Individual Reflective Journal Assignment

Running head: INDIVIDUAL REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Individual Reflective journal
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

INDIVIDUAL REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Reflection on two peer reviewed journal articles:
Reviewing the peer journal articles for gaining an insight into understanding
the concepts of costing has been the good learning path to sharpen my accounting
skills. With the help of such assignment, I have been provided good opportunity to
learn about different methods of costing with particular focus on standard costing
and target costing. It was interesting to conduct a detailed research as it involved an
extensive investigation that required me to traverse through various research papers
relevant to target and standard costing system. While navigating through various
research paper, I got to know about the availability of database to access the article.
Selecting the relevant peer reviewed journal article was quite a challenging task for
me because of the obtainability of several journal articles on costing technique.
While searching for the relevant and specific paper, I learned the skill of narrowing
down my requirement and look for the paper on target and standard costing and its
implementation in any organization.
The two articles I chose for assessing the application of the costing methods
in any organization or industry are titled” Implementation of target cost management
in a non-Japanese environment” and “ Maturity of cost management system in
organizations”. The analysis of the implementation of target cost management in a
non-Japanese environment comes with some implication in practice that assisted me
in enhancing my theoretical knowledge on costing. With the help of this article, I
have been able to comprehend some significant concepts of the costing system. The
facts deduced from the analysis of articles have helped me in gaining an idea about
the relevance of target costing to the business. In the second article, the
implementation of activity based costing in the service sector has been evaluated. I
have come to know that the application of standard based costing is significant in
organization who desire to be profitable in the competitive environment. While
analyzing the article, I have gained some knowledge on the technical aspects of the
costing system which contributed to broadening my knowledge about costing. With
the help of these articles, the current situation and the attitude of organization
towards the usage and implementation of costing system has been known and some
constraints in the seamless and effective adoption of the system has also been
highlighted.
Reflection on research experience:
After conducting a detailed and extensive research by analyzing the peer
reviewed journal articles, I believe I am filled with more knowledge about the concept
of costs in accounting. I was fortunate enough to have learned various sides of
knowledge and efforts that goes into conducting research and have experienced
about the practical implementation of costing techniques. The overall research work
was enjoyable for me as I got to learn many different things other than enhancing my
accounting knowledge. The general process of initially planning the project, its
completeness and development and the efforts required in every stage of the project
is well understood by me. During the first few days of searching and selecting the
articles and another days of examining the articles, I was overwhelmed by the
assignment that I was asked to complete and deliver. I felt more supported and
confident in conducting a literature search by the assistance provided by my
supervisor. It was a great learning process where I managed to decipher several