Challenges of Accounting in Global Organizations: A Case Study of Blue Scope Steel Company

This research project explores the challenges faced by accounting departments in multinational organizations, specifically focusing on Blue Scope Steel Company. The study examines the impact of economic conditions, conversion rates, and technological advancements on accounting practices. Through a qualitative research methodology, the project identifies key challenges and proposes solutions to enhance accounting efficiency and effectiveness in a globalized business environment.

HI6008 - ASS 2
CHALLENGES OF ACCOUNTING IN GLOBAL ORGANIZATIONS
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Project objective..............................................................................................................................4
Project scope....................................................................................................................................5
Literature review..............................................................................................................................6
Research questions...........................................................................................................................8
Research design and methodology..................................................................................................9
Research findings...........................................................................................................................12
Research limitations.......................................................................................................................17
Time schedule................................................................................................................................18
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................19
References......................................................................................................................................20
Appendix........................................................................................................................................21
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Introduction
Accounting is a most important process which is used by the global organisation so that they can
record, summarise and analyse daily financial transactions of the business enterprise. Accounting
is considered as most important organisation function which provides complete information
about financial stability and performance of the business enterprise. This assessment would be
based on the different challenges of accounting which are faced by multinational organisations
like Blue Scope steel Company. Some of the most important factors are conversion rates,
economic conditions and other economic factors which will be discussed in this report. Apart
from this, this report will include project objectives, scope, literature review, research questions,
limitations and time schedule.
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Project objective
For better success and growth of research project, it is very much essential for a business
enterprise to set some project objectives (Bhimani and Willcocks, 2014). With the help of setting
project objectives, managers can analyse their performance and also can watch accomplishing
their main mission. Some most important objectives of the current research project are discussed
below:
 To determine the challenges associated with the accounting function
 To analyse the role of accounting in global organisations
 To find out the major factors which result in accounting challenges
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Project scope
Accounting is most important organisational function which allows business enterprise to make
systematic records of its financial transactions. With the help of accounting information,
multinational companies like Blue Scope Steel Company can easily determine its selling price
and also can manage financial resources (Borowczyk-Martins, et. al., 2013). There are various
factors like economic conditions, conversion rate and other technology issues which creates
problem in accounting process and affect the business growth. So, it is very much important for
organisation to analyse all the challenges of accounting. Hence, the scope of this project is very
wide.
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Literature review
As per the point of view of Prencipe, et. al. (2014), accounting process is so much helpful in
maintaining the daily financial transactions of business enterprise. In simple words, accounting is
that systematic process through which business enterprise can record financial transactions in
appropriate manner. The procedure of accounting includes analysing, evaluating and recording
the financial information which will help the organisation in making future financial decisions.
There are various fields of accounting such as cost, financial and tax accounting (Prencipe, et.
al., 2014).
According to Smith (2014), accounting function plays a most important role in a multinational
organisation like Blue Scope Steel Company. This business enterprise follows all the accounting
processes and methods for keeping its financial record updated. By taking help of proper
accounting systems and software, an organisation can manage its accounting activities in
appropriate manner. Blue Scope Steel Company has its subsidiaries in all over the world so, it is
important for it analyses and manages financial condition of its each and every outlet (Smith,
2014).
As per the observation of Borowczyk-Martins, et. al. (2013), accounting function provides
various advantages to global organisations as it helps them in managing their financial
performance within global markets. With the help of this function, Blue Scope Steel Company
keeps systematic and complete records of its daily financial transactions (Borowczyk-Martins, et.
al., 2013).
As per the perspective of Bhimani and Willcocks (2014), there are various problems which are
associated with accounting function and influence negative impact on organisational growth as
well as development. Major accounting challenges are continuous changes in conversion rates,
economic conditions and another type of economic factors. The poor technology of business
enterprise affects kits accounting and other functions as well (Bhimani and Willcocks, 2014).
In the view of Cai, et. al. (2013), global organisations such as Blue Scope Steel Company is
highly influenced by accounting challenges because they have to manage financial performance
of their several subsidiaries. Accounting problems like technological issues influence the
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negative impact on the accounting systems and software of business enterprise. By taking help of
advanced technology, Blue Scope Steel Company can easily manage its accounting software and
analyse economic condition it can make changes in its accounting policies which will allow
dealing with accounting challenges (Cai, et. al., 2013).
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Research questions
Al project managers set some research questions so that they can go in right direction. Apart
from this, it helps business enterprise in determining what kind of quarries of problems it wants
to solve through research project (Cai, et. al., 2013). There are two types of research questions
which are followed as under:
Primary Question: It is that kind of questions which helps in introducing new idea or topic
within a topic. The primary question of this project is given below:
Question 1 - To identify the major challenges of accounting which negatively impact on
multinational organisations?
Secondary Question: It is that type of question which is derived from a primary question and
adds some additional information. The secondary questions of current research are followed as
under:
Question 1 - To identify possible factors that creates a problem in accounting function
Question 2 - To analyse the role of accounting within business enterprise
Project hypothesis: The assumptions of this research report follows as under:
The Blue Scope Steel Company can deal with challenges of accounting in global environment.
The Blue Scope Steel Company cannot deal with accounting challenges in global environment.
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Research design and methodology
Research design can be referred as set of processes and techniques which are helpful in gathering
as well as analysing variables which are specified as research question. Apart from this, Research
methodology is effective and systematic process which helps organisation in collecting data and
information which can be used in decision-making process. There are two types of research
methods which are mainly used by multinational organisations for collecting required data and
information and these are followed as under:
Qualitative research method
This investigation technique is also considered as primary research which is used for
understanding some particular opinions, underlying reasons and motivations. With the help of
this research method, project managers can get deep knowledge about specific problem and also
can develop ideas for overcoming those problems (Erbe, et. al., 2013). Business enterprise can
conduct both qualitative and quantitative research by following specific steps such as
determination of research questions, design of study, data collection, data analysis, research
findings, evaluation of reliability and final report.
Approaches to reliability and validity
For having better success in research project, organisation must focus on the reliability and
validity. The reliable and valid data help organisation in making successful business decisions.
There are various approaches to test-retest reliability, internal consistency, interrater reliability
which helps in terming that collected information is reliable or not. Moreover, face validity,
content validity and criterion validity are most important approaches to validity which help in
evaluating rationality of gather information.
Data collection methods and variable specifications: In qualitative research, method is used
for collecting second-hand information which is mainly collected through secondary sources
such as books, journals, articles, magazines, online PDF and other secondary sources (Hartmann,
et. al., 2013). Moreover, there are two types of variables which are dependent and independent.
Quantitative research method
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This research technique is totally different from qualitative research because, in this, data and
collection are collected through primary sources. This investigation method helps organisation in
collecting primary information which assists in making most effective as well as successful
business decisions. The process of quantitative research method is same as qualitative because in
both techniques data is collected through same procedure but use different methods for collecting
information. The current research project is based on this technique because it will help
organisation in collecting most reliable and valid data which is not gathered or collected by
someone yet. There are various data collection methods like interview, surveys and questionnaire
which are used for collecting primary information (Höglund and Sundvik, 2016). Blue Scope
Steel Company use different instrument or device for measuring the authenticity of collected
information.
Sampling and sample size
Sampling is most effective process which is used by business enterprise in statistical analysis for
identifying the responses of large population on a specific topic. With the help of this process,
Blue Scope Steel Company can easily get answers to its research questions. In this research
report, data will be collected through questioner and 100 respondents will be chosen as sample
size.
Questionaries
It is most effective data collection technique in which a set of written or printed questions are
devised with the aim of statistical survey or survey.
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Questionnaire
Q1. Which of the following is a more important function of global organisations?
A Accounting
B Human resource
management
Q2. What is the major challenging factor for Accounting function?
A Economic conditions
B Lack of accountant
professionals
Q3. Does accounting function influence positive impact on Blue Scope steel Company?
A Yes
B No
Q4. Do you agree accounting challenges influence negative impact growth and development of
Blue Scope steel Company?
A Yes
B No
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Q5. What is the best approach for overcoming accounting challenges?
A Technology advancement
B Recruitment of talented
accountants
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Research findings
Q1. Which of the following is more important function of global organisations?
Accounting 70%
Human
resource
management
30%
Interpretation: This above-mentioned graph shows that 70 respondents out of 100 think that
accounting is most significant function of multinational companies but remaining 30 respondents
give preferences to human resource management.
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Q2. What is the major challenging factor for accounting function?
Economic
conditions
95%
Lack of
accountant
professional
s
5%
Interpretation: This graphical presentation highlights that 95% consider economic condition as
biggest accounting challenge whereas 5 % thinks that lack of accountant is major problem of
accounting profession.
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Q3. Does accounting function influence positive impact on Blue Scope steel Company?
Yes 85%
No 15%
Interpretation: As per this graph, most of the people think that accounting helps organisation in
maintaining its financial performance but few people consider it as just a time-consuming
process.
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Q4. Do you agree accounting challenges influence negative impact growth and development
of Blue Scope steel Company?
Yes 78%
No 22%
Interpretation: This graph highlights that 78% respondents consider that accounting challenges
can ruin the business performance but remaining 22% people state that accounting challenges
cannot influence negative impact on organisational growth.
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Q5. What is the best approach for overcoming accounting challenges?
Technology
advancement
75%
Recruitment
of talented
accountants
25%
Interpretation: As per this graphical presentation, 75% people think that organisation can
overcome accounting challenges by taking help of advanced technology and rest 25% people
stated that organisation cannot deal with accounting challenges.
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Research limitations
For collecting the required data and information business enterprise have to take help of general
public. As per the viewpoint of people, economic conditions, conversion rate, lack of technical
resources and other economic factors are major factors which creates problem in accounting
function of multinational organisation. While executing this research project, organisation faced
problems due to some research limitations such as lack of financial resources and time. Because
of limited time, period project manager was not able to cover large population. Apart from this,
different views of people made project managers confused which was the other research
limitation
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Time schedule
For completing research project in most effective as well as in systematic manner, it is very
much essential for project managers to divide project activities and assign them time limit so that
they can be finished in given time duration (Montresor and Vezzani, 2015). By taking help of
Gantt chart, business enterprise can easily provide time limit to it's each and every activity of
action plan and also can complete them within limited time period.
Action plan and timescale
Project activities Start time End time Duration
Project planning 1 June 2018 2 June 2018 2 Days
Analysis of activities 3 June 2018 7 June 2018 5 Days
Allocation of resources 8 June 2018 12 June 2018 5 Days
Estimation of cost 13 June 2018 16 June 2018 4 Days
Execution of project 17 June 2018 23 June 2018 7 Days
Evaluation 24 June 2018 26 June 2018 3 Days
Control 27 June 2018 30 June 2018 4 Days
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June (In Days)
Activities 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Project planning
Analysis of
activities
Allocation of
resources
Estimation of cost
Execution of
project
Evaluation
Control
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Conclusion
By summering above mentioned discussion, it has been concluded that accounting is most
important function of global organisations but it has some challenges which influence negative
impact on the organisation growth and development. The economic conditions and problems in
conversion rate are major issues of accounting which is collected through data collection
techniques. There are various factors which have identified through data analysis such as
technical issues and commoditisations of services which negatively influence the accounting
functions of Blue Scope Steel Company. The above-mentioned research highlights that
accounting functions of most of the global organisation are affected by economic conditions and
other economic factors.
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References
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accounting information. Accounting and Business Research, Vol. 44, NO. 4, pp.469-490.
 Borowczyk-Martins, D., Jolivet, G. and Postel-Vinay, F., 2013. Accounting for
endogeneity in matching function estimation. Review of Economic Dynamics, Vol. 16,
No. 3, pp.440-451.
 Cai, Y. and Hua, S., Alcatel-Lucent SA, 2013. Method and apparatus for virtual Wi-Fi
service with authentication and accounting control. U.S. Patent 8,619,988.
 Erbe, M., Gredler, B., Seefried, F.R., Bapst, B. and Simianer, H., 2013. A function
accounting for training set size and marker density to model the average accuracy of
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 Hartmann, F., Perego, P. and Young, A., 2013. Carbon accounting: Challenges for
research in management control and performance measurement. Abacus, Vol. 49, No. 4,
pp.539-563.
 Höglund, H. and Sundvik, D., 2016. Outsourcing of accounting tasks and tax
management: evidence from a corporate tax rate change. Applied Economics Letters, Vol.
23, No. 7, pp.482-485.
 Montresor, S. and Vezzani, A., 2015. The production function of top R&D investors:
Accounting for size and sector heterogeneity with quantile estimations. Research
Policy, Vol. 44, No. 2, pp.381-393.
 Prencipe, A., Bar-Yosef, S. and Dekker, H.C., 2014. Accounting research in family firms:
Theoretical and empirical challenges. European Accounting Review, Vol. 23, No. 3,
pp.361-385.
 Smith, S.S., 2014. Integrated Reporting, Corporate Governance, and the Future of the
Accounting Function. International Journal of Business and Social Science, Vol. 5, No.
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
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Appendix
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