会計監査法人における協働ネットワークの実態調査－その構造，形成要因，組織的影響について－

抄録

This paper analyzes the structure of the work relationships which accountants build while working in their organization. The sample organization and members of this are an audit division in one of the Big Four accounting firms in Japan and accountants whose job titles are Partner or Manager. The data used are the job descriptions in the division describing the daily work schedules of the members over two audit periods. The following is a brief description of the analyses. Focusing on the characteristics of an auditing job done by a big accounting firm to be completed by the same audit team within one audit period, I will examine organizations of each audit team in the division. Next, I will clarify who works with whom and how many audit teams they work with in one period. Based on the result of the above analysis, the structure of work relationships in the division is illustrated.

There are several findings arising from the analysis. In the division, a few groups of members construct an exclusive network (clique) by working together in several audit teams regularly and building strong relationships with each other. In contrast, most of the other members don't have any cliques. Their working relations with co-workers are mainly weak and temporal so they don't create cliques or only have ones which are too vague to be identified. In order to know what makes these differences even though they work under the same conditions in a same organization, all work relations in the division are re-examined by introducing the idea of network analysis. The result shows that the members who are in the center of the network and have many clients tend to build cliques easily.

Based on these findings, the significance of building work networks for organization is discussed from the point of productivity and risk reduction. In the surveyed division. more than 200 audit jobs are dealt with every audit period. Members of the division are obligated as professional workers to complete these jobs in a given period and the outputs they deliver must be appropriate for the accounting standards and social needs. If they don't satisfy these requirements, in the worst case, Partners who owe the final responsibility of audit jobs or the accounting firm itself must pay a huge amount of compensation money to stockholders. In order to achieve goals as they reduce risks, promptness in audit team building to start job quickly and effective and efficient performance in every team are necessary. Building and utilizing networks through doing jobs may help accountants to meet these two challenges. Limitations and implications of this research are also discussed.