Managerial Accounting Assignment: Reflection On Role Of Management Accountants In Nigerian Listed Companies
Question
Task:
Managerial Accounting Assignment Task:
- Reflections on the selected peer reviewed journal article based on the assignment topic. What went well, what did not go to plan, how did you addressed any difficulties, and what had you learnt from it.
- Reflections on the research experience. What was enjoyable, what was difficult, what insights had you gained, and any issues, challenges you experienced.
- Reflections on what you had learned from the individual assignment, including the relevance of budgeting as a management technique to businesses today. What insights had you gained and what had you learnt from it.
Answer
The article chosen in the present context of managerial accounting assignment focuses on the role of the management accountants witnessed in the Nigerian listed companies. The report provides a glaring example of how the management has helped the organization to reduce cost and is a major cost controller.
I have learned a lot of interesting facts from this article. The first aspect that blew my mind was the fact that despite the similarities between two organizations, they could end up adopting and implementing different strategies. This could be certainly due to the fact that the organizations adopt strategies based on their customers, management, goals, and expectations. Every organization has a different pattern, belief system, and custom and this is why the application of institutional logic might need to be done at different times for generating different results. Implementation of a new system in organizations seems quite difficult due to the presence of a conflict of interests (Odia 2019). Also, it gets challenging for organizations to make changes in their management for implementing newer processes. The second important aspect that I learned from the study is that management accounting cannot operate in isolation. Previously I had the understanding that the presence of management accounting and budget is sufficient to ensure success for the organization. However, with the study, I understood that the organization needs to have other modern tools of management accounting that is needed to be used in collaboration with budgeting.
The thing that went appropriately is the sharing of information in the article. The article is written in a very composed manner and hence it helped in providing relevant information and I was able to relate it with my knowledge on management accounting. The things that did not go as per the plan were the research study in the journal which was complex and required enormous study in an in-depth manner. The study was on the Nigerian listed companies and it used the statistical means of evaluation thereby required major knowledge on the said tools. However, the difficulties were removed by studying the concepts and becoming familiar with the scope of study and the mechanism. The learning that I received from the article is that the form of traditional accounting is the same in every organization however the usage differs as per the organizational policy. Every organization irrespective of its size, purpose, and business operations are subjected to the changes in the law of nature (Odia 2019). It was learned that budgeting alone is not sufficient enough when it comes to controlling and managing costs.
The research experience was exciting because it was a challenge to me regarding the accumulation of the information. The enjoyable part of the experience was the research of information about budgeting. I have a strong liking for budgeting area and the assignment provided me an opportunity to explore the area. The difficult part was the hypothesis testing and research that required the statistical tool knowledge. Another difficult part that was observed in the study is the research has been conducted in 10 listed companies and hence is a major point of worry. The sample size is small and hence the result will not be able to provide the true representation of the entire population. Having a basic knowledge of the same was a tough part however; with proper research and thorough understanding of the article, I was able to decode the article accurately. Interpreting and learning the statistical tools posed an imminent challenge however with the quality of information available on the internet things were easier. The interpreted result will fail to provide the correct interpretation of the entire population and hence, this was another challenge of the study.
The organizations faced external pressures for altering and tuning their systems as per their goals, objectives, and strategies. For the achievement of the pre-determined goals and objectives, the organizations will need to ensure that their systems are updated and aligned with their strategies.
Budgeting cannot entirely take care of management’s control and effectiveness due to the conditions that are prevailing today. Benchmarking, balanced scorecards, and ABC costing are modern age tools that must be used for every product and service that requires a specific strategy (Berland, Curtis & Sponem 2018). After having an in-depth outlook on various aspects, I learned that depending solely on the organizational tools is a dangerous decision because, in the present scenario, organizations require modern mechanism owing to the presence of cut-throat competition. If the organizations fail to have sound fundamentals and if their management isn’t up to the mark then no matter how successful it implements different tools and techniques, it will still find it challenging to beat the financial crisis. The management must ensure that the work is delegated to every employee of an organization based on his or her skills, knowledge, performance, qualification, experience, aptitude, and confidence (Spires, Wallin & Young 2012). The management must also systematically identify the sources of profits and losses. Also, budgeting tools must not be recommended to every organization as its effectiveness might differ from organization to organization. The individual assignment provided me an opportunity to probe into the mechanism of traditional budgeting and the relevance of the same in the business units. From the study, I got to understand that budgeting is a vital tool of management that must be used in conjunction with other modern tools as budgeting solely will be time-consuming. Moreover, it will fail to provide the desired results. The insights I gained from the study are that the management accountants need to be the change agent and act as a consultant and a strategy formulator. Hence, the study gave me the knowledge that the management accountants can perform the function of budgeting and even strategy formulator. The presence of a management accountant with multi tasking will suit the management and provides effective result (Van Roestel 2016) The assignment gave me learning that the business needs to revamp the process of management accounting and this can be done when the management accountants are well trained and able to formulate policies for the business.
References
Berland, N., Curtis, E., & Sponem, S 2018, Exposing organizational tensions with a non-traditional budgeting system. Journal of Applied Accounting Research, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 122–140.
Odia, J 2019, ‘Towards a changing role of management accounting and management accountants in Nigeria’, managerial accounting assignment The Journal of Accounting and Management, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 31-47
Spires, E.E, Wallin, D.E,& Young, R.A 2012, ‘Aggregation in Budgeting: An Experiment’, Journal of Management Accounting Research, vol. 24, pp. 177-199.
Van Roestel, M 2016, A collaborative approach to budgeting and the impact on the budgeting process: A case study, viewed 24 May 2020, https://search.proquest.com/docview/1791485066?accountid=30552
