Prof. dr. Bart Dierynck

Professor

Bart Dierynck is a Full Professor of Accounting whose research explores intellectually challenging and practically relevant questions in the field of management accounting. Known for a multidisciplinary approach, he conducts research at the intersection of management accounting, operations management, organizational behavior, and sustainability. His work has been published in leading journals across accounting, organizational behavior, and operations management.Currently, he serves as Director of Graduate Studies in Business at Tilburg School of Economics and Management.Bart Dierynck earned undergraduate degrees in business economics and a PhD in Accounting from KU Leuven (Belgium) and has held visiting positions at Emory University and INSEAD.

Auditing: Lifelong learning
It is essential that auditors continuously learn. The need for continuous learning is fostered by the changing expectations from society and stakeholders, rapid technological developments, and the increasing complexity of information systems. Auditing regulators and oversight bodies are concerned that certain aspects of the auditing profession may form barriers to effective learning. To gain a better insight in how auditors can effectively learn, it is important to identify and distinguish the different learning processes in the auditing profession. Based on our recent literature review we differentiate between seven learning processes. In this FAR Practice Note, we highlight the most important insights from the academic literature for each learning process. Based on this, stakeholders can develop tools to facilitate auditor learning processes in practice.
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Accountancy: Een leven lang leren (NL)
Het is essentieel dat accountants voortdurend leren. De noodzaak om continu te blijven leren neemt verder toe door de veranderende verwachtingen van maatschappij en stakeholders, snelle technologische evoluties en de toenemende complexiteit van informatiesystemen. Externe toezichthouders spreken echter de zorg uit dat bepaalde factoren het leren van accountants in de weg staan. Om een beter inzicht te krijgen in hoe accountants leren is het belangrijk om de verschillende leerprocessen in het accountantsberoep te onderscheiden. Op basis van recent literatuuronderzoek onderscheiden wij zeven leerprocessen. In deze Practice Note lichten wij per leerproces de belangrijkste bevindingen uit de wetenschappelijke literatuur toe. Op basis hiervan kunnen praktische handvatten worden ontwikkeld om deze leerprocessen te verbeteren.
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Learning in the auditing profession: A framework and future directions
Drawing on literature in auditing and workplace learning, this paper develops the Auditor Learning Framework. The Auditor Learning Framework distinguishes auditor learning processes along two dimensions: the location of learning (on-the-engagement or off-the-engagement) and the role of the others in the learning process (active or passive). We review the auditing literature and classify papers that directly or indirectly enhance our knowledge of auditor workplace learning into our framework to identify gaps in our understanding of the auditor learning processes. Our study provides a comprehensive view of auditor learning processes and provides suggestions for future research. This is the final draft. The article is published in Accounting, Organizations and Society. The article is written by Bart Dierynck, Kathryn Kadous, and Christian Peters. Please find the article here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0361368223001058  
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Auditor task prioritization: the effects of time pressure and psychological ownership
The authors study how auditors prioritize their tasks and how differential task prioritization affects auditors’ judgment performance. We leverage Conservation of Resources theory to build our predictions and test these predictions using three experiments with over 350 professional auditors. The first two experiments focus on investigating whether task prioritization affects auditors’ judgment performance. Across two settings, the authors manipulate task order and find that prioritizing an easy task leads to lower judgment performance than prioritizing a difficult task. In their third experiment, the authors gave auditors discretion over task ordering and find that they tend to prioritize easy tasks over difficult tasks. Easy task prioritization is further exacerbated under higher time pressure and is least prevalent in conditions where time pressure is lower and psychological ownership is enhanced.
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Learning in the auditing profession: a framework and future direction
Drawing on literature in auditing and workplace learning, this paper develops the Auditor Learning Framework. The Auditor Learning Framework distinguishes auditor learning processes along two dimensions: the location of learning (on-the-engagement or off-the-engagement) and the role of the others in the learning process (active or passive). We review the auditing literature and classify papers that directly or indirectly enhance our knowledge of auditor workplace learning into our framework to identify gaps in our understanding of the auditor learning processes. Our study provides a comprehensive view of auditor learning processes and provides suggestions for future research.
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The Expectations-Reality Gap in Auditing – A Comparison of Student Expectations and Auditor Experiences
The findings of the study reveal that students consistently misjudge key aspects of the junior auditor role: they underestimate attractive features – such as intellectual challenge, client interaction, and autonomy – and overestimate less appealing features, including repetitiveness and overtime. Moreover, a larger expectations-reality gap for job content and organizational culture significantly decreases students’ likelihood of pursuing an audit career. Our results highlight the need to improve the accuracy of student expectations to help address the audit talent shortage.
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Human Capital Development in Auditing: A Qualitative Study of Learning Mechanisms, Challenges, and Differences across Audit Firms
Human capital is the most crucial input in auditing. While auditors possess skills and competencies when entering the audit firm, on-the-job learning is crucial for the further development of human capital. While prior research has typically focused on one specific learning mechanism, there is a lack of a comprehensive and holistic view of how learning currently manifests in the audit practice. Using 23 semi-structured interviews, this study provides an overview of key learning practices in audit firms, the differences in learning practices between audit firms of different sizes, and barriers to learning in audit firms. This study helps researchers to understand the institutional setting of learning in audit firms and to identify future avenues for research. Furthermore, this study helps practitioners in identifying barriers to learning that may warrant attention.
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February 4, 2026

The Expectations-Reality Gap in Auditing – A Comparison of Student Expectations and Auditor Experiences

To investigate whether student expectations match with early-career realities at Big 4 and midsized audit firms, we analyze survey responses from 344 Dutch business and accounting students and 161 junior auditors. The findings reveal that students consistently misjudge key aspects of the junior auditor role: they underestimate attractive features - such as intellectual challenge, client interaction, and autonomy -and overestimate less appealing features, including repetitiveness and overtime. These misperceptions are particularly pronounced for Big 4 audit firms. Moreover, a larger expectations-reality gap for job content and organizational culture significantly decreases students’ likelihood of pursuing an audit career. Our results highlight the need to improve the accuracy of student expectations to help address the audit talent shortage. Yet, our analyses show that conventional outreach methods, with the exception of in-house days, have limited impact, suggesting a need for alternative approaches to better align student expectations with the realities of audit work.
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