Here are the two questions I am struggling with, and also references to go with answers. Thanks. Identify the criteria you believe large international accounting firms should use when evaluating individuals for promotion to partner. In your opinion, which of these criteria should be most heavily weighted by these firms? Should smaller accounting firms establish different criteria for evaluating individuals for promotion to partner? Explain. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the ?up and out? promotion policy followed by many accounting firms

Charles Tollison, Audit Manager Case 6.6 Liberty University Latasha Baker Baker, Case 6.6 2 Summary Charles Tollison had been a hard-working audit manager for a large international accounting firm for over thirteen years. He was a very devoted employee of the company, whom had never turn down a challenging engagement, not once grumbled about the long hours required, and made innumerable personal sacrifices, such as most recently, failing to attend his 8 year old daughter's birthday party. Tollison was informed by his office managing partner, Walker Linton, that he had been passed over for promotion to audit partner while he was in the middle of completing a tough audit engagement. This news devastated Tollison, for this was the second consecutive year that he had failed to be promoted partner by his employer. Even though Linton pledged to \"call in all favors\" to win a promotion for him the following year, Tollison realized that he had little chance of being promoted to partner after having been rejected twice. He felt as if his chances for being promoted were jeopardized when Meredith Olivetti, an audit partner and his closest friend within the firm, resigned from the firm to become the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a large client. Due to her resignation, Tollison had no one within the firm to sponsor him through the tedious and political partner selection process. Linton also posed the option for Tollison feasibly remaining with the firm as a permanent senor manager. However, in Tollison's mind, that decision was similar to having \"career failure\" drawn on his office door. Like many hard-working auditors who rise through the employment ranks of their firms, Tollison was predominantly a \"technician\" as opposed to a \"rainmaker\" like his friend and fellow audit manager, Craig Allen. Unlike Allen, who was proficient in attaining new clients for the firm, Tollison was the person who could be counted on to answer the most critical technical Baker, Case 6.6 3 accounting and auditing issues that arose on engagements in his office. Obviously, his employers esteemed client development skills much more than technical skills. Questions 1. Do you believe Charles Tollison was qualified for a partnership position with his firm? Explain. In my opinion, I believe that Charles Tollison was not yet qualified for a partnership position within his firm. Despite the fact he had a resilient work ethic, was loyal to the firm, and had brilliant technical skills, he did not hold the skills to \"carry his own weight\" in the client development area in which the firm was looking for in selecting their partners. According to article written by Vitez, \"generally, accounting firms appoint partners to find and maintain clients, oversee the audit department and when required, take part in client audits.\" (Vitez, 19992015) Though Tollison was admired for his technical skills, that alone was not enough for him to become a partner with the firm. Technical skills are more important for managers than partners, therefore, I believe that Tollison was qualified as the audit manager. (Baysden, 2014) If Tollison was truly interested in becoming a partner, he must get in the business mindset of obtaining new clients to the firm, and network with others just as his friend Craig Allen did. 2. Did Tollison's firm treat him \"fairly\"? Why or Why not? From the accounting firm perspective, I believe Tollison was treated \"fairly\" because he was fully aware of the \"rules of the game\" for promotion to partner. If Charles really wanted to be promoted to partner, he should have put more focus and time in the effort of client development. From their perspective, he was working at an audit manager level, in which, he was very responsible and reliable in dealing with technical activities. They acknowledged that he was the go-to person when clients had complicated issues; however, he lacked the qualifications as a partner when he failed to bring in new clients and establish a business network. (Knapp, 2014) It Baker, Case 6.6 4 was his responsibility to take the proper steps in ensuring that his career goals of making partner were accomplished. 3. Identify the criteria you believe large international accounting firms should use when evaluating individuals for promotion to partner. In your opinion, which of these criteria should be most heavily weighted by these firms? Should smaller accounting firms establish different criteria for evaluating individuals for promotion to partner? Explain. 4. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the \"up and out\" promotion policy followed by many accounting firms. Baker, Case 6.6 References 5 1. I believe Charles Tollison was qualified for a partnership position with his firm taking into consideration of his work behavior and ethics, as well as his profession knowledge and practical skill. As outlined by the case, he is the go to person whenever someone in the office confronted a difficult accounting or auditing issue. With his well refined technical skill and practical experience, when a new client posed complex technical issue, the audit engagement partner requested that he assigned to the job. However, I believe his management skill and business development skill need improvement. His micromanaging work style often kills the time budgets and lead to the excessive overtime. Although he never complained about the long hours that he worked but with the mounting sacrifices that he made, he will eventually get work burn out. He needs to learn how to delegate the work and seek out to help when needed. Furthermore, he needs to learn how to free up his time so he can attend the networking events to make connections with the prospective clients. 2. The firm did not treat Tollison fairly. First of all, Lincoln didn't do what he promised to do for Tollison. I think Lincoln should not make the bogus promise to Tollison and should be straight with Tollison and assist him to create the profile that the Partner Selection Committee is looking for. Secondly, I believe the promotion policy used by the firm put too much weigh on the ability to bring in new clients and underweighted Tollison's practical experience and professional value. 3. Identify the criteria you believe large international firms should use when evaluating individuals for promotion to partner. In your opinion which of these criteria should be most heavily weighted by these firms? Should smaller accounting firms establish different criteria for evaluating individuals for promotion to partner? Explain. The criteria that should be used when evaluating individuals for promotion to partners includes but are not limited to the following: Professional skills-an audit partner is concerned about the overall quality of each audit. They have the ultimate responsibility for resolving technical matters, such as the application of accounting principles or which auditing procedures are to be performed. Among the specific duties of a partner are to plan and review all phases of an audit engagement, to sign the audit report, and to approve the firm's billing to clients. Practical experience-A period of practical experience relevant to an audit professional should be gained before an individual may assume the role of audit professional. This period should be long enough and intensive enough to permit them to demonstrate that they have acquired professional knowledge, professional skills, and professional values, ethics, and attitudes required to competently perform the work of an audit professional. Professional values, ethics and attitudes- Individuals should be able to apply the required professional values, ethics and attitudes in an audit environment before they undertake substantial involvement in financial statement audit assignments. The general public demand professional accountants maintain a high ethical standard in order to maintain public confidence in the accountancy profession. Ability to bring clients to the firm or \"connections\"- Audit partners usually are the face of a public accounting firm's audit department. These individuals are outgoing and friendly when attempting to bring new companies into the firm's client portfolio. Audit partners are also highly educated and trained in various accounting topics, with several years of experience in the Page 1 of 2 auditing field. Many times, accounting firm partners must act as salesmen when finding new clients. They attend business events, accounting seminars or other conferences as opportunities to extend their firm's audit capabilities and gain new clients. General knowledge content Length of stay in the firm Management skills-Ability of an audit partner to supervise, motivate, and direct the work of younger staff members and demanding clients and other partners. In our opinion, professional skills, practical experience, professional values, ethics and attitudes, management skills, and the ability to bring client to the firm should be heavily considered in promoting someone to be a partner. Obtaining these skills is necessary for a person wanting to be considered as a partner because of its challenging responsibility. To be a partner in an auditing firm means that he/she should be concerned with the overall quality of each audit and should be liable for any misconduct made by the staff. The partner is also involved in maintaining client relationships, planning and evaluating the work done by the staff. Additionally, partners have the ultimate responsibility for resolving technical matters, such as the application of accounting principles and the necessary procedures that needs to be performed. Although promotion of small firms for partners are informal and technical aspects are more required when compared with large firms, a more sophisticated management skill, which includes communicating, organizing, motivating, and directing the efforts of larger and numerous teams of staff and senior accountants, must all be strictly considered by both small and large accounting firms in order to ensure the integrity of the profession itself as well as that of the company. There is nothing wrong with partners having good management skills in small firm; in fact this will be more encouraged. 4. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the \"up or out\" policy followed by many accounting firms. The \"up or out\" policy simply means that, if an employee would not be promoted within a reasonable time as defined by the company, then his/her employment will be terminated. If one would not advance through the ranks at a prescribed pace, one would be fired whenever the higher authority felt that one is an unlikely candidate to join their ranks. One of the advantages of this policy is that employees tend to excel in their work and do their best if they want to retain their job. However, this would also have some adverse effects on the employees' part because they could think of \"compete\" with each other to the extent of destroying one's image in the company. Another advantage is that no internal factors (such as having all the right \"connections\" in the office, etc.) would influence one's promotion, since, ideally speaking, the executives would only consider your skills, performance as well as your qualifications. Contrary to one of the advantages mentioned in the previous statement, this policy could also be detrimental to the emotional well-being of the employees since they could suffer from job-related stress. And, if the employees in a particular company are not emotionally healthy, then that would reflect negatively to the company. Page 2 of 2 1. I believe Charles Tollison was qualified for a partnership position with his firm taking into consideration of his work behavior and ethics, as well as his profession knowledge and practical skill. As outlined by the case, he is the go to person whenever someone in the office confronted a difficult accounting or auditing issue. With his well refined technical skill and practical experience, when a new client posed complex technical issue, the audit engagement partner requested that he assigned to the job. However, I believe his management skill and business development skill need improvement. His micromanaging work style often kills the time budgets and lead to the excessive overtime. Although he never complained about the long hours that he worked but with the mounting sacrifices that he made, he will eventually get work burn out. He needs to learn how to delegate the work and seek out to help when needed. Furthermore, he needs to learn how to free up his time so he can attend the networking events to make connections with the prospective clients. 2. The firm did not treat Tollison fairly. First of all, Lincoln didn't do what he promised to do for Tollison. I think Lincoln should not make the bogus promise to Tollison and should be straight with Tollison and assist him to create the profile that the Partner Selection Committee is looking for. Secondly, I believe the promotion policy used by the firm put too much weigh on the ability to bring in new clients and underweighted Tollison's practical experience and professional value. 3. Identify the criteria you believe large international firms should use when evaluating individuals for promotion to partner. In your opinion which of these criteria should be most heavily weighted by these firms? Should smaller accounting firms establish different criteria for evaluating individuals for promotion to partner? Explain. The criteria that should be used when evaluating individuals for promotion to partners includes but are not limited to the following: Professional skills-an audit partner is concerned about the overall quality of each audit. They have the ultimate responsibility for resolving technical matters, such as the application of accounting principles or which auditing procedures are to be performed. Among the specific duties of a partner are to plan and review all phases of an audit engagement, to sign the audit report, and to approve the firm's billing to clients. Practical experience-A period of practical experience relevant to an audit professional should be gained before an individual may assume the role of audit professional. This period should be long enough and intensive enough to permit them to demonstrate that they have acquired professional knowledge, professional skills, and professional values, ethics, and attitudes required to competently perform the work of an audit professional. Professional values, ethics and attitudes- Individuals should be able to apply the required professional values, ethics and attitudes in an audit environment before they undertake substantial involvement in financial statement audit assignments. The general public demand professional accountants maintain a high ethical standard in order to maintain public confidence in the accountancy profession. Ability to bring clients to the firm or \"connections\"- Audit partners usually are the face of a public accounting firm's audit department. These individuals are outgoing and friendly when attempting to bring new companies into the firm's client portfolio. Audit partners are also highly educated and trained in various accounting topics, with several years of experience in the Page 1 of 2 auditing field. Many times, accounting firm partners must act as salesmen when finding new clients. They attend business events, accounting seminars or other conferences as opportunities to extend their firm's audit capabilities and gain new clients. General knowledge content Length of stay in the firm Management skills-Ability of an audit partner to supervise, motivate, and direct the work of younger staff members and demanding clients and other partners. In our opinion, professional skills, practical experience, professional values, ethics and attitudes, management skills, and the ability to bring client to the firm should be heavily considered in promoting someone to be a partner. Obtaining these skills is necessary for a person wanting to be considered as a partner because of its challenging responsibility. To be a partner in an auditing firm means that he/she should be concerned with the overall quality of each audit and should be liable for any misconduct made by the staff. The partner is also involved in maintaining client relationships, planning and evaluating the work done by the staff. Additionally, partners have the ultimate responsibility for resolving technical matters, such as the application of accounting principles and the necessary procedures that needs to be performed. Although promotion of small firms for partners are informal and technical aspects are more required when compared with large firms, a more sophisticated management skill, which includes communicating, organizing, motivating, and directing the efforts of larger and numerous teams of staff and senior accountants, must all be strictly considered by both small and large accounting firms in order to ensure the integrity of the profession itself as well as that of the company. There is nothing wrong with partners having good management skills in small firm; in fact this will be more encouraged. 4. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the \"up or out\" policy followed by many accounting firms. The \"up or out\" policy simply means that, if an employee would not be promoted within a reasonable time as defined by the company, then his/her employment will be terminated. If one would not advance through the ranks at a prescribed pace, one would be fired whenever the higher authority felt that one is an unlikely candidate to join their ranks. One of the advantages of this policy is that employees tend to excel in their work and do their best if they want to retain their job. However, this would also have some adverse effects on the employees' part because they could think of \"compete\" with each other to the extent of destroying one's image in the company. Another advantage is that no internal factors (such as having all the right \"connections\" in the office, etc.) would influence one's promotion, since, ideally speaking, the executives would only consider your skills, performance as well as your qualifications. Contrary to one of the advantages mentioned in the previous statement, this policy could also be detrimental to the emotional well-being of the employees since they could suffer from job-related stress. And, if the employees in a particular company are not emotionally healthy, then that would reflect negatively to the company. Page 2 of 2