Voice and the tax practitioner: The rhetoric and the reality of employee voice mechanisms in Big 4 accounting firms

Abstract

Although recent years have seen an exponential rise in academic interest in the concept of employee voice, the tax sector so far has been largely overlooked. This is symptomatic of the wider neglect within voice research of employees in accounting firms and other professional workplace settings, settings which have been consistently found to have high levels of employee turnover. Drawing on industrial relations voice research, this study addresses for the first time this lacuna by exploring the voice mechanisms available to tax practitioners working for Big 4 accounting firms. Uniquely, the findings are based on interviews with staff at all hierarchical levels, from juniors to partners. The findings reveal largely homogenous approaches across the firms to employee voice, with direct and largely formal employee voice mechanisms employed. These mechanisms, however, are subject to a significant degree of managerial control. With little employee appetite for collective voice, this study concludes that the partners across the Big 4 are free to shape and ultimately prescribe employee voice in tax unimpeded and in the pursuance of continued commercial success.

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