Nurul Farikhah Ismi Partono Thomas [email protected]
Jurusan Pendidikan Ekonomi, Fakultas Ekonomi, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia
Abstract: The purpose of this research is to determine influence of family environment, school environment, perception of accounting profession, and peers interest of choosing accounting major at State High School students in Central Java. Populations that used in this research were grade XI students of State High School 1 Semarang, State High School 1 Temanggung, and State High School 1 Cilacap with academic year of 2015/2016. The technique of sampling is simple random sampling technique, which has total 231 students. Method of collecting data used the questionnaire. The method of analysing data is descriptive analysis and path analysis. The result of this research shows the influence of school environment to the interest majored in accounting (21.6%), the perception of accounting profession to the interest majored in accounting (38.6%), the school environment to the perception of accounting profession (32.6%), peers’ perception of accounting profession (25.2%), school environment towards peers (27.3%), family environment to the school environment (40.6%), and the family environment towards peers (30.7%).
Keywords: Family Environment, School Environment, Perception of Accounting Profession, Peers, Interest of Choosing Major in Accounting
INTRODUCTION
Formal education in Indonesia is further divided into three levels: primary, secondary and tertiary education. It is based on UU No. 20 of 2003 National Education System article 14 (Depdiknas, 2004: 7). Higher education is the last formal education. In this stage, students are trying to improve their knowledge and find a lot of experience to face the real world of work later on. Tertiary education is a unit of higher education providers as advanced level of secondary education in the formal education. This definition of higher education is according to UU No. 20 of 2003 National Education System of Article 19, paragraph 1 (Depdiknas, 2004: 8).
There are four types of tertiary education: universities, institutes, polytechnics and academies (Depdiknas, 2004: 8). In any kind of tertiary education offers different majors. Each candidate who will enter college needs to take decision for choosing majors. Their choice will determine their own future. A prospective student had to adjust their interests and capabilities in choosing majors. Every student has different interests which will influence their consideration in making decision to choose something.
Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was a development of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), which developed in 1967 by Fishbein and Ajzen. The main focus of the Theory of Planned Behaviour as Theory of Reasoned Action is the intention of the individual to perform certain behaviours. Intention is considered to see the motivational factors that influence behaviour. Intention is an indication of how hard people make an effort and how much effort will be issued by individual to perform a behaviour (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980).
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In the Theory of Reasoned Action, there are two factors that determined intention: personal attitude (attitude toward behaviour) and subjective norm (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). Attitude is a positive or negative evaluation of the individual of certain behaviour while subjective norm is one’s perception of social pressure to perform or not perform certain behaviours at hand (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). However, Ajzen argued that the Theory of Reasoned Action has not been able to explain the behaviour which is entirely under the control of a person. Therefore, in the Theory of Planned Behaviour, Ajzen adding another factor that determines the intention is perceived behavioural control.
Perceived behavioural control describe as an individual's perception of its own control toward certain behaviours (Knabe, 2006: 27). This factor refers to the individual's perception of easy or difficult to show up certain behaviour and was assumed to be a reflection of past experience and anticipated barriers. These three factors are the attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control can predict the intentions of individuals undergoing certain behaviour. The relationship between the components in the Theory of Planned Behaviour can be seen in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Theory of Planned Behaviour Model
In the decision-making model in choosing major in the college, especially, accounting department, there are some intentions: personal attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control as in the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Every action must have evaluated whether a positive or negative action, in this case is continuing studies to college in accounting majored. Once the behaviour is evaluated, one would consider the subjective norm in the form of opinions, views, and encouragement of the surrounding environment. The surrounding environment can be the family, especially the parents, school, and peers. If the evaluation has been carried out and the subjective norm had been considered, the person should consider whether it is able to do and what obstacles that would arise if someone runs the behaviour.
The number of graduated high school students in Indonesia in 2015 reached 1.62 million students. However, only 60% of that numbers continue to pursue higher education. Costs and demands of parents who want their children are able to help family economics immediately is one of the factor that supports the students to not continue to higher education. It has been said by Ministry of Education and Culture, Baswedan (2015) (http://www2.jawapos.com).
The preliminary observations result at State High School 1 Cilacap found that the most interested major in college by graduated students are engineering major as many as 34% of the total graduated students in 2015. In accounting major is only 17% of total graduates in 2015. It showed that students’ interest in choosing accounting department is relatively low.
According Slameto (2013: 180), interest is a sense of willingness or desire to something or activity, without anyone asking to do so. Interest is an acceptance of relationship between inside and
outside themselves, the stronger or the closer relationship, the greater the interest owned by that person.
College offers many kinds of majors in different faculties as well as the Faculty of Economics.
At the Faculty of Economics, there are many choices of majors such as management, business, accounting, economics, cooperatives, and others. Accounting is one of the majors in the Faculty of Economics attracted by many students ‘nowadays (http://www.unnes.net).
The results of interviews of 27 students majoring in accounting in Universitas Negeri Semarang batch 2012, found that 56% of students choose a major in accounting is driven by their desire to become professionals due to their majors during high school. In addition, they are motivated by the presumption that the accountant in the future will be much needed by many companies in Indonesia.
Indonesia as one of the ASEAN member countries has started realization of the new order in the neighbourhood of Southeast Asia called the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015. The MEA is a program for ASEAN countries to further improve the economy, especially trade in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint. In the AEC Blueprint one of the pillars of ASEAN as a single market and production-based single which is supported by elements of the free flow of goods, services, investment, educated workforce, and capital flows more freely and integrated in the Southeast Asia region (Malau, 2014: 164). To deal with the MEA can be done by increasing self- potential by mastering some skills such as foreign language skills and technology such as computers.
We are also required to be very clever in choosing fields that have good prospects in the future. One of the options is accounting. According to Sujatmiko (2014: 9), accountants are experts in the field of accounting, in charge of formulating, guiding, supervising, inspecting and repairing the bookkeeping and administrating company or government agency. Accountant is an academic degree for university graduates majoring in accounting. In addition, accountant is an expert in accounting field who is in charge of formulating, guiding, supervising, improving bookkeeping and administrating.
Number of professional accountants in Indonesia in 2013 reached 2,004 accountants. This number increased dramatically in 2014 reached 11 879 accountants. Meanwhile, until the end of 2015 and beginning of 2016, the number of accountant increased again to 12 048. The increasing number of accountant is caused by number of universities that open accounting majors. Currently, there are 589 universities in Indonesia which have graduated more than 35,000 accounting students each year.
However, the number of professional accountants is smaller than the total of graduated students majored in accounting in Indonesia. From an average of about 35,000 graduates per year, there were only about 24,000 accountants registered as a professional accountant who is ruled by Indonesia Accounting Bond (Ikatan Akuntan Indonesia). Indonesia has the opportunity becoming the largest accounting profession country, refers to the statistical data. According to Head of Financial Profession Development Centre (Kepala Pusat Pembinaan Profesi Keuangan), Langgeng (2016), it is expected that the existing accountant can be more professional and becoming professionals to face the MEA (http://economy.okezone.com).
According to the Ministry of Research Technology and Higher Education in National Symposium on Accounting, Nasir stated that the priority of higher education focused on improving quality and relevance in facing the MEA. The accounting profession should be improving the quality frontline. (http://usu.ac.id)
Majors are parts of a faculty or college which is responsible for managing and developing an area of study (Depdiknas, 2008: 650). Accounting is a process of recording, identification, classification, summarization and communication as well as the interpretation of the financial
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transactions occurred in a company that can be used by financial information users for economic decision-making against the company (Santoso, 2012: 1).
Based on the explanation, it can be concluded that the interest in selecting the accounting department is an individual concentration and supported by mixture feeling to determine a decision to choose accounting majors.
Interest is one of psychological aspects that has an important role for students in determining their future, such as in choosing accounting majors. Students will be motivated to study harder and to be diligent with their interests. Growing interest in students to choose majors influenced by two factors:
Internal and external. Internal factors consist of intelligence, concentration of attention, curiosity, motivation, needs, and individuals’ experiences. The second factor is external factors; they are the environment, the opportunity to develop interests, interests of peers, status in social groups, and family interests.
In growing interest, usually person is affected by the others, such as parents, teachers, and peers. One of the roles of the external environment that may affect the interests of choosing accounting majors is family environment, especially parents.
According Hasbullah (2009: 38) the family environment is the first educational environment, because it is the first stage of children to get education and guidance. Family environment is also said as a prime environment, because most of the child's life is in the family. The family is the first and main influence for life, growth and development of a person. Family is an educational environment that was first known to the child before school. (Lutviana, 2015). What the children learn in the family life, will be the basis and developed in the future (Sukmadinata, 2009: 27).
Parents should pay attention to their children's school, care about their experiences and efforts.
Parents also should show their cooperation in directing the children’ choice and provide a point of view to choose their education, and they should strive to motivate and guide their children in determining their interest. Children need to be encourage and given some understanding by the parents when the time comes for them to made a decision and interest to continue their education in the future (Hasbullah, 2009: 90). We can take conclusion as the family is the first person's education environment. Decision-making process in choosing majors are also influenced by family environment, especially parents. Parents should provide direction and motivation of the future of education for their children.
Family environment, especially parents are a very important role as a steering future goals, thus indirectly the parents can affect the amount of interest in employment of children in the future (Utami, 2015). Family environment do not directly affect a person's interest in choosing majors, many factors influence people’s interests. There are other factors influencing people’s interest in determining education and career, they are the school environment, perception of the accounting profession, and peers. School is a formal education in charge of improving children’s development, including the development of the children’s thinking (Ali and Asrori, 2009: 35). Schools are responsible for students’ intellect (increase knowledge of children) as well as skills related to the children’s need to live in society (Purwanto, 2009: 125). The school environment is a place where a student is carrying out educational activities to acquire knowledge, change attitudes, and life skills both in the classroom and outside the classroom to follow and obey the rules in a systematic education that has been set (Mulyani, 2015). According Hasbullah (2009: 46) school education is education obtained by a person in the school on a regular basis, systematic, stratified, and by following the terms of clear and strict (from kindergarten to university).
In the school, there are some parties that will affect students' interest in determining education at the next level. They are the principal, teachers, and peers. The interaction with teachers and peers at
school, provide a great opportunity for children to develop cognitive skills and social skills, acquiring knowledge about the world, and developing children’s self-concept (Desmita, 2009: 187). The information and the views of the parties are also influenced by the intervention of their parents. This information will affect students' interest in determining their majors in college.
Factor is also affecting students’ interest in choosing accounting department is profession perception. Perception is process understanding information about the world and environment (Desmita, 2009: 108). Perception is basically a human relationship with the environment, how people understand and interpret stimuli in the environment. Once individuals perceive an object in their environment, then they process the results of sensory perception, so that the meaning of an object which is called perception shown.
Profession is a job that is based on intellectual studies and particular exercises, in order to provide services to other skills as well as certain wage paid (Jarvis, 1983: 21). A profession cannot be done by random people. The man who runs the profession must have special skills and have the ability that come out of special education for that profession. Profession perception in accounting majors is a response or interpretation on accounting major’s profession carried on by a person after selecting accounting majors.
A person's interest in selecting accounting majors will be influenced by the perception of the accounting profession. Perceptions of the accounting profession can give positive and negative influences. It will affect the interest in choosing majors whether to choose a major or not. Anoraga (2009: 18) reveals, the most important factor in choosing a job pushing someone is job security, some factors, like possibility / opportunity to make progress, and the factor of the salary / compensation.
The development of these things, encourages student perception, that if they studied in the accounting department, they will have a bright future (Oktaviani, 2015).
Another factor that may affect the interests of students choosing accounting majors is peers.
According to Santrock (2003: 219) peers are children or adolescents with the same age or maturity.
One of the important functions of the peer group is to provide a source of information and comparison about the world outside the family (Desmita, 2009: 145). The development of a person can be judged from their social life. It is considered in choosing. If someone has special bounded with his/her friend, she/he will follow his/her advice even choosing what his/her friend suggested. Factors peers strongly influence individual decisions about the future (Kharisma, 2015).
Research conducted by Jaradat (2015) explained that there are three categories that affect the choice of majors: 1) different source of information and influence; 2) characteristics of the job; and 3) fit and student interest in the subject. The first category includes recommendations from others, suggestions received from parents, friends, and school and college advisors. The second category includes potential job opportunities, career advancement, and the level of payment. The third category includes the interests, talents, and suitable schools. Accounting major is one of the majors that has increased the number of applicants in college. Research conducted by Dalci, Arash, Turner, and Baradarani (2013) found that students are more concerned with financial matters, accounting and employment opportunities as well as the opinions of others. Intrinsic factors; talent and interest in the subject; perception of accounting; and the perception of the accounting profession does not have a significant influence on the decision in choosing the accounting department. Research conducted by Hastuti and Prabowo (2011) found that the external environment is not significant, internal environment partial significant influence on decision-making majors. However, the external environment and internal environment jointly influencing decision making in choosing majors. These results indicate that there are different results of any research undertaken.
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The accounting department is one of the majors that has increased the number of applicants in college. In Universitas Negeri Semarang as many as 4,704 at SNMPTN, were choosing accounting majors in 2015. That number has increased compared with the previous year. Then, In Independent Selection, there are 792 people interested in accounting majors. However, the number is relatively low around 25% of the total applicants that were choose some majors in the Faculty of Economics at the Universitas Negeri Semarang (http://www.unnes.net).
This study will be conducted in three SMAN in different areas in Central Java. The target of the research would be Semarang city, Temanggung regency, and Cilacap. Different regions may represent Central Java based on the character of its people. Students’ interest in choosing majors especially accounting may be different every region. In this study, SMAN 1 Semarang, SMAN 1 Temanggung, and SMAN 1 Cilacap were taken as research objects. The third high school which categorize as favourite school in their region are located in the city centre either the municipality or district. From the interview with one of the teachers each school was found that the reason given when students choose majors to higher education are influenced by the environment around them, family environment, especially parents, school, and peers; achievements obtained, as well as their views on the prospects for future employment. Students’ interest in the accounting department are still high both Social and Science program. This study is aimed to determine the model of making decision in choosing accounting majors; to know the role of the school environment, perception of the accounting profession, and peers in influencing the decision to choose accounting majors; and to find out the role of the family environment in influencing the decision-making majored in accounting at State high school students in Central Java.
METHOD
This research is a quantitative research using survey as a method of data gathering and multistage sampling. Basically, the first stage, population is divided or grouped into several sections, and at the second stage as well as later stages of samples will take from these parts. The scope of this research is entire SMA located in Central Java, which consists of 431 high schools. Central Java consists of 29 districts and 6 municipalities. In this study, researchers took three cities that serve as the object of research; Semarang city, Temanggung regency, and Cilacap. These cities have different characteristics so that they can represent the condition of Central Java. Researchers were taking favourite school from each city. Researchers took SMAN 1 Semarang, SMA N1 Temanggung, and SMA N1 Cilacap as research target. The population in this study is a class XI student of SMAN 1 Semarang, SMA Negeri 1 Temanggung, and SMA Negeri 1 Cilacap in the academic year 2015/2016.
In this study, the sampling technique used was probability sampling with simple random sampling.
The sample was used in this study were 231 people from the third high school. This study is divided into two, endogenous variable and exogenous variable. Endogenous variable is the interest in choosing Accounting Department, School Environment, Accounting Profession Perception, and Peer. Variables used in this research are the Family Environment. Methods of data collection in this study are a questionnaire. Method of data analysis are descriptive analysis and path analysis. Data were analysed in this study using Amos 21 program to test hypotheses and assisted with the program IBM SPSS 21 for validity and reliability. Testing in this research was using path analysis to determine the relationship of endogenous variables, they are interest majored in accounting, school environment, perception of the accounting profession, and peers, with exogenous variables, the family environment.
Testing criteria with a confidence level of 95% or 5% significance level (α = 0.05). If the results of the data indicate the qualify value, the hypothesis can be accepted. However, if the data shows that the value does not qualify, the hypothesis will be rejected.