Effect of identity conflict and multiple identity on paradox of embedded agency in management accountants

According to theories of sociologists and behaviorists, social and economic behaviors of members of professional society are influenced by factors such as cognitive and legal norms, and this leads to restrictions for professionals and creation of new procedures and it will make difficulty in innovations. In this study, considering importance of management accounting profession in activities of enterprises, behavioral response to paradox of embedded agency in management accounting profession is investigated to determine behavioral outputs of this issue and since this relationship can be influenced by other factors in this regard, role of job discretion as mediating variable will also be examined. Research period is 2020 and data needed to answer research question have been collected by distributing a questionnaire among community of management accountants. Accordingly, data obtained from 179 questionnaires were collected and analyzed using structural equations. The Sobel test was also used to determine role of mediator variable. Findings show that identity conflict and multiple identities are associated with paradox of embedded agency in management accountants and mediating role of job discretion is confirmed.