Ramifications of Covid-19 on management accounting teaching and research

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 593-598
Author(s):  
Gary Spraakman

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how COVID-19 has affected the author’s management accounting teaching and research. Design/methodology/approach This paper is a reflection essay on management accounting. Findings The author realized that the textbooks, because of the lack of integration among management accounting techniques, do not prepare the students with the ability to make the quick changes required by COVID-19. The author expects that they will have to introduce integration to the management accounting textbooks and courses. Qualitative research will be helpful in identifying the management accounting techniques now integrated in practice. The author further expects the beneficial practices that were learned from online and remote teaching during the pandemic will be with them into the future. Research limitations/implications This paper is limited as it is a personal reflection. Practical implications COVID-19 has required organizations be increasingly agile, particularly in the use of budgets and other management accounting techniques. Social implications Opportunities are identified for improving the teaching and use of management accounting, especially regarding strategy and budgeting. Originality/value The extreme nature of pandemics intensifies the observations of the functioning of disciplines such as management accounting. Everyone learns from extreme experiences.

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Burns

Purpose – This paper aims to offer a brief personal reflection upon, and celebrates, the 10th anniversary of Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management (QRAM). More specifically, the author highlights the journal's contributions towards advancing qualitative management accounting research over the last decade, and the author suggests possible future avenues. Design/methodology/approach – This short paper mainly constitutes a review of qualitative management accounting articles published in the first ten years of QRAM's publishing life, plus some personal reflection and suggestions for future directions. Findings – The author celebrates the impressive achievements of QRAM's founding editors, and the author is encouraged to offer the personal views on how the journal might excel further in years to come. Research limitations/implications – Although the piece is primarily personal reflection, there is hopefully some food for thought with regard to fruitful directions in tomorrow's qualitative management accounting research. In particular, arguments are made for more undertaking of processual qualitative research and also for more targeted focus on the connections between management accounting and other relevant disciplines such as management and organisation studies. Practical implications – The paper offers no practical implications as such, but does discuss, and in fact heeds some caution against, the apparent trend of (possibly too uncritically) seeking to tease out practical implications from qualitative management accounting research. Social implications – Again, while this paper offers no specific discussion on its social implications, the author would add that any qualitative management accounting research paper inherently carries at least some implications for society; management accounting and the wider society are continually intertwined through time. Originality/value – The author would not claim that there is much that is original in this short piece – most of what is offered simply gathers others' past contributions. But hopefully there will be some values in the ideas offered with regard to the exciting future ahead for qualitative management accounting research in QRAM.


Author(s):  
Silvia Gherardi

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the ten years of the journal through a personal reflection. Design/methodology/approach – A review of the articles published in the last ten years. Findings – I argue that what has distinguished QROM in these ten years are two distinctive features: reflexivity on practices of qualitative research, and openness to the application of qualitative methods to unusual research topics. Originality/value – The main limit of the paper resides in the subjectivity of the person who has read the articles. Other readers may have different opinions and may have chosen different criteria.


2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-18

Purpose – Describes the various approaches taken to training and development at Edwardian Group London, a group of hotels. Design/methodology/approach – Examines the reasons for the training, the form it takes and the results it has achieved. Findings – Emphasizes the importance the company attaches to training in the first 90 days of an employee's tenure, when recruits receive general induction training plus training specific to their area of operation. Practical implications – Outlines how the company spots and develops its managers of the future. Social implications – Highlights the crucial role of training in ensuring that hotel guests have the best possible stay. Originality/value – Provides a thorough examination of the various forms of training at Edwardian Group London.


2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom P. Abeles

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to suggest that all of the systems, education, economic and social, are caught in an ever-increasing pace, tied in large part to a set of beliefs, largely economic, that resemble a religion and for which there appears to not be a rational option to escape. Design/methodology/approach – A study of systems. Findings – It is argued that we are at a tipping point where there are too many holes in the intellectual dike, that a shift in many dimensions may not be preventable. Practical implications – While “techno-futurists” are promoting this increasing evolution pace towards a transformational singularity, there appears to be no serious consideration that humanity may get its “wish” as did King Midas. Social implications – There is a serious question as to whether there can be, and should be, alternatives not cast into the frame of the Neo-Luddites. Originality/value – This is a contrarian view of the current effort to promote the educational focus on STEM, science, technology, engineering and mathematics, almost as a pre-cursor to being able to participate in a technology-driven societal model of the future.


2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Altmann

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the rise of strata manager as a newly emergent profession and note their impact on the governance within medium and high density, strata titled housing such as flats, apartments, town-houses and CIDs. Design/methodology/approach – This research presents finding from a small scale, qualitative research project focused on the interaction between the owner committee of management and strata managers. Findings – The introduction mandatory certification is championed by industry bodies. The strata managers considered they already demonstrated valuable attributes desired by committees of management. These differed to the attributes targeted by the new training regime, and the attributes valued by the committees of management. Research limitations/implications – This is a small scale pilot study. A larger study will need to be undertaken to confirm these results. Practical implications – There is a disjunct between the training and what strata managers consider relevant to undertaking their duties. This has significance for the ongoing governance of these properties and industry professionalisation. The resilience of Australia’s densification policies will depend on how learning will translate into better governance outcomes for owners. Social implications – One in three people within Australia’s eastern states lives or owns property within strata titled complex (apartments, flats and townhouse developments). The increasing number of strata managers and professionalisation within their industry has the ability to impact an increasing number of people. Originality/value – The impact of this new profession, and their requirements in terms of expertise has not been fully considered within existing academic literature.


Author(s):  
Rex Haigh

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the “Quintessence” framework and its roots in TC phenomenology; to explain how each of the contributors to the conference is related to it; to pose questions about how the “TC movement” may use the underlying ideas in the future. Design/methodology/approach – Adaptation of theoretical ideas to a conference structure. Findings – As the necessary developmental experience for everybody, the quintessence principles are recreated in well-functioning therapeutic communities, and in the 2014 Windsor Conference. Research limitations/implications – As a theory that is becoming well used in the TC field, it needs more qualitative, quantitative, critical or philosophical underpinning. Practical implications – Widely accepted as useful in TCs. Social implications – Has wider applicability. Originality/value – Derived from condensation of numerous relevant psychological, sociological and systemic theories.


2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 4-6 ◽  

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to observes how global financial consultancy Deloitte is training its future leaders. Design/methodology/approach – The background to the various programs, the form they take and the results they are achieving have been explained. Findings – This study describes the functioning of Deloitte University in Texas, USA, and explains that a similar institution recently opened in Belgium for prospective Deloitte managers from Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In addition, it reveals how coaching works at Deloitte and details a number of programs aimed at increasing the chances of women and people from ethnic and other minorities to reach the top jobs. Practical implications – The fact that competition for talent in the coming years will be challenging has been emphasized and that Deloitte University helps the organization to attract and retain talent by distinguishing the company from its competitors. Social implications – This study reveals that Deloitte is keen to develop leaders of the future from a wide range of backgrounds. Originality/value – A range of leadership development initiatives at a key global company has been detailed.


2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-17
Author(s):  
Geeta Rana ◽  
Alok Kumar Goel

Purpose – Consider the various employee-development initiatives at Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd (BPSL), India. Design/methodology/approach – Underlines the key role of employee development at the firm, and explains in particular how it develops its future managers. Findings – Reveals how employee competencies are mapped and how training is designed around these and the skill needs of the company. Practical implications – Details the benefits of this approach for both individual employees and the company. Social implications – Advances the view that BPSL’s managers are more rounded and knowledgeable than those in comparable Indian companies. Originality/value – Highlights the importance of taking into account the skill needs of the individual as well as the organization as a whole.


2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 32-36
Author(s):  
Mark McKergow

Purpose – Highlights the importance of looking at both the near and distant future. Design/methodology/approach – Observes that different kinds of people treat and use the future differently and considers how to use the more useful elements of the future. Findings – Charts the approaches taken towards the future by the dreamer, the realist, the business planner and the host and outlines the advantages of leading like a host. Practical implications – Considers how host views the horizon, the area just before the horizon, the future and the very near future. Social implications – Accepts that we do not fully know what is going to happen in the future, but that does not mean people should focus only on the near (and therefore most “knowable”) future. Originality/value – Advances the view that having a good idea of the first signs of progress can be particularly useful in cases where the next steps are not obvious or seem tough or uncertain – rapid feedback will be useful in letting us know that what we are doing.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Griffin

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore why the use of a particular qualitative method, walking, failed in a given context, the Chile of contemporary unrest.Design/methodology/approachThe paper explores walking methodologies from a critical cultural perspective.FindingsThe article argues that context as socio-material entanglement, or people's relation to place, in a volatile situation, requires strong participatory engagement to enable productive outcomes and also that one can learn from the failure to generate such engagement.Practical implicationsThe article suggests that enhanced participant involvement in experimental design (here a walking event) is necessary when the situation on the ground is conflict-ridden. It also suggests that explicitly articulating one's outsider position may facilitate productive exchanges in volatile contexts. The article further suggests that failure of method is a neglected but useful topic in qualitative research.Social implicationsAlthough walking methodologies frequently claim to be participant-centered, they are not always organized in that manner. If they are not, they risk undermining the democratic potential of alt-meths that is of particular importance in volatile contexts.Originality/valueFailure of method is rarely reported on. The paper addresses that knowledge gap.


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