This study assesses the effects of mentoring and organisational ethical climate (OEC) on the organisational and professional commitment (PC) of early career accountants (ECAs) (i.e. accounting graduate recruits with three or less years of working experience). The empirical data are based on a questionnaire survey from 86 ECAs in Australian public accounting firms, and hypothesis testing utilises partial least squares analysis. Our results indicate when a career development style of mentoring is adopted there is greater organisational as well as PC. By contrast, a social support mentoring style has no significant impact on organisational commitment (OC) and a negative effect on PC. Further, our data also reveal OEC to be positively associated with OC, and OC in turn having a positive impact on PC. The results imply that fostering a career‐focused mentoring environment and an OEC can increase an ECA's OC and PC. These results have various implications for human resource management at both the accounting firm and professional levels.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	early career accountants, organisational commitment, professional commitment, ethical
Research Division:	Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services
Research Group:	Accounting, auditing and accountability
Research Field:	Accounting, auditing and accountability not elsewhere classified
Objective Division:	Education and Training
Objective Group:	Schools and learning environments
Objective Field:	Policies and development
UTAS Author:	McManus, L (Professor Lisa McManus)
ID Code:	131817
Year Published:	2013
Web of Science® Times Cited:	18
Deposited By:	TSBE
Deposited On:	2019-04-08
Last Modified:	2019-07-02
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