BUACC3714: Management Accountant Role Essay - Semester 1 2019

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of the evolving role of management accountants within the contemporary business landscape. It traces the transformation from traditional cost accounting to a more strategic advisory function, encompassing responsibilities that extend to six capitals and public sector accounting. The essay examines the opportunities and challenges faced by management accountants in a globalized and digital economy, highlighting how they contribute to risk management, budgeting, and strategic decision-making. It explores the impact of globalization, digital innovations, and big data on the profession, as well as the ethical considerations and performance management challenges that accountants encounter. Furthermore, the essay discusses the importance of strategic leadership and the need for management accountants to adapt and reinvent themselves to remain prominent in a competitive market. The document also provides insights into how management accountants can address issues like strategic gaps and poor management practices, ultimately contributing to organizational success.

Running Head: Advanced Management Accounting
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Advanced Management Accounting

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Introduction:
An essay is to be prepared on the changing role of the management accountants in the current
business environment. The passage of time has led to a phenomenal changes in the roles and
responsibilities of the management accountants in the organisational scenario of business. The
fellow management accountants in the business spree started off from being a cost accountant to
being accountant for six capitals and accounting in the space of public sector. So with the
passage of time the responsibilities and functions of the management accountants has evolved as
currently they belong to core part of the management team. The role of the management
accountants are not limited to preparing and analysing the financial statements rather they have
grown as strategic advisor for the public organisations. Accordingly the essay would explore the
opportunities available and challenges faced by the management accountants in the changing
global and digital economy.
Management accountants:
Management accountants plays an integral part in the organisational scenario of business by
tracking the revenue and expenses of the business and holds a position of noteworthy
responsibility and act consultant to the firm (Brewer, 2017). The management accountant
generally works for the public companies, government agencies and private enterprises. They are
also known as managerial accountants and prepares the financial data and derives rightful
information out of it for making internal decisions to run the business efficiently. It is seen that in
the business scope of the organisation the role of the management accountants are multi-
dimensional as they strive to manage risks, prepare budgets, strategize and undertakes business
decision assisting the Board of Directors (Hopper & Bui, 2016). The management accountants
are quite likely to supervise and monitor the workings of the entry-level accountants managing
the bookkeeping task and preparing the financial statements.
Again in a smaller enterprise the role of the management accountant would vary as the
professional would be engaged in analysing the financial data, budgeting and forecasting and
make plans for the purpose of performance management. Then the data are to be presented to the
senior management for making operational decisions in business (Lafond, McAleer, & Wentzel,
2016). They also play a significant role in conducting a thorough risk management for the
business, arrange for funds and enforce compliance within the organisational scenario. The

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phenomenon enables the managerial accountants to earn expertise in various financial
dimensions like budgeting or taxation. For this purpose the management accountants are
supposed to pool the financial and non-financial data to have an insight of the organisational
process (Cimaglobal, 2019). So it could be seen that the businesses irrespective of their size and
turnover need the service of the management accountants.
Opportunities available to the management accountants:
The profession of management accountants are highly rewarding as they contribute effectively
for the purpose of business and deliver the job responsibilities at various levels to fulfil the
business goals. The career opportunities for the management accountants start from learning the
basic intricacies of accounting to various functioning of business (Malmi, 2016). As the
individuals progress in their career they undertake responsibilities ranging to monitoring and
supervision that could earn them the coveted post of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in the
organisation. So the career path of the potential management accountants start with learning the
accounting fundamentals and earning the Certified Management Accountant (CMA)
certification. Again the profession of management accountants are supposed to change with the
passage of time as the business dynamics has undergone a metamorphic change. In this context
the aspect of globalisation and digital economy are to be widely considered as such phenomenon
has also led to change the profession of management accountants as well (Bhimani & Bromwich,
2009).
The changing global scenario by means of globalisation has brought changes in costs, strategy
and technology which apparently opened up new doors for the professional management
accountants. It is because the aspect of globalisation and digitisation play a significant role in
decision making for the management accountants and it has opened up new career dimensions
for them (Chenhall & Moers, 2015). The digital innovations has led to an improved level of
financial control for the purpose of integrated decision making taking considerations of the cost
information, strategic intent and technological progress within the departmental extent of the big
business houses. So for a multi-national organisation the digital technology has definitely helped
the management accountants to integrate the business decisions opting out of the various
departments or units within the geography or overseas unit (Granlund & Lukka, 2017). It is

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noted that the evolution of information technology has become faster, convenient and cheaper
enabling the organisations to undertake the business decisions more effectively.
There is another aspect – globalisation that led to a sea change in the business scenario and
business decision making process and so does for the profession of management accountants.
Globalisation is considered as a business jargon that brings in close contact the organisations and
its businesses, territories and most importantly the human resources. It is seen that both the
elements of globalisation and digital economy are bringing together the required resources to
make effective business decisions (Drury, 2015). The aspect of globalisation has led to
innovative thinking for the management accountants say more opportunities to raise capital for
the businesses owing to access to the international market. The phenomenon led the management
accountants to run a proper evaluation of the overseas project before accepting the same to
understand its feasibility in the international market (Otley, 2016). So globalisation has led
unique scope for the management accountants to explore the overseas project t and run an
investment appraisal mechanism to ensure of its feasibility and in this way save time, effort and
organisational resources.
It is noted that the business scenario in the recent past has undergone tumultuous changes and
another factor in this regard could be the advent of big data that are taking the finance
professionals like the management accountants to places. The utility of big data lies in extracting
concise information extracting from a pile of data and information (Messner, 2016). So in this
way the management accountants would be at a better position to make more impactful, strategic
decisions in favour of the business. The progress of big data would strengthen the role of the
management accountants as the data would tend to be innovative which needs rightful
explanation on part of the professionals (Hoggett, 2018). But as the aspect of big data progress in
the business scope it would be customary for the management accountants to reinvent
themselves and stay updated to have their prominence in the competitive market.
The advancement in technology say in terms of automation are supposed to add new dimension
to the roles of management accountants and challenges as well to incorporate such changes
effectively and have its impact rightfully within the organisation structure (Quattrone, 2016). The
management accountants are rightly trained in such advanced technologies of big data to make
efficient usage of the financial implications in terms of financial modelling and forecasting in a

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more effective way. Besides big data enables the finance professionals to rightly manage the
non-financial database and set an ethical standard for contemplating strategic decisions (Maas,
Schaltegger, & Crutzen, 2016). So it is estimated that that this sort of role on part of the
management accountants would be increasingly important as it would be effective in drafting out
new products and technologies for generating services in the upcoming 5-10 years.
Challenges for the management accountants:
It is often seen that in the corporate sphere the management accountants reels under pressure and
dissuade the ethical practices to do away with the morality for which the accountant stands for
(Hood, 2018). It is not the accountants themselves but the peer pressure around them that leads
them to act differently. There is the Professional Code of Ethics framed by The Institute of
Chartered Accountants of Scotland which strives for a moral code of conduct specifying
integrity, objectivity, professional care and behaviour and confidentiality. These essential
features apparently enrich their career and safeguard themselves and their knowledge and skills
from plausible exploitations. It is certain that exploitation of the knowledge of the accountants is
a big concern that is prevalent in the market. The challenges faced by the management
accountants are multi-dimensional as the activities or job responsibilities delivered to the
concerned person might bring into forefront a tactical conflict amongst the personal ethics of the
accountant vis-à-vis corporate ethics (Lafond, McAleer, & Wentzel, 2016). It strives to become a
bone of contentions affecting his performance and most importantly his duties as a management
accountant.
The changing pattern of business might lead to typical business situations wherein the
management accountants were asked to do certain activities which does not fall in purview of the
accountants. So in such cases they have the liberty to simply deny the activity as such notions
might tarnish the image of the management accountant profession. It would be effective for the
management accountants to carry on with their professional dignity so that they could not be
professionally exploited by external parties (Kaplan & Atkinson, 2015). In this regard absence of
a strategic leadership in the organisational forefront would be very much problematic as it runs
the issue of constraining resources available to the business. The absence of strategic leadership
in this context is supposed to deliver a weakness identified as a ‘strategic gap’ to the public

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organisations (Seal, 2014). The phenomenon apparently restricts the ability of the government
agencies to set its main concern into traditional outcomes.
Another challenge for the management accountants lies in terms of poor management practice
that automatically deteriorates the organisational performance substantially. So it could be seen
that the dimension of the management accountants are not limited to the aspect of budgeting and
forecasting but has extended to the strategic point for developing the businesses (Bhimani &
Bromwich, 2009). The challenges of the management accountants in terms of strategic gap and
poor management practices would tend to strive for a plausible solution of the business scenario
say by striving for a cost leadership. It is up to the management accountants to formulate a
suitable strategy and get it pursued by the senior management to address the various issues faced
by the organisation say in terms of losing market or declining profitability (Granlund & Lukka,
2017). So the management accountants would play an active role in this regard to deal with the
issues faced by the organisations, try to have an insight of it and work out measures to avoid the
same.
Another concerning factor would be that of the performance management issues which needs to
be swiftly dealt by the accountants say the management accountants. It is due to the fact that as
the business grows so does its complexity which could not be rightly handled by the owners and
in this context enters the management accountants. The business complexity of the organisations
tend to pressurise the organisational structure which demands for its reorganisation (Henderson,
Peirson, Herbohn, & Howieson, 2015). And such an exercise often tends to have a broad shift in
the accounting policies and priorities that mishaps the entire working structure for the firm. In
such a situation the management accountants are supposed to work out the entire scenario and
put things in places for the management to take a rightful business decision. It is often seen that
it tends to focus on the short-run rather than the long-run innings and the management
accountants fall prey to it (Maas, Schaltegger, & Crutzen, 2016).
The level of high goals in the midst of public sector organisations often challenge the
management accountants to push their limits. In such a scenario the professionals are supposed
to take active consideration of the co-ordination and team effort running within the
organisational structure (Drury, 2015). It would be effective for the management accountants to
have a list of priority in their professional ambit to deal with the challenges effectively. It is

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noted that the challenges presented in the organisational scenario definitely enables a strong
persona for the management accountants to deal effectively with sorts of business complexities
(Hood, 2018). So the challenges could be stated as a scope for the businesses to have a feather
added to their cap as it enriches their experience and become more specialised in handling tough
business situations. It is further noted that like the opportunities stated previously changes with
the passage of time so does for the challenges of the management accountants becomes dynamic
with the turn of the wheel.
Discussion:
The passage of time has made a lot of changes in the business scenario and so has been the roles
and responsibilities of the management accountants serving the public organisations. It could be
elaborated that the advent of advanced technology and economic changes like globalisation has
brought in new career opportunities for the management accountants to prosper within their
business dimension (Maas, Schaltegger, & Crutzen, 2016). 21st century has welcomed digital
technologies and relevance of big data which has enabled the management accountants to extract
the useful information from a pile of data without delivering much effort and time.
In this way they could invest their effort on more productive dimensions rather than mere
searching. But using such sophisticated technologies demand the users to be more proficient and
updated with the latest happenings in its sphere. So the management accountants are supposed to
keep themselves updated of the latest technology and keep on continuous improvement (Kaplan
& Atkinson, 2015). It runs the risk of pressurising the accountant of undue business activities
that could be kept aside for other purposes. The changing business scenario rises the complexity
bar which needs to be addressed by the management accountants hastily to solve the business
challenges at once.
Conclusion:
The essay concludes that the management accountants play an integral part in the organisational
scenario by accustoming to the requisite changes and bringing in the implications of the aspect of
financial statements to have budgeting and forecasting phenomenon. The passage of time has led
to the evolution of the profession of the management accountants and this has been plausible
with the induction of digital economy and globalisation aspect in the business scenario. The

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aspect of globalisation has led to innovative thinking for the management accountants say more
opportunities to raise capital for the businesses owing to access to the international market. So it
has definitely led to new doors of opportunities for the businesses to thrive in new business
conditions. The aspect of changes in the business scenario definitely leads to development but
also challenges the extent of the management accountants in accommodating the changes in
business. It is because it is the management accountants who are supposed to make in great effort
to repair the organisational scenario and address the scenario as demanded.
References
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