Overview
Accounting is not only based on methodologies, numbers and financial statements. It is far more than this because it holds to basic rules and standards to preserve the professions purpose. But it also shaped by a variety of internal and external factors. The practice in accounting actually signifies and symbolized the culture in which it is performed. One of a significant practice in accounting is auditing. Auditors are responsible to attest to the fairness of a company’s financial statements by expressing their opinion on the statements. The auditor’s opinion reflects whether the financial statements are in accordance with the GAAP and the audit must be reliable and express fair opinion. He or she must resist and take every precaution from being subject to a conflict of interest from any internal or external pressure.
Therefore, it is very important for high power distance society in this case Poland can feel pressure to issue a certain opinion by a powerful or wealthy client. The polish culture may feel more obligated to please the authority and “save face” to avoid public embarrassment than to keep the rules of the profession. Aside of this polish people also score very high on masculinity well as for the Dutch is very low. Dutch people can easily communicate and are very direct compared to the polish. As for the Dutch, they need to have 50/50 to be able to have a negotiation. Meaning the Netherlands tend to have Polder model, so meaning during a negotiation an agreement should be fair for everyone, in Poland it is not the same. When negotiating in Poland if the other party feel that you win on something, they think they failed. Also, Polish people avoid directness and explicated communication but when situation develop their disadvantage, they may be very confrontational in an emotional manner. As for a Dutch person It is prohibitive to interrupt a conversation in Poland and inhibitive not to speak out what they think. In Poland business setting are very formal because of the higher and lower classes. Also, they do not interrupt a higher authority when talking or giving feedback, this is seeming to be very disrespectful but in Spain and the Netherlands they are more the opposite. In Poland they are more short term oriented due to that they are really competitive. Lastly, the polish accountant also mentioned about a situation that he encountered difficulties. When a new employee joined his team, the person did say much, and he does not know the reason why. He or she also did not perform good during the project. After a while the polish accountant from Spain started to wonder why the new employee did not reply and say much and started to ask the new employee. The reason behind this was that the new employee from Poland was afraid to ask (Power distance) and kept silent. Therefore, the Polish accountant from Spain recognized this and started to get a more often meetings and let the employee feel at home. He showed openness and trust to the new employee whereas the new employee started to be more open and asked for feedback.
Outcome
This case model investigated Polish accounting practices, in particular Audit. It was noted in the interview that international Polish accountancy are slowly adapting to the new cultural settings. However, the old generations and not international oriented are less adaptive. Also, due to the background of the Spanish accountant he could luckily recognize the problem in the office why the employee was performing bad.
Authors
Mengyi Wu: Semester 1, Block 2, 2020/21
AMSIB Student (LinkedIn)