Anthony G. Hopwood (1976), in his book ‘Accounting and Human Behaviour” had stated that, “Accountants and other members of the management team searching for means of understanding and improving standard setting and budgeting; must therefore see the process in its entirety and respond to it as a complex human and technical problem rather than one standing in technical isolation.” …
Hopwood (1976), in his book ‘Accounting and Human Behaviour” had stated that, “Accountants and other members of the management team searching for means of understanding and improving standard setting and budgeting; must therefore see the process in its entirety and respond to it as a complex human and technical problem rather than one standing in technical isolation.” This implies that there has been a paradigm shift in the principles and practices of management accounting. Management accounting no longer comprises of only the technical aspect of accounting, but also the multifaceted management aspect of the business on the whole. The area of management accounting has undergone considerable changes during the past years. One of the major factors that had influenced the modifications in the management accounting practices have been the dynamically competitive and swiftly altering organizational environment that is prevalent today. Additionally, the present day business settings comprise of ongoing reformation in the working atmosphere, as well as continuing progress in the financial information arrangements. With the advent of new information system practices and the development of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, there has been a vast change in the management as well as financial accounting practices of modern day organizations. ...
Hence, the role of management accounting professional were considerably influenced by the inclusion of various information systems as well as by the use of superior and efficient reporting tools (Roussoulis, 2007). Consequently, it can be stated that owing to these diverse changes in organizations leading to the emergence of modern contemporary organizations, the responsibilities of management accountants has been varying throughout the previous couple of decades. The modern accounting literature has constantly emphasised that there is a strong requirement for management accountants to diverge and deviate from the conventional bookkeeping role, to a more active role, that offers dynamic support to the organization’s management and comprises of rising involvement in business decision-making (Kaplan, 1995; Granlund & Lukka, 1997; Granlund & Lukka, 1998; Jarvenpaa, 2001). Furthermore, it has also been mentioned that the management accountants in the contemporary organizations are endowed with more responsibilities other than the routine categories of accounting tasks (Roussoulis, 2007). Under the prevalent business conditions, the management accountants of contemporary organizations are supposed to act like business partners for the management of the organization in addition to being change agents for the organization (Anthony & Govindarajan, 2007). The Concept of Management Accounting Management Accounting is one of the fundamental segments of the core management role of an organization. The management accounting practices comprises of the recognition, assessment, accretion, scrutiny, research, interpretation and correspondence of information that are required by the
For efficient function of the system the management will be required to gather variety of information both financial and non-financial. The sources of this information could be from both internal (within the company) and external sources (external environment for comparison purposes).
The expert accounting conception and scientific accounting dexterity regarding measurement of performance, analysis, auditing and final reporting are as well pertinent to the supervision of healthy and sustainable ecological performance. With the increased international community's recognition of the ecological concerns, so has there been a simultaneously increased demand on accountants to provide comprehensive ecological costs and information on performance.
Financial reporting and its disclosure is now related with the environmental performances. "Pressures for greater transparency and disclosure about environmental and social practices aimed at long-term ecological, social, and business sustainability have been growing in the wake of the growth of power of multinational corporations, the array of scandals that have plagued business institutions since the collapse of Enron and Arthur Anderson, and increasing anti-corporate activism by NGOs, labor unions, and others.
The project report then looks at the aims and objectives of establishing a management accounting system and the characteristics of information flow at the strategic level. It also analyse the effectiveness of SMA system in the provision of information to assist the senior management team in the achievement of the corporate objectives at Highline.
This aspect of accounting concerns itself with learning about the effect an organisation has on society and about its relationships with an entire range of stakeholders to whom it is accountable. These would include all those groups who affect and/or are affected by the organisation and its activities.
Therefore, this paper provides an insightful study of recent innovations in management accounting techniques and various controls employed on the part of the organisation to regulate managerial performance.
The main theme underlying the development of this paper encompasses the developments in management accounting systems and the effectiveness of corresponding measures in regulating managerial performance.
Management accounting provides both, financial and non-financial information, to the management. It has a much broader perspective and is not just concerned with providing numerical data to the management. Unlike financial accounting, management accounting recognises data not only from past records but also from present tendencies and future prospects.
Further evaluation on the different techniques of strategic accounting has been discussed. Finally, concentration has been made on how the strategic accounting system overcomes the drawbacks of the traditional accounting system.
Many industrial consultants in the United States and abroad have drawn from his publication and varying disciplines globally. Among them are organizational theorists, business administration specialists, economists, sociologists and