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Anne Farrell

My Approach to Teaching and Learning

My courses focus on how the design of accounting systems helps employees make better decisions — meaning decisions consistent with the organization’s goals and informed by thoughtful consideration of relevant financial and non-financial information. Students are energized when they see not only how carefully designed accounting systems can lead to high organizational performance and employee motivation and satisfaction, but also how poorly designed systems can lead to disaster (think Wells Fargo or FTX). I capture that energy by working with students to convey the practical implications of scholarly research to broader audiences. Specifically, I task students with diving into one of my published research studies and extracting its implications for practice. We revisit the scientific method, discuss how it’s utilized in the study, and consider what the study can say about the design of accounting systems in practice. Students then take the lead in writing an article for a practitioner-oriented journal and seeing it through to publication. They decide what aspects of the research are needed to establish credibility with a practitioner audience and how to convey the study’s real-world applications; write and submit a clear, concise article; and address comments from the publication’s editor. The prize is co-authorship of an article in a widely circulated publication that their future colleagues in practice will read. Students learn to appreciate the practical implications of scholarly research, gain the “resume builders” of coauthored articles, and develop a greater appreciation of the value of the scientific method in general and of accounting research in particular.

My Teacher-Scholar Journey

My research focuses on how the design of performance measurement and control systems affects the processes and outcomes of employee decision-making. It is grounded in the theory of the decision-influencing and decision-facilitating roles of accounting and the implications for organizational structure and performance, broadly defined. As such, I examine how performance measurement and control systems motivate employees to make decisions that are congruent with stakeholders’ goals and help employees make decisions more efficiently and effectively. My courses explicitly tie learning objectives to the decision-influencing and decision-facilitating roles of accounting. Students achieve those objectives by examining germane scholarly research across a variety of disciplines; completing activities designed for self-discovery of knowledge and skills; and assessing and communicating solutions to decision problems from the perspectives of multiple stakeholders. In one course, for example, students recreate seminal research on heuristics and biases and consider the implications for employee decision-making; in another, they choose a “hot” topic (e.g., climate change, inequality) and assess its impact on the design of performance measurement and control systems using a theory-driven management control framework. To bring the teacher-scholar model to life outside the classroom, I work with students to reinterpret my research for practitioner audiences. I task students with diving into one of my published studies and extracting its implications for practice. Students then write an article for a practitioner-oriented journal and see it through to publication. Their prize is co-authorship of an article in a widely circulated publication that their future colleagues in practice will read.

Knowledge is Power

“Students learn to appreciate the practical implications of scholarly research, gain the resume builders of coauthored articles, and develop a greater appreciation of the value of the scientific method in general and of accounting research in particular.”

Education

Ph.D., Accounting Michigan State University
M.S., Accounting George Mason University
B.B.A., Accounting University of Notre Dame

More About Me

I had more than a decade of experience practicing accountancy, especially audit and analysis, in the financial and media fields before I began my academic career. I have numerous research publications; practitioner summaries of research publications; research honors, recognitions, and grants; invited research lectures, presentations, and engagements; and teaching honors and recognitions.