International Journal of Finance and Accounting 2014, 3(5): 310-315 DOI: 10.5923/j.ijfa.20140305.05 The Major Role Accountants Play in the Decision Making Process Samer Tout 1 , Khalil Ghazzawi 2,* , Sam El Nemar 3 , Radwan Choughari 4 1 Chairman of Finance, School of Business, Lebanese International University, Lebanon 2 Assistant Professor, School of Business, Lebanese University, Lebanon 3 School of Business, Lebanese International University, Lebanon 4 Lebanon Assistant Professor of Management, Jinan University of Lebanon JUL Abstract From a broad perspective, reporting is one of the significant objectives for an accountant, due to its major effect in highlighting and examining the financial information of a company. The quality of reporting financial information is an international issue and the decision making skills of the accountant plays a major role in reaching the overall company objectives. Our aim for this study is examining the role Lebanese Accountants play in the decision making process. This paper will contribute to the understanding of an accountants’ role in the formulation of company decisions. This research will reveal the most important factors that lead to increasing accountant’s involvement in the managerial process of Lebanese companies. A survey was administered in order to associate what managerial contribution do Lebanese accountants make. A statistical analysis was applied in order to identify and examine key factors that influence their participation in the decision making process. Keywords Accountants, Decision making process, Lebanese accounting system, Quantifiable information 1. Introduction Accountants have a very important role in decision making, especially when related to investments. Reason being, accountants are involved in the explanation of financial statements, preparation of budgets, identification of measurable outcomes, and any other quantifiable information and statements (Rawlinson, D. and B. Tanner, 1989). By providing the necessary quantitative information about the business, including financial statements and other forms of quantitative evidences, accountants show an important role in taking relevant decisions (Gray, 1990, Owen and Bebbington, 1993). Although many agree about the important role of accountants in decision making, certain studies show a certain lack of involvement by accountants. Even though quantifiable information is important for decision making, accountants are not engaged in it because of the absence of the appropriate techniques. “They are not perceived as having a positive contribution to decision-making, unless the contribution is to legitimize decisions arrived at through a political process” (Bowerman and Hutchinson, 1998). * Corresponding author: khalilghazzawi@gmail.com (Khalil Ghazzawi) Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/ijfa Copyright © 2014 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved 2. Research Objective This paper presents a unique Lebanese prospective “the Role of Accountants in Decision Making”. This study gives an opportunistic advantage, as well as insights about the implementation of accounting decision making and character of accountants. It’s the first time such a research was conducted on diverse types of businesses in Lebanon and the Arab world. It’s known internationally that accountants, are responsible for financial information in most companies, have a certain role in the decision making process. That role differs from company to another, depending on the skills and qualities a person has and earned over the years. 3. Literature Review Kaplan (1984) claims that “the development of management accounting was to isolated from the other disciplines and was thus losing its importance in the organizational structure, yet today this description no longer seems appropriate” (Chenhall, 2008; Rowe et al. 2008). In fact, according to Cravens and Guilding (2001) the last two decades have shown a renaissance in managerial accounting. A large number of critics and practitioners state that modern accountants are playing a major and important role in the decision-making process (Fern, Tipgos 1988; Oliver 1991;