Management Accountants' Professional Competences : Requirements In the Czech Republic and Poland. The Normative Approach and Business Practice

The aim of this paper is to ascertain, from the normative (“should be” – academic experts) and business practice (“is” – management accountants) perspective, whether and to what extent management accountants' competence requirements differ between the Czech Republic and Poland and if so, to indicate the reasons for such differences. Both groups of respondents, as well as both countries have they own specific characteristics, but also share some common qualities. All respondents emphasize an important role that management accountants play in modern companies and suggest the necessity of developing standards and requirements for this position. The study is unique, since it compares different perspectives of management accountants' professional competences expected by academic and business practice in two neighbouring countries (the Czech Republic and Poland) with their own specific institutional environment