Priorities for the development of vocational skills in management accountants: A European perspective

In recent years there have been many calls for a re-orientation of accounting education in order to include the development of competencies such as communication, group working, and problem solving skills. However, concern has been expressed that the proposed changes are possibly biased towards the interests of public accounting employers. This paper presents and compares the opinions of the employers of management accountants in Spain and the UK, and then by using a weighted importance indicator determines vocational skills development priorities. The factors that the Spanish and UK employers identified as major constraints to the development of vocational skills are also compared.     

Spreadsheet usage by management accountants: An exploratory study

Spreadsheets play an important role for managerial accountants. For these practitioners, spreadsheets are necessary tools for traditional responsibilities such as planning, budgeting, forecasting as well as newer decision-making responsibilities. Responsibilities for managerial accounting practitioners have shifted from a transaction-based focus to an emphasis on decision support, planning, and control. Managerial accountants are expected to be key members of decision making and cross-functional teams outside the accounting area. Spreadsheets are major tools for meeting these new responsibilities.     

Improving the curriculum for aspiring management accountants: The practitioner's point of view

Although prior research has identified ranked lists of cost/managerial accounting topics that may approximate a common body of knowledge for management accounting, these topics must exist within a specific educational context. The context, or educational framework, could include attributes other than technical accounting topics. This study, which provides the practicing management accountant's point of view, focuses on those other attributes.     

Debate: The need for procurement risk management

Improvement boards offer a new approach to supporting stronger performance by public service organizations, and especially those facing significant issues of change. They involve formalized peer challenge and support by senior politicians and managers from other agencies. The authors document early experiences with improvement boards in local government and draw conclusions for policy and practice. Improvement boards will have the most impact where the organization's leadership already has some understanding of the performance improvement task, and is able to position the board as part of a wider strategy for change.     

Enterprise Resource Planning and a contest to limit the role of management accountants: A strong structuration perspective

The implementation and use of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems raise fundamental questions about the role of management accountants in an organisation. The case studied here, involving an attempt to establish an ERP system in an organisation funded by both the European Union (EU) and the Egyptian government, is an exploration of conflicting beliefs about the role of management accountants. Elements of strong structuration theory (a reinforced version of Giddens’ structuration theory) are used to analyse how the contest over the role of the management accountant in a new organisation was played out during the partially successful attempt to establish ERP in conjunction with a system that was felt to better support the requirements of the EU for performance-based budgeting. Despite the forward-looking dispositions of key actors within the organisation and from the EU, the role of the management accountant here became compressed to the traditional one of cost information collector and provider.     

An empirical test of Birkett’s competency model for management accountants: Survey evidence from Dutch practitioners

In 2002, the Accountants-in-Business section of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) issued the Competency Profiles for Management Accounting Practice and Practitioners report. This “Birkett Report” presents a framework for competency development during the careers of management accountants (MAs). On the basis of this theoretical report, a hypothesis has been formulated about the sequence in which each of 38 competencies is expected to become important to the MA during his/her career. Results presented here show that practicing MAs see the same sequence of competencies during their careers as is presented in the theoretical framework, supporting Birkett’s competency model. The results indicate that there may be three groups of competencies: basic, advanced, and highly advanced. It may be said that the basic competencies need to be present at graduation. The advanced competencies may need to be present some years after the start of the MAs career. The highly advanced skills may be needed for Chief Financial Officer (CFO) candidates. These results suggest that advanced and highly advanced competencies are those that could be taught in continuing professional education (CPE) programs, while university education programs should focus on developing basic competencies.     

Professional accountants and the development of a management accounting service for the small firm: barriers and possibilities

This paper reports the results of a qualitative study examining the potential for the provision of a management accounting service for smaller companies by accountants in professional practice. The study aimed to determine the management information needs of owner-managers, the type and frequency of information preferred and the capacity of professional accountants to contribute to these needs. The owner-managers of 15 smaller companies were asked to participate in semi-strucutured interviews during which their use of computers to provide management accounts, their relationship with their accountant and their financial skills were discussed. The respondents were presented with a range of management information including statutory final accounts, interim accounts, cash statements, ratios and graphical comparisons of monthly turnover figures in order to assess their financial information skills and needs. The study found that companies used computers for the preparation of management accounting information, but usually not to their full potential. The financial awareness of owner-managers varied considerably. There was a favourable response to the presentation of ratios and graphs, however, it was felt that an explanation or interpretation of financial information by their accountant would be a useful addition to improve their understanding and therefore aid their business. The study concludes that there appears to be significant potential for accountants to expand the management accounting services they provide to smaller companies, especially where information is presented as ratios or graphs and accompanied with an appropriate narrative interpretation. This would also increase the financial skills of their clients and result in an increased demand for management accounting services.     

Academic accountants: A study of faculty characteristics and career activities

Promotion and tenure are the rewards for faculty who successfully allocate their time among their various areas of responsibility. Conflicting pressures for publication, good teaching, service to the university and to the non-university community, and demands of personal lives limit the time that any one area receives. To help identify how accounting faculty address this problem, this study reports on the activities and attitudes of accounting academics, focusing on teaching, research, service, administration, and consulting. The study examines actual effort allocation and perceptions of what the allocations should be to maximize career benefits. Differences are reported on the basis of academic rank, type of degree held, type of institution, and faculty tenure status.     

Role conflicts of management accountants and their position within organisation structures

The research examines accountants' and managers' perceptions of management accounting roles under conditions of centralisation and decentralisation of the management accounting function. Decentralization was associated with greater interaction between accountants and other managers and with the provision of accounting information perceived as being more pertinent to managerial needs. However, whatever the structural relationship, there were criticisms of the accountants' passivity in management. Contrary to expectations neither interpersonal relationships nor excessive power of accountants were problematical, nor did many accountants show bureaucratic orientations. Their inability to meet service expectations were perhaps, related to ambiguity and stress emanating from the accounting workflows.     

“Holier-than-thou” perception bias among professional accountants: A cross-cultural study

Theoretical conceptions of culture in accounting research are controversial, ranging from highly deterministic, quantified and componential perspectives (such as Hosfstede's five dimensional model) to those that suggest continual changes in cultural values brought about by forces of acculturation. This paper makes a contribution to cross-cultural accounting research by examining the influence of competing theoretical perspectives of culture and acculturation on “holier-than-thou” perception bias. “Holier-than-thou” perception bias leads to individuals perceiving themselves as acting more ethically than comparable others when confronted with ethically uncertain work-related behaviours. This study contributes to cross-cultural accounting research by surveying Australian and Indian professional accountants from big four accounting firms. We firstly seek to establish the prevalence of “holier-than-thou” perception bias in both cultural settings. Secondly, we examine the differential and competing influences of culture and acculturation on perceptions of accountants from the two countries on measures of this bias. Data was collected through a survey questionnaire administered to samples of senior accountants from the big accounting firms in Australia and India. The questionnaire comprised an auditor-client conflict and two whistle-blowing scenarios and used two questions to measure the magnitude of the bias. The results show that “holier-than-thou” perception bias exists among accountants within each of the two countries. However, the magnitude of the bias was not significant between the countries. The results support the theory of acculturation in big accounting firms. Our findings have implications for accounting research where the presence of “holier-than-thou” perception bias needs to be considered in cases where respondents are questioned on socially sensitive issues. The findings may be useful to accounting researchers, managers of multinational enterprises in general, and big-four accounting firms in particular. Our conceptual framework applied in this study is innovative and provides a template for assessing current controversies in cross-cultural accounting research.     

Computer packages as cognitive paradigms: Implications for the education of accountants

Computer packages are playing an increasingly dominant role in the life of most business organisations, which in turn is reflected in a greater role for packages in education. These packages both presuppose knowledge on the part of the user, and also “contain” knowledge of accounting as well as mathematical and other concepts. This paper suggests that packages function not just as information processing tools, but as “paradigms” which structure the approaches taken to cognitive tasks—although there may be an important distinction between expected and actual paradigms. The change to package-based paradigms represents a substantial shift in cognitive framework. The paper discusses the implications of this for package users and for the educational process. Three important themes are emphasised: first the importance of students learning about packages on a “meta” level rather than simply learning to use them; second the suggestion that treating packages as “black boxes” may sometimes be inevitable and desirable; and third the possibility that computer packages may, to some extent, serve as a substitute for education.     

The written communication skills that matter most for accountants

Given the importance of effective written communication skills to the discipline of accounting, faculty must emphasize these skills in their classroom in order to adequately prepare students for successful careers in the field. Since 2000, only two studies in the accounting literature have examined which written communication skills are needed by entry-level accountants and consensus is that spelling, grammar, punctuation, and clarity are of utmost importance. We surveyed accounting practitioners and faculty to determine what exactly, within those categories, is most bothersome. For example, within clarity, is it wordy sentences, passive voice, or shifts in tense? By documenting the most bothersome errors, our findings can help accounting educators to focus their limited time on the appropriate skill emphasis.     

Modernity,space-based patriarchy and global capitalism: implications for Syrian women accountants

This paper contributes to the current literature on gender, modernity, patriarchy and accounting by bringing insights into the experiences of women accountants in Syria: an Arab and predominantly Muslim country. By doing so, this paper enhances understanding of women's interrelationship with accounting beyond the Anglo-American context that currently dominates the research agenda on gender and accounting. Face-to-face interviews with 20 women accountants were carried out in Syria in 2008. This study reveals that in the context of global capitalism and patriarchy, factors of class, alienation, tradition and economic difficulties are contributing to the subordinated role of women in society in general and in the accounting profession in particular. The increased commercialisation of the accounting profession in the Arab world, including Syria, has resulted in socio-economic hierarchies and discriminatory practices, where interviewees spoke of discrimination based on class, sex and on the knowledge held. Further, despite advances to Syrian women's access to the public space, the public space for Syrian women accountants often operates based largely on how men act in this space. Men (and socially/financially advantaged women) often occupy aspects of the public (accounting) space that are perceived to be more significant and better financially rewarded. Thus, the dichotomy of public/private spaces in this study is understood in a broader sense to incorporate the symbolic as well as spatial aspects. This paper concludes that the accounting profession's aspirations need to be challenged through critically evaluating and redefining work roles and values to ensure emancipation for women. Furthermore, in the Arab world, dominant patriarchal structures will only be challenged and changed when obstacles preventing women from enjoying their human rights and contributing fully in society are addressed and eliminated.     

POS终端设备亟待电子自动化管理

随着经济的发展和银行卡的普及，越来越多的人意识到使用银行卡带来的便捷和安全。改善用卡环境是民心所向，也是国家大力倡导的。目前，各商业银行及银联正在加大全方位改善用卡环境的力度，而商户的POS使用率及交易成功率成为用卡环境评议的焦点。     

注册会计师监盘的难点与对策

监盘是注册会计师执业过程中常用的审计策略和手段.监盘的对象通常包括现金、票据、交易性金融资产、存货和固定资产等在内的实物资产.通过对实物资产的监盘,能获取判断监盘对象存在性、完整性、权利性、估价或分摊、分类与披露的认定是否恰当的审计证据.     

Accounting for great expectations: Lessons from the new media surge for critical management theory

The short organizational history of Silicon Alley (1995–2001) is used to examine some key lessons on management learning and innovation in new, interactive media start-ups from a critical perspective. The macro-social context of this history is seen as shaped by the contemporary round of political and economic globalization and its consequences such as the consolidation of the Internet, the succession of software generations, the increase of economic concentration and corporate size, the uneven availability of venture and investment capital, and other changes in the organizational and legal structures of the “new economy”. It is argued that the dynamics of global–local interaction affects the relative autonomy of firms and their subunits (managed vs. self-organized project teams), sharpens the managerial contradictions between routinization/reproduction and innovation/transformation, and widens the differences between organizations and networks in facilitating learning, teaching, and innovation. The analysis emphasizes the endemic tension between institutional dominance and efforts at self-organization from below, the importance of informal, flexible, and relatively autonomous project networks for innovation and transformation as compared to the institutional power relations of older and larger firms, and the significance of networks in furthering the exploration and social construction of new cognitive and social boundaries.     

A work role perspective of accountants in local government service departments

In most of the largest U.K. local authorities the financial control function is highly centralised with no qualified accountant or controller located in each spending department. There now may be the beginnings of a trend towards employing accountants within service departments. The paper analyses how this new segment of public sector accounting appears to be becoming established, how the role of these accountants is being developed and the contrasting occupational values of accountants in service departments and those in the finance department. It is also shown how the existence of a strong accounting profession in local government can lead to different aspects of both the financial control structure and process in comparison with central government such that research results on the latter may not automatically hold at local level.