ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the ways in which a professional identity is acquired in the context of the informal, organizational norms of the firms studied. What organizational norms operate, how they are constructed and transformed, and how successfully trainee auditors recognize and accommodate themselves to those norms are key elements that structure, the career path of trainee accountants: organizational socialization is thus an important component of the ‘making’ of professional accountants. The book examines how self-regulatory norms is constructed for and communicated to trainee chartered accountants in two of the large international ‘Big Six’ firms. The Big Six are those firms which dominate the markets for accounting and auditing services worldwide. Socialization in the auditing firm may, in addition, be complicated by the different organizational cultures present in each of the Big Six firms.
