An article on the KELLOG INSIGHT webpage, written by Galen Bodenhausen and Michalis Mamakos, finds that framing a decision in terms of possible losses rather than possible gains leads people to gather more information before making that decision.

New research from the Kellogg School shows that how a decision is framed – whether as a goal you’re eager to achieve or a responsibility that you don’t want to mess up – influences how much information people gather before making that decision.

Across several studies, the researchers found that “we gather more information when decisions are framed in terms of possible losses rather than possible gains, even when acquiring that information is costly. This holds even when we’re gathering information that we know might contradict our own beliefs. “When you make people averse to risk, they’re willing to pay to get more information to make a decision they can be confident about,” says Bodenhausen.

An article posted n the EY Global webpage says chief financial officers (CFOs) face complex and contradictory demands as they strive to drive long-term value and find short-term cost efficiencies while reinventing the finance function.

To glean the state of this complex function, earlier this year, EY conducted a survey of 1,000 CFOs and senior finance leaders worldwide. It released the results of its research at the end of April 2024. “Of the respondents, 69% are CFOs, including 18% who are Group CFOs, with the remainder holding divisional and regional CFO roles. The remaining 31% of respondents were drawn from finance director and heads of finance roles. Respondents were from 21 countries and 13 industry segments, with 70% representing organizations with revenues of between US$1b and US$5b per year and 30% with revenues exceeding US$5b per year.”

The research discovered that there are three fundamental paradoxes within the CFO role:

Daniel Altman wrote, in a recent article in Entrepreneur, that the labour market has found a new normal — again. “After the dramatic swings of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as a bevy of buzzwords, the market has settled into a pattern we've never seen before. If it lasts, businesses will have to think about human resources in a whole new way.”
Altman points out that first we had "The Great Resignation," then "Quiet Quitting," which was quickly followed by "Quiet Hiring." And now we're in an unprecedented situation that some economists are calling "The Great Stay." It's an unusual moment in time given how workers are holding onto their jobs and companies are holding onto their workers.
According to Altman, one reason for this lack of churn is the uncertainty that still plagues the economy. “The path of interest rates, the upcoming elections, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and the possibility of corrections in asset markets are all on the minds of managers, workers and investors. Businesses are also concerned that if they let workers go in such a tight labor market, they'll have a hard time hiring when they need workers again. In the meantime, even expert opinions on the future of the economy aren't carrying much weight, since so many forecasters were wrong about a recession coming last year.”

EY’s latest research with Saïd Business School, at the University of Oxford, reveals new insights into what happens when a transformation program’s leadership believes a transformation has or will go off-course and intervenes with the intent of improving its performance (turning points).

According to the joint research based on analysis of 846 senior leaders, and 840 workforce members, across 23 countries and 16 industry sectors and five qualitative case studies, turning points are ubiquitous in nearly all transformation programs. 96% of respondents experienced at least one turning point over the course of a project, with 76% citing them as unavoidable in today’s unpredictable business environment.

Data from the three-year collaboration with the EY organization and Oxford Saïd has highlighted that “transformations are not linear and that, along with global volatility and the increased speed of disruption, new thinking is demanded around how leaders must navigate these turning points while also addressing the changing environment inside and outside of an organization. The data reveals that at the center of this new thinking are humans.”

A recent article in the Journal of Accountancy, written by Anita Dennis, notes that technological transformation means change, and change can be unsettling. After several years of disruption in their work lives, many employees seem to be suffering from change fatigue. When Gartner surveyed workers in 2016, 74% were willing to support organizational change. By late 2022, that number had plummeted to 38%.

Firms need to carefully plan and execute changes in their audit technology if they want to effectively implement transformational change. According to Dennis, here’s what to pay attention to in change management.

According to an article in CFO Dive, companies are turning to interim financial leadership more frequently as they struggle to fill widening gaps in their accounting and finance functions.
Author Grace Noto says that “competition to nab skilled accounting talent has only become fiercer in recent years amid a worsening shortage of accounting professionals, leaving companies with critical gaps in their financial leadership and function. In addition to surging demand for interim CFOs, requests for senior vice president or vice president-level financial professionals — such as controllers and the heads of financial planning & analysis — rose by 114%, according to the Business Talent Group (BTG).”
Historically, Noto adds, “many companies have looked to fill roles in FP&A, audit, financial reporting and up to the CFO or controller chair with employees that have previously worked for an accounting firm, but dynamics have changed in recent years where many roles in accounting are now outsourced.”
The rise in demand for audit, accounting and similar skills is “a logical consequence of the declining pipeline of accounting majors and CPA candidates,” Jack Castonguay, an assistant professor of accounting at New York’s Hofstra University, said in an email, noting that “with accounting firm dynamics, largely insufficient salaries and work-life balance leaving firms struggling to attract people to the profession, the companies needing these people are now logically also struggling. You cannot disconnect the two.”
The narrower pipeline of new accounting graduates plus a high rate of retirement in the industry can leave the employees that are left overworked, increasing the likelihood of mistakes, according to a report by Fortune. “Significant attrition” in the accounting department for retail brand Tupperware contributed to a delay in the company’s ability to file its annual 10-K form on time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, for example, the second consecutive year the brand will be filing late.  
“Fewer grads lead to fewer public accountants which leads to fewer qualified and experienced hires for companies to place in their internal accounting-focused roles,” Castonguay said. “The dynamic makes me wonder how the temporary or outsourced staffing firms are finding candidates at their staffing firms. It’s possible that will be the next shoe to drop.”
On the labor side, notes Noto, “changing ways of working may also be affecting how employees want to work; while there may be shortages in certain areas, the company is not necessarily seeing a slowdown of new candidates joining their platform. 
Companies may also be more motivated to try out on-demand talent as they look to plug critical skill gaps in their workforces. According to the BTG’s report, 95% of executives surveyed said that they anticipate difficulty finding the “ideal combination of skills, capacity and expertise” inside their teams. Today’s companies “now are starting to really open up and look at how they can blend full time talent with more independent talent and tapping into those capabilities at the desired time.”
That includes how they might be approaching interim leadership; many firms are looking for on-demand talent to help provide critical support for larger-scale projects or initiatives, according to BTG, a category that makes up 27% of all talent requests. Interim leadership can provide benefits to companies who are in transition or who are undertaking major changes, according to a 2023 CFO Dive report citing BTG data from that year.
For more, see Interim CFO requests skyrocket 46%: BTG | CFO Dive.

According to an article in Chief Executive, making parity a priority, getting personally engaged and intentionally celebrating successes will ensure you don't lose your most talented female leaders.
“We often talk about the glass ceiling that prevents women from reaching senior leadership positions,” the article says. “But the reality is that women are thwarted much earlier in their attempt to climb the ladder to the top — there’s a broken rung far down the ladder that’s keeping them from taking that first step up to manager. Fixing this broken rung is the key to achieving parity. This broken-rung inequality surfaces early in women’s careers and compounds at each subsequent level.”

According to the article, there’s good news though. “Organizations have begun to recognize that gender parity in leadership roles is a competitive advantage and delivers better business outcomes. And yet, despite some hard-fought gains, women’s representation is not keeping pace. At the highest levels, less than 22% of leaders are women and, for women of color, the number is less than 6%.”

The article suggests three critical ways for top leadership in any organization to become part of the change that creates gender parity in leadership roles:
1. Make gender parity in leadership roles a strategic priority at every level in your organization starting at the CEO and board levels. You can do this by gathering data on your current state of representation at every rung of the ladder, starting from recruitment, all the way to the most senior levels.

“Create a cadence to measure and report progress of the entire pipeline every quarter from your current state to your desired state– with the same rigor as you measure other business outcomes such as your revenues and profits. If the pipeline is not making the progress for you to achieve your desired outcome, you must understand the root causes and allocate resources to fix them.”

Tie meaningful financial rewards for leaders to make meaningful progress and to find innovative ways to increase representation. “Remuneration drives behavior (both conscious and unconscious) and plays a critical role in where they allocate their limited time and attention, especially in our fast-paced and constantly disruptive workplaces where there are multiple and sometimes competing priorities.”

2. Get personally engaged. Participate in women’s events to demonstrate that they are a priority for you and deserve your precious time. The author delivers many keynotes at women’s conferences and only once has she had a large tech CEO on a panel with two women of color talking about the importance of and his commitment to having women in leadership roles.

It is a well-known fact that women will not apply for or accept a role until they feel 100% qualified for a role, says the article. “In today’s business climate, many leaders will accept their first answer as their final answer because they believe that is what the women truly want.” Oftentimes women underestimate their worth and their potential especially when they don’t see senior leaders who look like them, so they need you to see their potential and encourage them to take a chance on themselves and seek higher level roles
You should also become a visible sponsor by advocating for women in rooms where they are not present to set an example and encourage other leaders to do the same. “Show your trust and confidence in them by putting your credibility on the line and recommending them for leadership roles or growth assignments that will enable them to learn meaningful and relevant competencies, which will prepare them for future leadership roles.”

3. Intentionally celebrate success. Publicly recognize the leaders at your company who are making meaningful progress in advancing gender parity in leadership roles. Recognize both the individual who is promoting women as well as the women themselves. Intentionally seek women leaders who are performing well and stand them up as role models.

The article concludes that, “when you help achieve gender parity in leadership roles, women will finally be present in every room where decisions are being made — diminishing negative stereotypes and biases in the workplace once and for all. Your promotion of your female employees into leadership roles is not just for them, but also for all the other women who will come after you. You are helping blaze a trail for them and changing the world of business forever.”

A recent Journal of Accountancy article by Kevin Brewer notes that finance leaders are still concerned about the expanded use of generative AI programs, such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, but more than a quarter of them say that hasn't stopped their organizations from experimenting with the technology.

According to the first quarter AICPA & CIMA Economic Outlook Survey, 71% of executives said they were at least moderately concerned about potential privacy, ethical or accuracy risks associated with the use of generative AI tools, with 42% expressing significant concern. The survey adds that the level of concern about the risks is about the same as the previous quarter. This quarter, only 6% of respondents expressed "no concern at all" about the tools.

The International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) has announced the launch of the first comprehensive suite of global standards on ethical considerations in tax planning and related services, incorporated in the IESBA Code of Ethics.

According to an A´ril 15, 2024 news release, “following certification by the Public Interest Oversight Board (PIOB), the standards establish a clear framework of expected behaviors and ethics provisions for use by all professional accountants, and respond to public interest concerns about tax avoidance and the role played by consultants in light of revelations in recent years, such as the Paradise and Pandora Papers.” 

Once again, following up on yesterday’s news item – “Health, Safety Risks Are Top of Mind for Boards, Global Survey Show” – this D&O Survey, which elicited more than 900 responses from 52 countries around the world, provides valuable insights into the risks that are of concern to corporate directors and officers.

Notably, says the report, “social risks have climbed the ladder, with health and safety risks being considered a very or extremely important concern for 84% of respondents, up from an average of 45% over the previous three years. It now represents the number one overall concern, up from number five last year, knocking cyber-attacks off the top spot, where it has been for the last three years.”