Browsing by Subject "Ambiguity tolerance"

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    Ambiguity tolerance levels in Spanish accounting students: a comparative study
    (2009) Arquero, José L.; Tejero, Concepción
    Background - Ambiguity is the perception of inadequate information arising from certain characteristics of a situation. In a situation that demands evaluation or choice, the perception of ambiguity is threatening and presents a cognitive challenge. Research has examined AT (Ambiguity Tolerance) levels and their influence on decision making in business and financial scenarios. Aims - This paper aims to investigate the AT levels of a sample of accounting students and to compare them with the AT levels of students on other social sciences degree courses. Instrument and Sample - The instrument used is the Spanish version of MSTAT-II (McLain, 2008). The sample is composed of students enrolled on various degree courses at a Spanish University (Universidad de Huelva). Results and implications - The results of the questionnaire present high levels of internal consistency with the sample. Accounting students are shown to present lower levels of AT than students enrolled on other social sciences degree courses. The implications for universities and education are discussed
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    Relationships between communication apprehension, ambiguity tolerance and learning styles in accounting students
    (2017) Arquero, José Luis; Fernández-Polvillo, Carmen; Hassall, Trevor; Joyce, John
    The dynamics of the global business environment have led to changes in the skills required by accountants in order to add value for their clients. Consequently, there is a growing pressure on accounting educators to design and implement educational programmes that could contribute to the development of the relevant skills. In such a context, it is possible that some characteristics of students (for example communication apprehension, ambiguity tolerance, or learning styles) could be constraints on both skills development and pedagogical change. Previous studies have reported that accounting students tend to have higher levels of the constraining characteristics than students from other disciplines. However, previous research has not considered the extent to which those characteristics are inter-related or have possible synergistic effects in accounting students. The results of this study, based on a sample of accounting students, indicate that those relationships exist. The patterns of correlations are indicative of the constraints that an accounting educator must overcome to effectively develop certain skills. Implications of the results are discussed.