Like other professionals, accountants are required to have soft skills besides the technical and specialized skills that significantly assist in effectively and successfully performing their job in different contexts. According to Berry & Routon (2020), Soft skills are fundamental for development as an accountant due to playing a significant role in improving workplace communication and subsequent performance. Critical thinking and decision-making, time management, teamwork, and collaboration are essential soft skills for accountants to effectively perform their duties and responsibilities within the organization. Time management is an essential soft skill for the accountant due to long lists of tasks and duties, commitment to the clients, and strict deadlines, which requires the professional to have sufficient time management skills. Besides, time management for accountants involves understanding and being aware of the time standard processes and tasks would take to complete leading to effective planning and meeting deadlines (Tan & Laswad, 2018). Equally, teamwork contributes to collaboration and coordination since accountants must involve management, clients, and colleagues in their duties and responsibilities. Teamwork is essential in enhancing a collaborative working environment with colleagues with increased performance and production due to shared knowledge and identification of errors (Berry & Routon, 2020). Equally, critical thinking contributes to making rights and ethically recognized decisions by the organization’s accountants. Therefore, soft skills are essential in improving the performance and productivity of the accountants in the organization.

Diverse studies and scholars have significantly focused on investigating and evaluating the technical and specialized skills among accountants with a limited concentration on soft skills such as time management, teamwork, and critical thinking, possessing essential roles in improving their performances. Notably, the current research aims to investigate the soft skills among accountants, including time management, critical thinking, and teamwork, and the roles those skills have in improving their workplace performance. Hence, the research would significantly contribute to bridging the gap on the topic and in the field, adding essential information and knowledge that could substantially benefit the accountants while delivering their duties and responsibilities.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Soft Skills among the Accountants

Time Management

Accountants possess diverse duties and responsibilities within the organization leading to working on a tight schedule that requires effective and successful time management. For instance, engagement and commitments with the clients, strict deadlines, and a long list of tasks in the workplace make accountants being busy employees (Tan & Laswad, 2018). Time management contributes myriad benefits to accountants and the entire organization. For example, Dolce et al. (2020) argued that effective time management leads to improved performance and efficiency by accountants. Managing time appropriately facilitates preventing and mitigating cases of accountants beings overwhelmed and stressed in work settings. Besides, time management is integral in delivering the assigned tasks on time with little delay leading to increased reputation and productivity of the accountants. Tan and Laswad (2018) affirmed that time management by accountants is integral in increasing the chances of individuals effectively meeting the deadlines for specific tasks. Attaining such goals contributes to achieving the client’s and organization’s expectations.

Furthermore, time management significantly prevents and mitigates downtime and procrastination among accountants. For example, time management possesses a significant role in the real-time performance of tasks without postponing duties leading to decreasing downtime and procrastination (Dolce et al., 2020). Equally, time management is an essential skill that facilitates high-quality output from accountant employees (Tan & Laswad, 2018). Managing time effectively and prioritizing particular tasks are integral to producing high-quality work. Furthermore, increasing concentration on specific tasks leads to the delivery of quality work.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking refers to the capabilities of accountants to objectively analyze information and situations leading to rational decisions and conclusions. According to Tan & Laswad (2018), critical thinking skills make accountants outstanding because they can interpret and explain the figures’ information to the stakeholders. Furthermore, such skills lead to the early identification of errors and irregularities, devising strategies