5 minute read
More than figures
Professor Bart Dierynck and lecturer Sofie Vandenbogaerde both work at the Department of Accountancy. They are a couple and have two children. Together they are helping rid accountancy of its unjust “dry” image.
Text: Joris Janssen
BART DIERYNCK
Getting acquainted
“As a professor of management accounting, I teach and do research. I am also research coordinator and I coordinate the PhD program within the department.”
The term “accountancy” sounds dry, but...
“It’s very interesting to investigate how people in companies make decisions. For example, I researched whether having certain experience influences how managers motivate their employees. The question was: do managers motivate their employees in a different way if they themselves have experience with the task the employees have to perform? Managers often tend to reward on the basis of performance. But if a task can also be intrinsically motivating, you are less likely to switch to such bonuses. We discovered that managers with experience in such a task indeed realize that it can also be intrinsically motivating. This allows them to switch more quickly to a fixed sum.”
Making lectures fun and educational
“Before a lecture, I have students write tweets about the papers they have to read. They send in the 140 characters in advance and then, throughout the lecture, a discussion about the tweets unfolds. In this way, I try to stay close to the personal experience of students. They write messages like that every day, so to speak. They like doing it very much. In addition, the tweets lead to making connections with other things and you can immediately see what the students do and don’t understand.”
Message to would-be accountants
“Until I started my PhD, I was a top-level athlete: duathlon. Running, cycling, and running again. I combined that with studying during my student days. This taught me, for example, how to plan well, how to distinguish between main and side issues, and how to deal with stress. My tip for
prospective students is to use your time mainly to learn new things, to get to know yourself, and to explore the world. Later on, when you are working, you’ll find out how much time you had for that sort of
BRAM BELLONI
thing in your student days. These are investments that will benefit you for the rest of your life and career.”
Sneaking your work home
“I sometimes apply some of the principles of my profession to our children. For example, the difference between giving extrinsic rewards and encouraging intrinsic motivation. Suppose you want your kids to clean up the garden. Then it’s very easy to say: if you do this, you will get a snack or you can play on the tablet. But is that wise? Do you want them to be rewarded or should the motivation come from them? If you promise a reward, they’ll really clean up that garden. But then a child won’t learn why it’s valuable to clean up the garden. The alternative, encouraging intrinsic motivation, takes more time and you have less certainty about whether it will actually happen. I think about that a lot.”
SOFIE VANDENBOGAERDE
Getting acquainted
“I lecture and coordinate courses at the Department of Accountancy. I am also program director of the accountancy master’s program. In order to train future accountancy professionals properly, we have recently updated the master’s program. Topics that are becoming increasingly important in the sector, such as IT, big data and non-financial information, now have a clear place in the program.”
The term “accountancy” sounds dry, but...
“People often think that accountancy is only about figures, but it’s much more than that. We accountants do have a thing for figures, but you also have to understand where those figures come from. There are many human decisions involved. The interesting thing about accountancy is that it is a nice mix of hard figures and human aspects. In addition, due to the rise of big data, the question now arises: will accountants still be needed in the future? The answer is ‘yes’, because computers cannot take over all decisions. I find this a fascinating subject. Some people fear that computers and robots are going to take over everything, but that’s really not the case.”
Making lectures fun and educational
“I think it’s important that students get their wisdom not only from books, but also from what’s happening in the world. Take the situation now, during the corona crisis. One of my online lectures was about inventory management. This was a good occasion to discuss the fact that there are now many shortages of some products because Chinese companies are no longer able to supply them. How do you prevent something like that? You could have bought more in advance, but you don’t want to be stuck with immense inventories in the Netherlands or Belgium. I enjoy discussing current affairs like that.
Message to would-be accountants
“Student life is more than just burying your nose in books. It’s the start of standing on your own two feet. This is difficult for students who start their studies after the summer. A lot will take place online because of corona. Building networks and making friends for life may look a little different after the summer. That’s why, as program director, I’m now thinking about how we can turn our new group of students into a group online. It’s a huge challenge: providing a social experience in a situation in which a lot will take place off campus.”
Sneaking your work home
“Bart does this more than I do, haha. As a joke, he looks at our kids to see how to best reward them for things. But the eldest is only four years old, and will listen for a moment, but will have forgotten two hours later. Unfortunately, you can’t work with toddlers like you do with employees.”
