuk dapat meningkatkan keahlian dan pengetahuan atau wawasannya. Evaluasi formal yang diberikan secara periodik dapat meningkatkan kepuasan kerja bagi akuntan publik karena dengan umpan balik ini maka akuntan publik dapat mengetahui tingkat keahlian mereka, hal ini penting karena biasanya profesional sangat memperhatikan status ke-profesional-an mereka (Taylor, 2001). Demikian halnya dengan perencanaan dan pengembangan karir, baik akuntan publik di Australia, Amerika Serikat, Jepang, maupun Indonesia, mereka membutuhkan faktor ini. Bantuan dari senior atas prospek masa depan pekerjaan dan pengakuan atas pencapaian kinerja ternyata dapat meningkatkan kepuasan kerja. Hasil yang berbeda ditunjukkan pada pengaruh variabel information connsciousness terhadap kepuasan kerja. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan hanya 1 faktor dari variabel information consciousness yang berpengaruh terhadap kepuasan kerja akuntan, yaitu faktor keuangan

yang meliputi pembayaran kembali

(reimbursement) atas pengeluaran/biaya menghadiri pertemuan profesi/seminar dan berlangganan majalah profesi. Faktor-faktor motivasi, pelatihan, dan kemudahan mengakses informasi ternyata tidak berpengaruh terhadap kepuasan kerja staf auditor di Indonesia. Hasil ini dapat dijelaskan melalui karakteristik sampel yang berbeda dengan 2 penelitian sebelumnya, yaitu KAP yang menjadi sampel adalah KAP lokal yang sebagian besar tidak menyediakan fasilitas yang memadai dalam mengakses informasi yang dibutuhkan stafnya. Keterbatasan sarana, prasarana mengakibatkan staf akuntan publik tidak dengan mudah mendapatkan informasi yang

dibutuhkan,

selain

itu

juga

keterbatasan

fasilitas

ditambah

dengan

keterbatasan sumber daya manusia menyebabkan staf tidak mendapatkan pelatihan dalam menggunakan fasilitas yang ada di tempat kerja. Kebanyakan dari staf harus belajar sendiri dalam mengoperasikan/menggunakan fasilitas pengakses informasi. Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

AIS02 - 20

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Oleh karena itu mengapa indikator kemudahan mengakses dan pelatihan tidak berpengaruh terhadap kepuasan kerja. Dorongan untuk menjalin hubungan dengan pakar lain maupun untuk beraktivitas di luar organisasi (dalam hal ini KAP) sebagian besar berasal dari keinginan individu, bukan dari organanisasi, sehingga staf tidak merasakan indikator ini sebagai penentu kepuasan kerjanya. Temuan yang unik diperoleh dari pengaruh yang signifikan atas faktor keuangan terhadap kepuasan kerja. Hal ini dirasa unik karena walaupun sarana, prasarana untuk mengakses informasi sangat terbatas, KAP mau mengeluarkan penggantian biaya (reimbursement) dari stafnya atas berbagai sarana yang mereka gunakan untuk mendapatkan informasi, dalam hal ini untuk menghadiri pertemuan profesi maupun membeli/berlangganan majalah/tabloid profesi.

Kemungkinan

fenomena

ini

terjadi

karena

KAP

menyadari

akan

keterbatasan fasilitas sehingga ketika staf berusaha sendiri untuk mendapatkan informasi yang benar-benar dibutuhkan, KAP tidak keberatan untuk mengganti biaya-biaya tersebut. Keberadaan variabel pengendali membuat variabel nutrient information dan information consciousness berkontribusi lebih besar terhadap kepuasan kerja. Variabel jabatan yang menunjukkan tingkat pekerjaan mempunyai pengaruh yang signifikan dan berhubungan negatif terhadap kepuasan kerja akuntan publik, hal ini dapat dijelaskan dengan semakin tinggi jabatan seorang akuntan publik maka ia semakin tidak merasakan kepuasan dalam pekerjaannya. Jika dilihat dari prosentase responden maka sebagian besar responden adalah junior dan senior auditor, maka ketika seorang akuntan publik mencapai kedudukan sebagai senior auditor ia mulai merasakan niatan untuk berpindah (turnover intention). Fenomena ini biasa terjadi di Indonesia karena ketika jabatan akuntan sudah mencapai senior auditor berarti sudah ada pengalaman kerja yang dapat digunakan untuk melamar pekerjaan yang menurut mereka lebih menjanjikan, terutama secara finansial. Variabel pengendali berikutnya adalah otonomi yang menunjukkan nilai signifikan positif. Hal ini berarti bahwa semakin tinggi otonomi seorang akuntan publik maka semakin puas ia terhadap pekerjaan yang dijalaninya. Hal ini konsisten dengan penelitian Nguyen et al. (2003) yang menyatakan bahwa semakin tinggi tingkat kebebasan seseorang dalam melakukan tugas/pekerjaannya maka ia akan semakin puas terhadap pekerjaannya. Terlebih lagi bagi seorang profesional, Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

AIS02 - 21

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 dengan otonomi yang tinggi terhadap pekerjaannya berarti ia diberi kesempatan penuh untuk menggunakan keahliannya (Colarelli et al., 1987). Secara keseluruhan dapat ditarik kesimpulan bahwa informasi yang sifatnya membangun/”memupuk” keahlian profesional atau disebut sebagai konstruk nutrient information mempunyai pengaruh yang signifikan terhadap kepuasan kerja staf akuntan publik di KAP. Hasil ini konsisten dengan 2 penelitian sebelumya yang dilakukan di Amerika Serikat, Australia, dan Jepang. Namun pada konstruk yang menggambarkan kesadaran organisasi (dalam hal ini KAP) terhadap pentingnya informasi; atau yang disebut konstruk information consciousness tidak terbukti berpengaruh terhadap kepuasan kerja staf akuntan publik di KAP. Hal ini dapat diakibatkan karena sebagian besar KAP di Indonesia adalah KAP lokal yang memiliki keterbatasan dalam fasilitas mengakses informasi, sehingga penyediaan informasi terkadang tidak mendapat perhatian utama dari pengelola atau pemilik KAP. SIMPULAN, KETERBATASAN, DAN IMPLIKASI a. Simpulan Penelitian Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa terdapat 2 faktor pembentuk konstruk nutrient information yaitu evaluasi dan perencanaan karir, serta 4 faktor pembentuk konstruk information consciousness yaitu motivasi, pelatihan, kemudahan, dan keuangan. Faktor-faktor ini serupa dengan penelitian sebelumnya yang dilakukan oleh Taylor (2001) dan Yamamura (2004). Variabel nutrient information berpengaruh secara signifikan terhadap kepuasan kerja staf akuntan publik di KAP. Ini berarti bahwa staf akuntan publik sangat membutuhkan informasi yang berkaitan dengan umpan balik atas kinerja mereka dan informasi tentang perencanaan dan pengembangan karir mereka di masa yang akan datang. Variabel information consciousness tidak berpengaruh signifikan terhadap kepuasan kerja staf akuntan publik di KAP. Hal ini dikarenakan sampel sebagian besar adalah KAP lokal yang mempunyai keterbatasan dalam sarana, prasarana, maupun sumber daya manusia yang dapat memberikan kemudahan dalam mengakses informasi. Faktor-faktor individual yaitu otonomi dan jabatan mempunyai pengaruh signifikan terhadap kepuasan kerja, sehingga variabel ini dimasukkan sebagai variabel pengendali.


AIS02 - 22

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 b. Keterbatasan Penelitian Penelitian ini menggunakan instrumen yang dibuat di Amerika Serikat dan Australia sehingga mungkin saja dapat mempengaruhi relevansi penelitian. Penelitian ini menggunakan sampel terbatas hanya di Jakarta dan Surabaya, yang sebagian besar KAP lokal, sehingga hasil penelitian ini tidak dapat digeneralisasikan untuk staf akuntan publik di KAP besar/internasional/The Big Four.

c. Implikasi Penelitian Bagi penelitian selanjutnya hendaknya memasukkan variabel-variabel lain yang diduga dapat mempengaruhi kepuasan kerja, seperti mentoring, konflik peran, dan budaya.

Selain

mempengaruhi

itu hasil,

perbedaan sehingga

karakteristik untuk

sampel

penelitian

mungkin selanjutnya

saja

dapat

hendaknya

memperhatikan karakteristik sampel atau menguji untuk sampel yang berbeda, misalnya KAP besar/internasional dengan KAP lokal. Penelitian akan lebih representatif apabila selain menggunakan kuisioner juga melakukan wawancara sehingga dapat dibandingkan hasilnya.


AIS02 - 23

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 DAFTAR KEPUSTAKAAN Bartlett, C.A dan Goshal,S (1995). Changing the Role of Top Management: From systems to People. Harvard Business Review. (May-June), hal. 132-142. Belfield, C., Harris, R. (2002). How Well Do Theories of Job Matching Explain Variation in Job Satisfaction Across Educational Level? Evidence for UK Graduates, Applied Economics, Vol. 34, hal. 535-548. Bender, A.K, Susan M.D., dan John S.H. (2005). Job Satisfaction and Gender Segregation, Oxford Economic Papers 57, hal. 479-496. Bowling Green State University. (1997). Job Descriptive Index, USA. Brown, K., dan Starkey K.(1994). The Effect of Organizational Culture on Communication and Information, Journal of Management Studies Vol.31, hal. 807-828. Clark, A. E. (1997). Job Satisfaction and Gender: Why Are Women so Happy at Work? Labour Economics, Vol. 4, hal. 341-372. Colarelli, S.M., Dean, R.A., dan Konstans, C. (1987). Comparative Effects of Personal and Situational Influences on Job Outcomes of New Professionals, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 72(4). hal 558-66. th

Cooper, D.R., dan P.S. Schinedler. (2001). Business Research Methods. 7 Edition. McGraw-Hill & Irwin. Singapore. Ghozali, I. (2001). Aplikasi Analisis Multivariate dengan Program SPSS. Badan Penerbit Universitas Diponegoro.


AIS02 - 24


Gregson, T. (1990). Measuring Job Satisfaction with a Multiple-Choice Format of the Job Descriptive Index, Psychological Reports 66, hal: 787-93. _________. (1992). An Investigation of the Causal Ordering of Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment in Turnover Models in Accounting, Behavioral Research in Accounting. Vol 4, hal: 80-95. Gujarati, D.N. (1995). Basic Econometrics, 4th Edition, McGraw-Hill Inc. New York. Hayes, R.D, dan K. Hollman. (1996), Managing Diversity: Accounting Firms and Female Employees, The CPA Journal, (May), hal. 36-39. Hooks, K.L, dan S.J Cheramy. (1994), Facts and Myths About Women CPAs, Journal of Accountancy. (October), hal. 79-86. ”Ikatan Akuntan Keberatan Audit Dana Kampanye”. Jawa Pos, 7 Agustus 2008, hal. 16. Jogiyanto, H.M (Jogiyanto, H.M (2008), Metodologi Penelitian Sistem Informasi, Edisi 1, Andi Offset, Yogyakarta. Kenneth, M.H, Bruce, A.L, dan Joseph, M.L. (2000), Job Satisfaction Among EntryLevel Accountants, The CPA Journal. (May), hal. 76-78. McKee, T.E, dan W.E. Stead. (1988), Managing The Professional Accountant, Journal of Accountancy. (Juli), hal. 76-86. Moyes, G.D, Stephen, O.A, dan Gouranga G. (2006), Factors Influencing The Level of Job Satisfaction of Hispanic Accounting Professionals: A Perceptual Survey, Journal of Business and Economics Studies. Vol. 12, hal. 12-26.


AIS02 - 25

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Nguyen, A.N, Jim T., dan Steve B. (2003). Job Autonomy and Job Satisfaction: New Evidence, Working Paper, Lancaster University Management School. UK. Norris, D.R., dan Niebuhr, R.E. (1983). Professionalism, Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction in an Accounting Organization, Accounting, Organizatins and Society. (December), hal. 49-59. Patten, D.M. (1995), Supervisory Actions and Job Satisfaction: An Anaiysis of Differences Between Large and Small Pubiic Accounting Firms, Accounting Horizons. Vol. 9, hel. 17-28. Reed,

S.,Kratchman,

S.H.,

dan

Strawser,

R.H.

(1994).

Job

Satisfaction,

Organizational Commitment, and Turnover Intentions of United States Accountants: The Impact of Locus of Control and Gender. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol 7, hal. 1-58. Santoso, S. (2001). Buku Latihan SPSS Statistik Parametrik, PT. Elex Media Komputindo, Jakarta. Sekaran, U. (2000). Research Methods For Business : A Skill-Building Approach. 3rd Edition. John Wiley & Sons. Inc. New York. Shields, M., dan Price, S. (2002). Racial Harassment, Job Satisfaction and Intentions to Quit: Evidence from the British Nursing Profession, Economica. Vol. 69, hal. 295-362. Sloane, P., dan Ward, M. (2001). Cohort Effects and Job Satisfaction of Academics, Applied Economics Letters. Vol. 8, hal.787-791. _______, dan William, H. (2000). Job Satisfaction, Comparison Earnings and Gender, Labour, Vol. 14, hal. 473-501.


AIS02 - 26

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Taylor D.W, Yamamura, J.H, Yvonne E.S. (2001). Managing Knowledge-Workers in Accounting Firms, Journal of KnowledgeManagement Practice. Vol 2 (July), Http://www.tlainc.com/jkmpv2.htm. _________. (1999). Managing Job Satisfaction, Australian CPA. (October), hal. 4647. www.akuntanpublikindonesia.com Yamamura, J.H, Yvonne E.S, dan Satoh M. (2004). Accountants in Japan: The Role of Nutrient Information and Information Consciousness, Working Paper, University Nevada-Reno, USA. _________. (2007). Meeting The Information Needs of Professional Staff, The CPA Journal. (October), hal. 66-69.


AIS02 - 27

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 LAMPIRAN Statistik Deskriptif Variabel Std. N

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

Deviation

Jenis kelamin

105

0

1

,50

,502

Jabatan

105

1

4

1,93

,902

Lama bekerja

105

1

8

3,03

1,522

Divisi

105

1

4

1,40

,688

Umur

105

1

4

2,02

,990

Kepuasan kerja

105

120

190

160,49

12,571

Otonomi

105

1,00

4,33

2,8090

1,07617

Evaluasi

105

1,00

4,00

1,9357

,79438

Karir

105

1,00

3,67

1,9715

,58649

Motivasi

105

1,00

3,86

2,1978

,83253

Pelatihan

105

1,00

3,83

2,4966

,71162

Kemudahan

105

1,00

3,75

2,2214

,69191

Keuangan

105

1,00

4,00

2,2905

,83718

Valid N (listwise)

105

Jenis Kelamin Responden Cumulative Frequency Valid

Percent

Valid Percent

Percent

Pria

53

50,5

50,5

50,5

Wanita

52

49,5

49,5

100,0

105

100,0

100,0

Total


AIS02 - 28

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Jabatan Responden Cumulative Frequency Percent Valid

Junior Auditor Senior Auditor Supervisor Manajer Total

Valid Percent

Percent

41

39,0

39,0

39,0

35

33,3

33,3

72,4

24

22,9

22,9

95,2

5

4,8

4,8

100,0

105

100,0

100,0

Lama Bekerja Responden Cumulative Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Percent

Valid 1

15

14,3

14,3

14,3

2

30

28,6

28,6

42,9

3

25

23,8

23,8

66,7

4

18

17,1

17,1

83,8

5

10

9,5

9,5

93,3

6

4

3,8

3,8

97,1

Lama Bekerja Responden Cumulative Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Percent

7

2

1,9

1,9

99,0

8

1

1,0

1,0

100,0

105

100,0

100,0

Total


AIS02 - 29

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Umur Respoden

Frequency Percent Valid 2024 2529 3034 3539 Total

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

39

37,1

37,1

37,1

36

34,3

34,3

71,4

19

18,1

18,1

89,5

11

10,5

10,5

100,0

105

100,0

100,0

Divisi Tempat Responden Bekerja Frequenc y Valid

Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Audit

74

70,5

70,5

70,5

Pajak

21

20,0

20,0

90,5

9

8,6

8,6

99,0

1

1,0

1,0

100,0

105

100,0

100,0

Consulting Accounting service Total

Measure of Sampling Adequacy (MSA) Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. Bartlett's Test of

Approx. Chi-

Sphericity

Square

,720 1848,75 6

df

325

Sig.

,000


AIS02 - 30

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Analisis Faktor Dimensi Nutrient Information dan Information Consciousness

Factor Loading 1

2

3

4

5

6

Faktor 1: EVALUASI (eigenvalue = 2,505) ev1

Kinerja saya secara formal

,798

-,403

,149

,474

-,057

-,174

Evaluasi atas kinerja saya ,867

-,510

,199

,444

,085

,062

-,407

,415

,493

,065

,086

-,400

,429

,523

,134

,040

dievaluasi berdasarkan pekerjaan (job)/ proyek ev2

disiapkan secara periodik ev3

Saya

dapat

memperoleh ,852

komentar tertulis atas kinerja saya ev4

Saya mengetahui perbaikan

,889

apa yang diharapkan atas diri saya berdasarkan umpan balik atas kinerja saya. Faktor 2: PERENCANAAN KARIR (eigenvalue = 2,376) cr1

Supervisor saya menghargai

,489

,700

,017

,238

,035

-,014

,496

,724

,009

,303

-,015

,064

,461

,685

,058

,372

-,028

,031

kinerja yang baik, membantu saya memahami peluang kerja masa depan, menanyakan tentang perhatian dan rencana masa depan saya cr2

Senior saya membantu saya memahami peluang kerja masa depan, menanyakan tentang perhatian dan rencana masa depan saya

cr3

Pencapaian dan kinerja saya diakui


AIS02 - 31

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Faktor 3: MOTIVASI (eigenvalue = 5,901) m1

Rekan kerja saya

-

memotivasi saya untuk

,109

-,074

,774

-,192 -,067

,033

-,036

,808

-,246 -,141

,098

,086

,881

-,198 -,041

,063

,069

,897

-,181 -,126

-,007

membaca berbagai tabloid/jurnal, seperti: wallstreet journal, journal of accountancy, atau jurnal lokal m2

Saya dimotivasi/didorong

-

untuk berkomunikasi dengan

,062

kolega saya di luar organisasi ini m3


-

untuk menghadiri berbagai

0,38

konferensi dan pertemuan profesional m4

Saya untuk

dimotivasi/didorong membuat

(networking)

jaringan ,012 dengan

profesional lain m5


,029

,150

,842

-,274 -,159

-,075

Saya dimotivasi /didorong

-

,144

,859

-,219 -,110

-,189

untuk berpartisipasi secara

,004

untuk terlibat dengan aktivitas edukasi di luar organisasi ini (contoh: mengajar di lembaga pendidikan/memberikan seminar). m6

aktif di organisasi profesional


AIS02 - 32


m7

Saya dimotivasi /didorong untuk

,002

,128

,860

-,182

berkomunikasi dengan pakar lain

-

-,129

,084

di dalam organisasi saya dalam rangka memperoleh informasi yang saya butuhkan Faktor 4: PELATIHAN (eigenvalue = 4,468) pt1

Saya diberitahu tentang jenis- -,263 ,014

,111

,678

-,158 ,158

,196

,762

-,286 ,127

,118

,781

-,443 ,143

,750

-,290 ,046

jenis sumber daya teknis yang tersedia di kantor saya pt2

Saya diberitahu tentang jenis- -,363 ,074 jenis sumber daya teknis yang tersedia di seluruh organisasi tempat saya bekerja.

pt3

Saya memahami sepenuhnya

-,134 ,031

bagaimana mengakses sumber daya informasi yang tersedia di kantor saya. pt4

Saya memahami sepenuhnya

-,331 -,003 -

bagaimana mengakses sumber

,307

daya informasi yang tersedia di seluruh organisasi tempat saya bekerja pt5

Saya mendapat pelatihan yang

-,353 ,122

,108

,751

-,044 ,123

-,303 ,044

,167

,744

-,179 -,030

cukup atas jenis-jenis informasi yang tersedia di kantor saya dan bagaimana mengaksesnya. pt6

Saya mendapat pelatihan yang mencukupi atas jenis-jenis informasi yang tersedia di seluruh organisasi tempat saya bekerja dan bagaimana mengaksesnya


AIS02 - 33

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Faktor 5: KEMUDAHAN (eigenvalue = 2,092) e1

Kantor saya didesain sedemikian

-,441

,139

,250 ,328

,671

,109

-,137

-,001

,445 ,306

,758

-,161

-,202

,096

,095 ,270

,658

-,183

-,181

,108

,192 ,333

,839

-,380

rupa sehingga memudahkan saya untuk bertemu dan berkomunikasi dengan kolega saya e2

Kantor saya menyediakan sumber daya informasi yang mencukupi, untuk aktivitas sehari-hari maupun untuk permintaan sewaktu-waktu (contoh: informasi tentang standar profesi terbaru, data kinerja industri)

e3

Ketika saya membutuhkan informasi dari luar, maka organisasi saya akan berusaha menyediakan informasi tersebut

e4

Kantor saya menyediakan akses informasi yang saya butuhkan untuk memutakhirkan/mengupdate keahlian saya


AIS02 - 34


Faktor 6: KEUANGAN/reimbursement (eigenvalue = 1,489) f1

Kantor saya mengganti biaya

,065

,046

yang saya keluarkan untuk

,18

-

0

,064

,481

,635

,196

,818

menghadiri konferensi/pertemuan profesional. f2

Kantor saya mengganti biaya

,010

-,006 ,12

atas pembelian/langganan

1

,251

tabloid/majalah/buku teknis/profesional yang saya minati.

Hasil Pengujian Reliabilitas

Konstruk/Konsep

Cronbach Alpha

Kepuasan kerja

,8272

Otonomi

,9248

Evaluasi

,8908

Perencanaan karir

,8920

Motivasi

,9527

Pelatihan

,8507

Kemudahan

,7521

Keuangan/reimbursemen

,6456

t


AIS02 - 35

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Hasil Pengujian Multikolinieritas

Variabel

VIF

Tolerance Value

Evaluasi

1,162

,861

Perencanaan karir

1,115

,896

Motivasi

1,284

,779

Pelatihan

1,343

,745

Kemudahan

1,252

,799

Keuangan/reimbursement

1,118

,895

Otonomi

1,245

,803

Jenis kelamin

1,081

,925

Divisi

1,099

,910

Umur

1,050

,932

Lamanya bekerja

1,197

,855

Jabatan

1,206

,854

Hasil Pengujian Regresi Berganda

Variabel

Std. Beta

Nilai t

Signifikansi

Evaluasi

,266

2,094

,041

Perencanaan karir

,253

2,050

,043

Motivasi

,002

,020

,984

Pelatihan

,035

,342

,733

Kemudahan

,140

1,391

,167


,311

3,181

,002

Model R2 = ,209, Nilai F = 2,022. F sig = ,042


AIS02 - 36

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Hasil Pengujian Regresi Berganda dengan Variabel Pengendali Variabel

Std. Beta

Nilai t

Signifikansi

Evaluasi

,162

2,212

,030

Perencanaan karir

,150

2,119

,036

Motivasi

,072

,688

,493

Pelatihan

,002

,021

,984

Kemudahan

,055

,527

,599


,273

2,787

,006

Jenis kelamin

-,052

-,536

,593

Jabatan

-,288

-2,316

,023

Lama bekerja

-,088

-,640

,524

Divisi

-,111

-1,140

,257

Umur

-,150

,958

,340

Otonomi

,212

2,050

,043

Model R2 = ,321, Nilai F = 2,043. F sig = ,029


AIS02 - 37


THE IMPACTS OF ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING (ERP) IMPLEMENTATION ON ACCOUNTING PROCESS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

Mahlindayu binti Tarmidi @ Tokhid Azwan bin Abdul Rashid College of Business Management and Accounting Universiti Tenaga Nasional Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Campus

Abstract

The rapid development in information technologies and increase in demand for upto-date information had forced companies to shift their activities towards computer based processes. In order to accommodate high demand for instant information generation, enterprise resource system (ERP) is able to integrate numbers of different module to serve this requirement and able to offer lower operating cost and high customer satisfaction. This research is to examine how ERP systems have influenced the accounting process in a business. Through questionnaires to 181 publicly listed companies in Malaysia, the study is expected to determine the companies’ reasons for adopting ERP system and the changes that the system has brought in. The study also aims to lay down the benefits enjoyed by the companies as a result of the system implementation. The empirical evidence state that there are significant changes in the companies’ accounting process and practice after the implementation of the system.


AIS03 - 1

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Introduction Traditionally, the core of information system is the accounting information system (AIS) that integrates transaction processing, reporting and decision support, which should fulfill the demand of accounting information to the variety of users. In this highly automated, IT-led business environment, there is an increased need for a comprehensive system that is capable of managing all aspects of the company that include accounting information systems. Now more than ever, companies are forced to keep up-to-date with the new technologies to remain competitive. ERP, known as Enterprise Resource Planning, is a software application that had started within the manufacturing sector, has crossed industry lines to benefit businesses in all arenas, as they could provide tightly integrated solutions to an organization’s information needs (Shehab et al., 2004). Business utilizes ERP software applications to improve the performance of organizations' resource planning, management control and operational control. The software may include application modules for the finance, accounting and human resources aspects of a business. ERP is defined as configurable information system packages that integrate information and information based process within and across functional areas in organizations (Kumar and Hillergesberg, 2000). The essence of a complete ERP system is to automate business process, share common data across the organization but most importantly it is to produce real-time data (Spathis, 2004) which eventually appears as the insufficient element in traditional information system. Booth et al. (2000) had proven that the usage of ERP system provides both incentives and means for adopting newer accounting practices such as activity based budgeting, product life cycle costing and balance scorecard. Additional dimension of ERP system might involve EDI system and e-commerce. The combination of number of modules in the system relates not only on the traditional accounting information system, but also stock control, MRP and logistics (Duff and Jain, 1998; and Hardy and Reeve, 1999). This produces the ability for the organization’s information system to generate tremendous benefits via increase Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

AIS03- 2

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 effectiveness and efficiency in operations, business process and strategic decision making (Duff and Jain, 1998; Hayes et al., 2001). The purpose of this study is to examine how ERP systems have influenced the accounting process to business organizations in Malaysia. Specifically, the study is conducted to achieve the following objectives: i) to determine the reasons for companies to adopt ERP systems in managing their AIS; ii) to identify the accounting methods and practices used by the company before and after the implementation of ERP systems, and iii) to recognize the benefits derived from ERP implementations. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. The next section offers a review of literature on ERP followed by the discussion on the research methodology and the research findings. The final section concludes with the research summary. Literature Review ERP systems were developed since late 1970s and early 1980s when computers had come into action to support production planning. The logistic control concept “material requirements planning” or “MRP” was the starting point of the emergence of ERP systems. MRP systems initially were able to calculate when and what quantities of components were needed to ensure efficient production control. It was then extended to include other functions such as capacity planning and master production scheduling based on sales forecasting. These were known as “MRP II” or manufacturing resources planning (Rondeau and Litteral, 2001; Gupta et al., 2004; Okrent and Vokurka, 2004). Then, the system incorporated other module to manage not only the production, but also other organizations functions. Human Resource Management System was introduced together with financial functions. Due to the companies’ needs, software companies started to develop packaged software offering integrated solutions for several control functions. Starting from financial accounting, logistic functions, database management, project management or HRM and payroll systems, software suppliers started their integration attempts to develop ERP software by using a common basis where the suppliers generally first introduced several key modules and then extended their product/service range. (Frank, 2004; Huang et al., 2004a,b). Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

AIS03- 3

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Most researches put their focus on the impact of ERP implementation to the overall company performance across the multi business activity areas. Gupta (2000) argued that there is an increase in company efficiencies and effectiveness after the implementation of ERP. Perception on the ability of ERP to ease the business processes is also discussed by Spathis et al. (2003). They concluded that there is an increase in flexibility of information generation, improved quality of reports, integrations of applications and easy maintenance of database. A study by Ramayah and Lo (2007) found a significant relationship between the user perceptions on ERP usefulness with the adoption of the system. Other researchers (eg. Huang et al. 2001; Holland et al. 1999; Verville et al. 2002) claimed that the adoption of ERP in business mainly were influenced by the ability of the company to provide the required infrastructure. Other factors that may influence the adoption include the company’s strong economic background, the availability of governmental IT policy, and deregulation and organizational enthusiasm for IT development (Huang, 2001). On the other hand, Elbertsen et al. (2006) stated that the effort of providers’ marketing does give major impact on the ERP adoption. Researchers (eg. Hunton et al., 2003; Nicolaou et al., 2003; Matolcsy et al., 2005) found significant different between ERP adopters and non adopters business performance. Their findings also indicated that the users who perceived ERP as a complex system adopt the system more than others. Apart from that, the success or failure factors of ERP implementation were also studied. Issues relating to the degree of readiness of organization in facing major changes from conventional to ERP system in the organization, to integrate the ERP and legacy system and the involvement of management will eventually indicate the successfulness of the ERP implementation (Themistocleus et al., 2001; Huang, 2001; Elbertson et al. 2006). The acceptance level of employee and substantial cost and overruns also contribute to the successfulness or failure of the system implementation (Nah et al. 2001; Gargeya et al. 2006). In traditional thought, the essence of information system is AIS which integrates transaction processing, reporting and decision support. According to Spathis (2004), the heart of ERP system is an accounting system, typically incorporating the Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

AIS03- 4

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 applications such as general ledger, accounts receivable and payable, fixed assets, cash management, cost control and budgeting. Recent research on the impacts of ERP on financial performance has found some evidence supporting the claim of all major ERP vendors that their products enable companies to achieve faster return on investment (Weider et al. 2006). To the authors’ knowledge, there has been no study yet that provides direct evidence for this subject in Malaysia, except for the study by Ramayah and Lo (2007) in the northern region of Malaysia which examined the impact of shared beliefs concerning the benefits of ERP among executives and engineers. The study concludes that the end-user’s perspective would find more useful if the system is perceived to be easy to use and understand. Hence, the results have two implications. Firstly, the study would further enrich existing literature on AIS particularly the impact of ERP implementation on accounting processes in Malaysian public listed companies. Secondly, the study may be of interest to ERP providers as they may be used for future system enhancement. Methodology ERP projects are large, costly and difficult. These require large investment in capital and staff and time management. Not only that, the high cost in acquiring ERP system prevents small businesses from setting up an ERP system (Adam and O’Doherty, 2000 and Yen et al., 2002). As a result, the study was carried out on the Malaysian public listed companies both on the first and second boards of Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur. As the actual number of companies adopting ERP cannot be observed, time constraints and

budget limitations, the non-probability

convenience sampling design was chosen. According to Sekaran (2003), convenience sampling is most often used method during the exploratory phase of a research project. An exploratory phone interviews were carried out to facilitate the research process. This is to confirm the companies are implementing ERP in the business and their readiness to participate in this research. 300 companies were approached and 192 companies, which are implementing ERP system agreed to participate. The sample size is viewed as sufficient as it represent 30% form the total size of population Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

AIS03- 5

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 (Sekaran, 2003). Questionnaires were posted out and only 181 returned, which all of them were used for this analysis. The questionnaire was adapted from one used by Spathis (2004), who examined the ERP systems’ impact on accounting towards companies in Greece. Summary of the respondents profile are shown in Table I and Table II. Table I: Respondent profile

Number

Per cent

Main board

161

89

Second board

20

11

Trading and services

69

38.1

Industrial product

51

28.2

Consumer products

45

24.9

>1000 workers

104

57.5

501-1000 workers

41

22.7

250-500 workers

28

15.5

<500 workers

8

4.4

Company listed

Type of industry

No of employees


AIS03- 6

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Table II: Company’s representative profile

Number

Per cent

Male

118

65.2

Female

63

34.8

Accounting/finance

77

42.5

Administration

69

38.1

Information technology

35

19.3

>10 years

80

44.2

6-10 years

54

29.8

3-5 years

33

18.2

<3 years

14

7.7

Gender

Department/ division

Total working experience

Results and discussion From the survey conducted, most of the companies using a number of ERP modules. Financial accounting is the most used modules by the companies. This corresponds with the research done by Spathis et al. (2004). As it is an integral part of accounting system, management accounting falls as the next most utilized module, followed by payroll, stock purchases, costing and fixed assets register. The least module used is the e-commerce. This shows that the ERP adopters are highly concerned in integrating their accounting processes which should generate some changes in their accounting practices. The operating modules utilization is reported in Table III.


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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Types

Number

Per cent

Financial accounting

148

81.8

Management accounting

93

51.4

Payroll

91

50.3

Stock purchases

84

46.4

Costing

82

45.3

Fixed asset register

75

41.4

Production

73

40.3

Table III

Logistics

65

35.9

Operating modules in

Quality management

59

32.6

ERP environment

E-commerce

37

20.4

The respondents are also asked about the reasons of implementing ERP system. Surprisingly, apart from the argument of high implementation and acquisition cost (Scheer and Habermann, 2000), the result indicate that most companies adopt ERP system based on the reason of “cost reduction”. This actually reflected the research by Ramayah (2007) on the perceived usefulness on the implementation of ERP and SAP customers’ testimonial on the improvement experienced after applying the ERP system. The other popular reason for the system adoption is the “intergration of information system” and “information generation for decision making”. The result indicates the high concern on companies to be able to provide timely information to its users. In order to keep up with the rapid information technology development, “integration of applications” and “increased demand for real-time information” reasons come into picture. These actually portrayed the concern on time and management processes in the companies. In line with Spathis et al. (2003), ERP implementation had brought in improvement in information generation, which is one of the most favored reasons for the system adoption. Others consider the implementation of ERP to fulfill the increase in demand for real-time information (47%) and also as a means to increase their sales (40.3%). E-commerce seems to Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

AIS03- 8

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 be the least reason given by the respondents. Further reasons for ERP system adoption can be referred from Table IV.

Types

Number

Per cent

Cost reduction

106

58.6

Integration of information systems

102

56.4

Information generation for

98

54.1

Integration of applications

96

53

Increased demand for real-time

85

47.0

Increase sales

73

40.3

Business process reengineering

71

39.2

Internet development

57

31.5

Competition

48

26.5

Development of activities into new

46

25.4

decision making

information

Table IV

areas with business contacts Reason led to the

Application of new business plan

43

23.8

decision to adopt in

Taxation requirements

31

17.1

Stock exchange requirement

23

12.7

the ERP system

From the earlier discussion, there are evidences regarding the operation of accounting modules and the reasons for adopting ERP system. The results led us to expect there would be certain changes in accounting practice after the implementation of ERP system. Notably, the changes in accounting practices after the adoption of ERP system is increased in the use of “profit centres”, followed by “profitability

analysis

per

product”,

“profitability

analysis

per

business

activity/segment” and “production of cash budget”. This is clearly reflecting the reasons for system adoption, as companies viewed the adoption of ERP helped Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

AIS03- 9

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 them in streamlining their cost control. Though the changes do not hugely vary between one another, contributing less than fifty percent, and considering the reason for the adoption, the outcome of their applications shows that the system had successfully achieved its purpose. The result portrays that the utilization of the ERP does not affect much on the costing activities. Most of costing modules are the lowest rank module affected by the adoption of ERP. The survey result states that absorption costing is the least affected module by the adoption of ERP system followed by non-financial performance indicator. Evidently, ERP system adoption contributes a bigger influence towards financial nature practices rather that management practices. Table V summarizes the accounting methods and practices used before and after the application of the ERP system. Table V: Accounting methods and practices used before and after the application of the ERP system Types Profit centers Profitability analysis per product

Before Number Per cent 17 9.4 16 8.8

After Number Per cent 79 46.3 69 38.1

Profitability analysis per business activity/segment Production of cash budget

14

7.7

67

37.0

13

7.2

60

33.1

Profitability analysis per customer

11

6.1

56

30.9

Production of master budgets

13

7.2

55

30.4

Internal audit

20

11.0

55

30.4

Cost centers

28

15.5

54

29.8

Financial ratio analysis

22

12.2

50

30.9

Activity based costing

25

13.8

48

26.5

Marginal costing

28

15.5

45

24.9

Target costing

30

16.6

44

24.3

Production of capital expenditure budgets Non-financial performance indicator

27

14.9

44

24.3

18

9.9

40

22.1

Absorption costing

26

14.4

35

19.3


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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 The next section will discuss the extent to which companies experience the impact of ERP system on their accounting processes. Respondents were asked to rate the actual benefits achieved on the system implementation via a seven point likert-scale question (1=not at all; 2=very low degree; 3=low degree; 4=average; 5=high degree; 6=very high degree; 7=perfect). The highest rated achievement relates to “Improved quality of reports - statement of accounts”, “Reduction of time of transaction processing” and “reduction of time for issuing of reports statements of account.” This again supports the benefits gained by companies earlier. The huge impact affects financial reporting and shows the benefits experienced by the business is more towards accomplishing daily tasks and regular financial performance reporting. This is supported by additional benefits achieved through a lesser preference “reduction of time for closure of annual accounts” and “reduction of time for closure of monthly account”. On the other hand, rather unexpectedly, the variables “reduction of personnel of the accounting department”, “improved working capital control”, and “Increased in use of financial ratio analysis” are benefits with the lowest rating. In a way, the implementation of this automated and integrated system did not so much reduce the number of human capital. Additional information on the benefits achieved is summarized in Table VI.


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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Type

Mean

Std dev

Improved quality of reports- statement of

5.21

0.927

5.20

0.899

5.15

0.920

5.14

0.879

5.11

0.915

5.10

0.916

5.10

0.912

Improved internal audit function

5.09

0.934

Increased integration of accounting

5.07

0.914

Improved decision making process

5.04

0.882

Reduction of time for closure of quarterly

5.02

0.905

Reduction of time of issuing payroll

4.93

1.313

Increased in use of financial ratio analysis

4.87

0.969

Table VI:

Improved working capital control

4.83

0.932

Impact of using ERP

Reduction of personnel of accounting

4.68

1.178

system in accounting

department

accounts Reduction of time of transaction processing Reduction of time for issuing of reports statements of account Reduction of time for closure of annual accounts Reduction of time for closure of monthly account Increased flexibility in information generation Improved decisions based on timely and reliable information

application

account

process Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Overall, the benefits achieved by ERP adopters strongly influence accounting information and practices. But it is believed that there are more benefits yet to be uncovered since the result is only based on three types of industries and on one personnel evaluation. Booth et al. (2000) stated ERP users' perceptions of the quality of AIS in financial and management accounting as “adequate” in terms of reporting and decision support and “good” in terms of transaction reporting. Therefore, this results are not ultimate, indicating that there are still benefits for ERP adopters. Conclusion This study has presented evidence from Malaysian public listed companies adopting ERP systems and their impact on accounting processes. The survey results suggest that companies adopting ERP systems are driven by the needs to reduce their cost, integrates their information system and to generate information for decision making. The increased demands in this highly competitive, highly automated, IT-driven business environment forced companies to resort to ERP systems to remain competitive (Spathis et al. 2004). The empirical evidence confirms a number of changes in the accounting processes introduced with the adoption of ERP systems. The highest result is on profit centers, profitability analysis for product and business activities. Thus it supports the reason for system adoption which is to reduce cost, as ERP systems are expected to reduce costs by improving efficiencies through computerization and enhance decisionmaking by providing accurate and timely enterprise-wide information (Poston and Grabski, 2001). This is further reinforced by respondents' most highly rated perceived benefits for adopting ERP systems that is the concern on reduction in time for report generation. Further more, the quality of statements of account reports are highly rated to be the biggest impact to their accounting processes. The fact that some changes in the accounting processes have not been so widely applied such as the integration of accounting application, reduction time for quarterly financial disclosure and financial ratio analysis resulted a low preference among the respondents.


AIS03- 13

The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Due to time, budget and location constraints, this research is only applied to public listed companies in Malaysia and only covering three major industries, respectively. The result may not truly reflect the actual benefits enjoyed by companies which implemented ERP system. There are further rooms on the benefits of ERP which had not been explored in this research and they will always be available for further research. The survey also specifically focused on the impact of ERP system on accounting process and practices without including other business process modules such

as

human

resource

management,

manufacturing

and

supply

chain

management which eventually enforce more benefits to the companies (Elbertsen et al. 2006). Future research may examine further on the impact of ERP system towards accounting process by looking on the area of employees and organizational readiness in implementing the system. The users, especially accountants need to be IT-literate and able to apply their knowledge, therefore conducting a study on the issues of skills, believes, acceptance on changes to business process and cultural will henceforth generate more input for this research. Apart from that, adoption of ERP requires organization to acquire more IT components, training and involvement from top management, which becomes the critical success factor in implementing ERP system (Gargeya et al. 2005). Hence, a focus on organizational readiness would further support and give more explanation on these findings.


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References A.W. and Habermann, F. (2000), “Enterprise resource planning: making ERP a success”, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 43 No. 4, pp. 57-61. Adam, F. and O’Doherty, P. (2000), “Lessons from enterprise resource-planning implementations in Ireland: towards smaller and shorter ERP projects”, Journal of Information Technology, Vol. 15, pp. 305-16. Booth, P., Matolcsy, Z., Wieder, B. (2000), "The impacts of enterprise resource planning systems on accounting practice – the Australian experience", Australian Accounting Review, Vol. 10 No.3. Duff, R.J. And Jain, M. (1998), “CFO’s guide to EDI; how you can control the new paperless environment?” The Journal of Corporate Accounting and Finance, Vol. 10 No.1, pp 107-27. Elbertsen,L., Benders, J. and Nijessen, E., “ERP Use: exclusive or complemented?”, Industrial Management & Data System, Vol.106, No. 6, pp.811-824. Frank, L. (2004), “Architecture for integration of distributed ERP systems and ecommerce systems”, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 104 No 5/6, pp. 418-29. Gargeya, B. V. and Brady, C., (2006) “Success and failure factors of adopting SAP in ERP system implementation”, Business Process Management Journal, Vol.11, No. 5, pp. 501-516. Gupta, A., (2000) “Enterprise resource planning; the emerging organizational value system”, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol 100, No. 3, pp. 114-118. Gupta, O., Priyadarshini, K., Massoud, S. and Agrawal, S.K. (2004), “Enterprise resource planning: a case of a blood bank”, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 104 No. 7, pp. 589-603.

Hardy, C. and Reeve, R. (1999), “Wu and Hahn’s control complexity/control point orientation for computer information system (CIS) audits: an empirical test in electronic data interchange (EDI) environment”, Managerial Auditing Journal, Vol. 14 No 7, pp 339-50. Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Hayes, D.C., Hunton, J.E., and Reck, J.L. (2001). “Market reactions to ERP implementation announcements”, Journal of Information Systems, Spring, Vol. 15 No 1. Holland, P., Light, B. and Gibson, N. (1999), “A critical success factors model for enterprise resource planning implementation,” Proceedings of 7th European Conference on Information System, Vol. 1, pp. 273-297. Huang, M-H., Wang, J-C., Yu, S. and Chiu, C-C. (2004a), “Value-added ERP information into information goods: an economic analysis”, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 104 No. 8, pp. 689-97. Huang, S-M., Chang, I.C., Li, S-L. and Lin, M-T. (2004b), “Assessing risk in ERP projects: identify and prioritize the factors”, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 104 No. 8, pp. 681-8. Huang, Z. and Palvia, P. (2001), “ERP Implementation issues in advanced and developing countries”, Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp.276-284. Hunton, J.E., Lippincott, B. and Reck, J.L. (2003), “Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems: comparing firm performance of adopters and non-adopters”, International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Vol. 4 No. 3, pp. 16584. Kumar,K. and Hillergersberg, J. (2000),”ERP experience Communications of the ACM, Vol. 43 No 4, pp 23-6.

and

evolution”,

Matolcsy, Z., Booth, P. and Wieder, B. (2005), “The economic benefits of enterprise resource planning systems: some empirical evidence”, Journal of Accounting and Finance. Nah, F.F.H., Lau, J.L.S. and Kuang, J. (2001), “Critical factors for successful implementation of enterprise systems”, Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 285-296. Nicolaou, A.I., Stratopoulos, T. and Dehning, B. (2003), “Financial analysis of potential benefits from ERP systems adoption”, Journal of Business and Information Technology, Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 40-50.


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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Okrent, M.D. and Vokurka, R.J. (2004), “Process mapping in successful ERP implementations”, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 104 No. 8, pp. 637-43. Poston, R., Grabski, S. (2001), "Financial impacts of enterprise resource-planning implementations", International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Vol. 2 pp.271-94., pp.4-18. Ramayah, T. and Lo, M-C., (2007), “Impact of shared beliefs on ‘perceived usefulness” and ‘ease of use” in the implementation of an enterprise resource planning system”, Management Research News, Vol 30, No. 6, pp. 420-431. Rondeau, P.J. and Litteral, L.A. (2001), “Evolution of manufacturing planning and control systems: from reorder point to enterprise resource planning”, Production & Inventory Management Journal, Vol. 42 No. 2, pp. 1-7. Sekaran, U. (2003), “Research Methods for Business”, 4th Edition, New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Shehab, E.M., Sharp, M.W., Supramaniam, L., and Spedding, T.A. (2004), “Enterprise resource planning an integrative review”, Business Process Management Journal, Vol 10 No 4, pp 359-86. Spathis, C. (2004). “Enterprise resource planning systems’ impact on accounting processes”, Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 10 No 2, pp 234-247. Spathis, C., Contantinides, S. (2003) “The usefulness of ERP system for effective manangement”, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol 103, No. 9, pp 677685. Themiscleous, M. Irani, Z. and O’Keefe, R.M. (2001), “ERP and application intergration: exploratory survey”, Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp 195-204. Verville, C. J and Halington, A. (2002), “A qualitative study of the influencing factors on the decision process for acquiring ERP software”, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 188-198. Weider, B., Booth, P., Matolcsy, Z.P. and Ossimitz, ML., (2006), “The impact of ERP systems on the firms and business process performance”, Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 13-29. Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

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The 2nd Accounting Conference, 1st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008 Yen, D.C., Chou, D.C. and Chang, J. (2002), “A synergic analysis for Web-based enterprise resources-planning systems”, Computer Standards & Interfaces, Vol. 24 No. 4, pp. 337-46 Scheer, Further reference from the web: 1. Best-Practice Financial Accounting With Mysap™ ERP Financials http://www.sap.com/netherlands/solutions/businesssuite/erp/financials/pdf/brochures/BWP_ERP_Financials_Best_Practice_Accounti ng.pdf 2. www.sap.com/solutions/business-suite/erp/customers/videos/index.epx - 4 3. http://www.gleez.co.in/erp/improve-business 4. http://www.cfoproject.com/documents.asp?d_ID=2440 5. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)systems: An Empirical Analysis Of Benefits, http://jobfunctions.bnet.com/abstract.aspx?docid=316328&promo=100511 6. How Web-based ERP solutions can enable small manufacturers to compete in today's global supply chain, http://www.gsinnovate.com/whitepapers/ERPandEnhancedBusinessPerformance .php 7. Robert Kugel, Enhancing ERP for business effectiveness, http://www.gdspublishing.com/ic_pdf/fsa/venr.pdf 8. Groupe Mornay Implements Single, Group-Wide ERP Suite for Greater Efficiency and Transparency, http://whitepapers.techrepublic.com.com/abstract.aspx?docid=312221


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The 2 nd Accounting Conference, 1 st Doctoral Colloquium, and Accounting Workshop Depok, 4-5 November 2008

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