The paper critically evaluated the role of management accountants present in the firm for examining the change induced by using emerging advanced and sophisticated management accounting tools and techniques in their roles. The paper can be considered as a modest study of various literature and works for identification of reasons as to why some scholars have suggested that the role of management accountants have changed and some disagree with the same. Introduction The changes being incorporated in the recent years in the role of management accountants have been argued strongly in the academic literature due to
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Abstract The prime objective of the paper is to explain the traditional management accounting and how it has evolved. The paper critically evaluated the role of management accountants present in the firmforexaminingthechangeinducedbyusingemergingadvancedandsophisticated management accounting tools and techniques in their roles. The paper assessed the roles which was perceived traditionally to be as a controller and cost recorded and how their roles have evolved to broader strategic roles which are important vitally in decision-making and planning. The paper been separated into two sections where the suggestion from various scholars on the roles being changed and not changed have been mentioned. The paper can be considered as a modest study of various literature works for identification of reasons as to why some scholars have suggested that the role of management accountants have changed and some disagree with the same. The paper attempts to evaluate critically the various sets of arguments. In order to assess their roles, the roles, activities and skill requirements of the management accountants have been studied. Introduction The changes being incorporated in the recent years in the role of management accountants have been argued strongly in the academic literature due to the development of various emerging advancedandsophisticatedmanagementaccounting(MA)systems,toolsandtechniques (Guilding, Cravens and Tayles 2000; Tsamenyi, Cullen and Gonzalez 2006; Scapens and Jazayeri2003). The emerging management accounting techniques like the balanced scorecard (BSC), activity-based costing (ABC), strategic pricing, quality costing, strategic management accounting (SMA), throughput costing etc. have been investigated and examined by various researchers and academics (Atkinson, Balakrishnan, Booth, Cote, Groot, Malmi, Roberts, Uliana andWu 1997;Emsley2005). Theacceptanceof the managementaccountingtoolsbeing mentioned above and the inherent skills being demanded from the management accountants have been argues in favor and against the motion (Yazdifar and Tsamenyi 2005; Kennedy and Sorensen 2006). The applications of these management accounting tools and techniques have been contributed to the change in the roles of all the management accountants by becoming a vital member of the organization participating in the decision-making team and being a strategic planner as compared to the traditional functions of the cost controllers and the scorekeepers. (Seal, Cullen, Dunlop, BerryandAhmed1999;Burns,EzzamelandScrapens1999).Theeffectivenessofthe management accountants tools and techniques have been evaluated by various scholars (Haka and Heitger 2004), and how these tools have been adopted in the firms and organization as opposed to the counterpart traditional tools (Joshi 2001; Crenhall andLangfield-Smith 1998a). Further the preferences and attitudes of the managers regarding the realized and perceived benefited were also derived by various study from using the specific tools (Guilding, Cravens and Tayles 2000; Adler,EverettandWaldron2000). Arguments In Favor of the Changing Role Earlier it was seen that the management accountants were functioning as support staff for all the decision makers but with the emergence of various tools and techniques, their roles is seen to
have evolved from serving as internal customers directly to the strategic planner and business partners.Now that the management accountants are equal member of the decision making system, they have the authority and responsibility for telling the operating executives and the various types of information which they may or may not consider relevant to the business decisions and they also have the authority to improve the quality of decisions, if they desire to do so (Zimmerman 2009: 13). The researchers like Emsley 2005 and Abernethy and Brownell 1999 suggest that due to inherent relationship of Mas with diverse array of disciplines of management, it might be suggested that the use of tools and techniques can help in expanding the tasks of management accountants from bean counting, score keeping, cost controlling to a wider strategic and multi-disciplinary roles. Forexample,theBSCor BalanceScorecardisnotmerelyaperformancemeasurement framework in the organization but is used as a comprehensive strategic planning system, sustaining the ability for transforming and improvement, enabling all the Mas in recognizing the image of organization in customers’ eye and for focusing on the critical business processes. (Kaplan and Norton 1992; Silk 1998). Thisindirectlysuggeststhefactthatthemanagementaccountantsspendmoretimein classifying, identifying activities and analyzing the costs. Further they have to allot these costs to procurement, designing, distribution and marketing of products and services (Cardinaels et al. 2004).Thereforetheaccountantshavetoassessthesystemofproducts,marketing, manufacturing and other work processes of the various departments (Cadez and Guilding 2008). Additionally, it has been investigated by various manufacturing firms that a varying combination of various tools and techniques of Mas are used for greater strategic focus (Crenhall and Langfield-Smith 1998a). Granlund and Lukka (1998), and Malmi (1999), investigated the transition phase in the practices of MAs Finland and studied the transformation in their roles and responsibilities from being the cost controllers to one of the most vital part of the managerial decision-making. The table provided below compares the usage rate traditional as well as advanced MA techniques.
Similarly, a study by Yazdifar and Tsamenyi’s (2005) estimated that one of the most important skill required in the Mas was the businessperformanceevaluation. This factor continues to remain the most important task for MAs in future. The other strategic tasks and requirements were estimated to be planning and managing operations of the budget, cost and financial control and profit improvement.
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