Using the Cohort Model in Accounting Education

This article documents a case study of a cohort-based MBA program with an accounting concentration at a university in the USA. This ethnographic study used interviews, observations, and document review to examine the students' experiences. Data were analyzed via grounded theory techniques. Results indicate that the cohort program provided students with knowledge about important socially learned dimensions of the accounting profession. The interpersonal and group-work skills needed in the accounting workplace are developed in a cohort program. However, the cohort model's cooperative agenda could not eliminate individualistic, competitive tendencies. Finally, students found that their cohort experiences prepared them to handle certain informal facets of the accounting workplace (for example, office politics, grapevines, and cliques).