Les facteurs de turnover dans le secteur de l'audit financier en Big4 : le cas des femmes

Abstract

The turnover in the audit industry has its own particularities. Indeed, this sector is known for having such an important turnover rate and a weak retention of the employees on the long term, especially because of the tough requirements of this profession. Moreover, the female turnover, in an overall perspective, is also very specific. Thus, the aim of this thesis is related to these topics and the main objective is to identity what are the reasons behind the turnover decisions of women working in the financial audit industry, more specifically in one of the Big4 (i.e. the four largest public accounting firms, on a global level). A review of the existing literature has been done, firstly to give a proper context and to define the main concepts included in this thesis (i.e turnover, Big4, financial audit), then, to go through the existing elements that were already identified as factors of turnover (in general, and in the specific cases of audit and women). Then, an empirical study was conducted and twenty-three women who work or has previously worked in the audit sector in a Big4 have been interviewed. The results of this data collection have been used either to draw a parallel between the elements highlighted in the literature review or to identity gaps in this existing literature.