Gen Z as The Catalyst for Change of the Future Accounting Professions

. This paper aims to examine Indonesia’s Generation Z defined in the accounting field towards technology disruptive of big data, gender attitudes and pursuit towards accounting as a profession, vocational expectations, and their perceptions and cognitive style. This study used the quantitative method and the data were analysed using the SEM-PLS method. The data set used in this paper was obtained by sending online questionnaires via social media. The present study compares several aspects of a prior study of big data, gender attitude, pursuit of career in accounting, vocational expectations, perception and cognitive Style. As the result showed that big data, vocational expectations, cognitive style and perceptions have a positive influence toward the future of the accounting profession. Conversely, gender attitudes and pursuit of accounting careers have a negative influence towards the accounting professions. This paper only discusses the speculations of Gen Z who are involved in accounting in the Jakarta metropolitan area or known locally as JABODETABEK (an abbreviation of Jakarta-Bogor-Depok-Tangerang-Bekasi). This paper uses one example of technological disruption and some of the attributes that influence individual generation Z vocational selection.


Introduction
Like any profession, the accounting professions also go through periods of time that determine where we are due to numerous changes in technology and culture.Warren Buffet refers to accounting as the language of the business world and plays a critical essential role in economic development.The essential role of accounting professions in providing information for decisionmaking indicates the role in economic development (Venter et al. 2018) for the people to be in place, functioning and fit for purpose, for the institutions and the standards (Welch 2012).
Over the past 10 years, efforts to understand millennials have brought about significant attention and invested with the implicit expectations as the founder generation in the world for growing up in the internet age, millennials are generally characterized by increased use and familiarity with the internet, mobile devices, and social media, which is why they are also known as digital natives (Parry 2020).However, the generation is come to the point shifting from Millennials to now called Gen Z (abbreviation of Generation Z), those who born in between 1997 and 2012 and their coming-of-age lines between 1997 and 2001 are on their way to step on *Corresponding author: aqila.irwan@binus.ac.id the stage of life, an adult and working life, in which according to a survey that was conducted by (ACCA 2021) this young and fresh generation's biggest expectation is to update their capabilities continually to keep their job and worry about the impact of technology on the job opportunities in the future, they also cite personal well-being and mental health as a worry.
In Indonesia, according to Hinduan et al. (2020), the Internet plays a more important role during teen life, only 9% of this group read printed media such as newspapers.But mobile is where they spend most of their screen time, based on Tirto Report (2017), 90% of Gen Z in Indonesia uses a smartphone daily and 35,2% uses social media for Information Access.However, just right Gen Z starts pursuing their path to adult and working life, in March 2019, they drastically consume digital and technology because of the catastrophe of worldwide pandemic COVID-19 as imposes them to "stay-at-home" while doing their activities such as work from home with zoom, online classes and requires digital and huge amounts of data sent through the Internet.McKinsey (2018) led a survey that technology can totally automate 42% of financial processes and transactional activities in the accountancy profession, however it's trusted in the range of 2 years, because of the quick spread of advances technology and their convenience, a great many accountants are currently associated nationwide and worldwide, one result of the transformation of innovation is the development of 'big data'.Which brings us to elevate and prepare Big Data, an information systems and activities which accumulate, retrieve, and examine enormous quantities of data (Green et al. 2018), one of the technologies disruptive to Gen Z in Indonesia and their ability to use technology not only effectively but also responsibly in their daily lives but also in the workplace while growing up with the global pandemic COVID-19, especially these young generation in accounting field.

Objectives
This paper examines the recognition of big data, one of the disruptive technologies, on the accounting community as it might change the demands of accounting data and its impact on decision-making.With tight competition in technological advancement era and in recent global pandemic COVID-19, consequently, there are also might affect on both mental-being and performance and career expectations in Gen Z in Indonesia, particularly in the accounting professions as they join the workplace in the context of a constantly changing world of work.

Literature Review
Behavior accounting examines the communication process between the accounting knowledge and its client.It determines the styles and attitudes that the individual in the dynamic position would need to understand.It isn't just traditional accounting reports that influence the choice of outsiders who need to have data regarding the organization; it can also analyze the external factors and events of accounting by affecting the relevant people and institutions (Baldacchino et al. 2018).According to the American Accounting Association (AAA), accounting is "... the process of identifying, measuring, and communicating economic information to permit informed judgments and decisions by users of the information."By that, the accountant profession represents a qualified professional who handles all levels of accountancy in a small business and performs various duties that include reporting and accounts keeping (Jindrichovska and Kubickova 2016) actions can be taken by bodies representing the accounting profession and/or donors when they believe that accounting bodies in a particular country or region are ineffective in promoting economic development.Professional accountants in Indonesia are regulated in the Minister of Finance (MoF) Decree No. 216/PMK.01/2017 and the Public Accountants Act No. 5 of 2011.

Big Data
Big data has recently been mainly used by practitioners and accountants, as high-volume, high-velocity and high-variety information resource, requiring low-cost.Innovative forms of information processing to enhance insight and decision-making.Volume refers to the size of data.Velocity represents the rate of increase in data generation and (potential) processing.The desire of big data advocates is to monitor in real time, thereby influencing organizational decision-making.Finally, variety refers to the diversity required by the nature of the data (Gandomi and Haider 2015).Arnaboldi et al. (2017) stated that the characteristics of Big Data has always been a matter of accounting in its pursuit for reliable and significant information used for decision making.A study by Dalahmeh (2021) showed that Big Data will affect the future of the accounting profession, which is consistent with the previous research (Arnaboldi et al. 2017).As a result, the hypothesis 1 "Big Data has a positive influence on the accounting professions" was proposed.

Gender Attitudes
Gender refers to the social, cultural, and psychological characteristics that are shared by males and females in certain social circumstances.Statuses and roles are important components of social structure because they allow us to organize our lives in regular and predictable ways.They dictate our conduct and contact with persons of various social positions (Lindsey 2015).Numerous studies have highlighted gender differences in relation to women's deficits in masculine norms.For example, propose that there are gender differences in reasoning and social behavior (Khlif and Achek 2017).Research conducted by Siboni et al. (2016) shows that accounting practices are associated with male character traits.As a result, the hypothesis 2 "Gender Attitudes has a positive influence on the accounting professions" was proposed.

Pursuit of Accounting Careers
According to Ferreira and Santoso (2008) and Suryani et al. (2018) an individual's perceptions regarding someone in a certain field of professions, influence their decisions in their intention to pursue a career.For instance, in the event that the next generation has a favorable impression of accounting professions, they will be more likely to have a positive goal to seek after these professions (Germanou et al. 2009;Hatane et al. 2022).As per Handley et al. (2017), when it comes to pursuing a career, the exciting factor, the difficult factors, and the burdening factor impact the next-in-line generation decision.The nature of the business environment has changed and caused globalization as the result of the change; this encouraged the shifting of students' perceptions of accounting (Hatane et al. 2022).Suryani et al. (2018) found that the big picture of accounting in Indonesian personalities, impacts their choice to pursue accounting careers.As a result, the hypothesis 3 "Pursuit of Accounting Careers has a positive influence on the accounting professions" was proposed.

Vocational Expectation Factors
This study would like to find the primary driver inspiring Generation Z in Indonesia their relationship between perception of accounting professions and their cognitive styles.Investigations of understudies' decision of a significance in accounting began with research examining professional decision, since it was trusted that the next generation's goal of studying accounting was related with positive work expectations.A portion of these examinations researched factors like natural qualities, monetary elements and social glory (e.g., Ahmed et al. 1997;Gul et al. 1989;Mauldin et al. 2000).In connections from vocational expectation factors to perceptions toward the accounting environment, this study repeated Sugahara et al. (2008) the calculated logistic regression analysis to examine vocational expectation factors.As a result, the hypothesis 4 "Vocational Expectations of Generation Z has a positive influence on the accounting professions" was proposed.

Perceptions and Cognitive Style
Prior studies have been conducted in different parts of the world, and they have examined the effectiveness of perceived factors that influence the young generation's choice of majors and careers.They concluded that accounting and non-accounting students in the United States (Allen 2004

Methods
This study will utilize a quantitative approach that will be done by testing the hypothesis of independent (exogenous) variables, which are big data, gender attitudes, pursuit of accounting careers, vocational expectation factors, perceptions, and cognitive styles while the dependent (endogenous) variable is the future of the accounting professions in Indonesia.Quantitative approach is information obtained in the form of numbers, usually through structured questions (Sekaran and Bougie 2016).These variables were measured with ordinal variables scale.The data analysis method used is Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) based on Partial Least Square (PLS) which utilizes the SmartPLS 3 device.

Data Collection
In this research, authors use questionnaires as the data collection method and distributed to social media platforms.The questions of the questionnaire will use positively and negatively worded questions with likert scale 1 (disagree very strongly) to scale 6 (agree very strongly).Using Hair et al. (2010) methods, a high sample size makes it harder to identify a good model, and an optimal sample size is between 100 and 200 respondents when using estimated interpretation with the Structural Equation Model (SEM).This research uses 100 respondents in accordance with the population that has been defined in the accounting field in JABODETABEK (an acronym of Jakarta-Bogor-Depok-Tangerang-Bekasi) to represent the entire population of Generation Z in Indonesia.According to PDDikti (2021), those provinces have the most number of universities in Indonesia (top 5) and since it is the most populous metropolitan area in Indonesia, we also included central districts for business which require an accountant field for professionals.

Outer Model
The first step to indicate the significance is to test the outer model by testing the variance of outer loading that should have a minimum value of 0.7 and the outer loadings are larger than 0.7 shows that the indicator is reliable.Table 1 shows the result of convergent validity test.The table above shows the cross-loading value of each indicator to which their construct has the biggest value.Therefore, the latent variable is valid.The AVE results is provided in Table 3.The result of Cronbach's Alpha shows that there are no variables below 0.7, therefore all variables passed the reliability test.The result of Composite reliability value shows that all variables above 0.7, therefore the data is reliable.

Inner Model
R Square value is used to evaluate how much the latent exogenous variable influences the latent endogenous variable.The result of R Square can be seen in Table 5.From the result in Table 5, the latent exogenous variable influences 63.7% of the latent endogenous variable.The remaining 36.3% (100% -63.7%) is influenced by other factors that are not included in this study.Q Square value is used to evaluate whether the latent endogenous variable has predictive relevance.The result of Q square can be seen in Table 6.
The result of Q square shows that the value is > 0, which means that the variable has predictive relevance.The null hypothesis can be accepted if it has positive value, to analyze the value we test the path coefficient.Range of the value is -1 to 1.The result of Path Coefficient is provided in Table 7.

Graphical Results
The bootstrapping result is used to determine the significance level of the variables.Figure 1 shows the result of bootstrapping value.Figure 1 shows that the Tstatistic value of Big Data has above 1.65 with the 10% probability error.The other variables have values below 1.65 with the same amount percent of probability error.

Validation
Based on the results of the questionnaires that have been processed using SMART-PLS, which we can see the numerical result in point number 5.1, we can conclude that: Big Data Hypothesis 1 that proposed "Big data has a positive significant influence on the future of accounting professions" is supported.It is in line with the result found by Dalahmeh (2021) and also researchers found that the implementation of big data in accounting will help future accountants in their process of recording financial transactions, which this statement supported by Warren et al. (2015).The findings show that Generation Z in Indonesia are aware of the impact of Big Data towards the accounting professions and how likely it will change the professions.It also shows that Big Data is a helpful tool to assist accountants and it is not a threat that will replace the role of accountant.The findings of this hypothesis also show that the future accountants must develop their skills and knowledge about Big Data as it is increasing the importance of the future accountant role.As a result, Big Data impacts the accounting profession positively.

Gender Attitudes
The result of this study shows that gender attitudes have a negative influence towards the accounting professions.Thus, hypothesis 2 is rejected.Research into gender attitudes on the future of Indonesia accounting professions have negative insignificant influence which followed the research conducted by McDowall and Jackling (2010), shows that there is no difference in attitudes between gender towards the accounting profession.Eskew and Robert (1988) stated that gender appeared to have no systematic impact on performance.It also has the same result with a research in Iranian.Although, a study conducted by (Marriott and Marriott 2003) found that there is one significant difference between gender at the end of their university period that their attitude towards the accounting professions changes.Ahmad et al. (2015) also found that their attitude towards the accounting professions changes at the end of their period in university.The findings show that there are no difference attitudes between gender towards the accounting professions and it impacts the professions negatively but insignificant.Both genders of Generation Z see accounting as well-respected and prestigious professions with high salaries.But, the findings also show that generation Z sees accountants as boring people and find little personal satisfaction in their work because it involves dealing with large amounts of numerical data.

Pursuit of Accounting Careers
The hypothesis 3 unfortunately also has a negative impact towards the accounting professions.This is in line with the findings of Ahmad et al. (2015) that even though the graduate students of accounting are supposedly becoming accountants their intention to pursue a career in accounting is low.However, the result from Hatane et al. (2022), shows that students have a positive intention towards becoming an accountant.Intention of pursuing a career in accounting professions is how perceived generation Z towards accounting as a profession.Generation Z see the accounting profession as a job that is innovative, interesting and also challenging.They also view accounting as a job that is competitive and requires communication skills.Accounting professions are demanding and it involves pressure.This is what makes their intention to pursue a career in the accounting professions low.As a result, it impacts the accounting professions negatively.

Vocational Expectations
Hypothesis 4 proposing that vocational expectations of Generation Z has a positive impact towards the future of accounting professions.This hypothesis is supported because the result shows that vocational expectations impact the professions positively, but it is insignificant.Compatible with a study conducted by Sugahara et al. (2008) found that vocational expectations have a positive impact towards the accounting professions.Vocational expectations have 4 factors; intrinsic value, career status, work environment, and job market consideration.The findings of this study shows that Generation Z expect that the accounting profession is a job that gives flexibility in career choices.They also expect that the future of accounting professions requires creativity and gives independence.They also expect, being an accountant also gives them the privilege of having powerful authority.This privilege also leads to having a secure job employment and a good initial salary.As a result, these vocational expectations have positive impacts towards the future of accounting professions.

Cognitive Style and Perceptions
The last hypothesis that was proposed is "Cognitive  Saemann and Crooker (1999) show the result of negative relationships of cognitive style and perceptions towards the accounting profession in the United States.In this study, Generation Z views the future of accounting professions will be arranged according to intuition and imagination.Their way of thinking creatively will have a positive impact towards the profession, although accounting professions are arranged according to facts and fixed.As a result, their cognitive style and perceptions impact the future of accounting professions positively.

Conclusion
This study was conducted to test the positive and negative influence of Big Data, attitude, vocational expectations, pursuit of career and perceptions of Generation Z in Indonesia toward accounting as a profession.It was found that Big Data has a positive significant influence toward the future of the accounting profession.Vocational expectations, Cognitive Style, and Perceptions of Generation Z in Indonesia towards the future of accounting professions also impacts positively.Conversely, their gender attitude and intentions to pursue a career in accounting professions have a negative influence, however it is insignificant towards the professions.The findings show that Generation Z in Indonesia who are in the accounting field academically or professionally perceive that Big Data has a positive impact and will help the role of accountant effectively and efficiently.The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology as the authorities that create the curriculum standard for Higher Education should prepare a curriculum that prepares students of Higher Education to adapt in a new disruptive work environment.The academia should help the student to improve their skill and adjust to this new disruptive era.The researchers hope that this study can help as a reference to create teaching style and curriculum standards for the students of Higher Education in Accounting.This study can help readers, especially the younger generation, to be aware of the challenge that awaits them in the future of the new disruptive era and how they have to adapt to survive in a work environment.Despite the contribution of Generation Z in Indonesia, this study has limitations such as the survey that was distributed is limited to only 5 cities (JABODETABEK) in Indonesia.Thus, it does not represent Indonesia generally as a whole country.It is recommended for future research to use more samples such as the other cities in Indonesia, so that it can be generalized.Furthermore, future research can also analyze other variables that affect the future of accounting professions so we can create a sustainable accounting profession.
Style and Perceptions of Generation Z have positive impacts towards the future of accounting professions.The findings of this study show that Cognitive Style and Perceptions of Generation Z have positive impacts, but it is insignificant.Studies conducted by Sugahara et al. (2008) and ; Geiger and Ogilby 2000) United Kingdom (Fisher and Murphy 1995; Marriott and Marriott 2003) Ireland (Byrne and Willis 2005), Australia (Jackling 2002) and New Zealand (Tan and Laswad 2006) Such research is deemed necessary due to the rapidly evolving and changing nature of Indonesia economy and while accounting departments need to hire young generations with different cognitive styles to reflect the changing work environment, most previous research can only be robust and demonstrated unique cognitive accounting of the young generation bias (Sugahara et al. 2008) Their perceptions can be also explained by their cognitive style, Sugahara et al. (2008) has identified certain cognitive styles that influence students' decision-making, especially in accounting.Due to the rapidly developing and changing nature of our economy, such research is considered necessary, although the accounting department to hire people with different cognitive styles of students to reflect in the changing work environment, most previous studies have only been able to show strong and unique cognitive biases among accounting students (Sugahara et al. 2008).Similarly, prior study of Auyeung and Sands (1996) studied the cognitive learning styles of accounting students in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia to investigate whether the difference in individualism/collectivism cultural dimension affects students' cognitive development.As a result, the hypothesis 5 "Perceptions and Cognitive Style of Generation Z has a positive influence on the accounting professions" was proposed.

Table 2 .
Cross Loading

Table 3 ,
all variables produced AVE value above 0.5.Therefore, all variables are valid.The next step is the reliability test of the variables.Table4shows the result of Cronbach's Alpha & Composite Reliability.

Table 4 .
Results of Cronbach's Alpha & Composite Reliability

Table 5 .
Results of R Square

Table 7 .
Results of Path Coefficient From the table above we can see that there are 3 endogenous variables that have positive value, so we can conclude that those variables have a positive relationship.The other 2 variables have negative values, which means that it has a negative relationship.