HI5017 Managerial Accounting: Individual Reflective Journal Analysis

This reflective journal analyzes the student's learning experience in a managerial accounting course. The student reflects on the usefulness of management accounting systems, particularly standard and target costing, in managerial decision-making. The assignment involved critically evaluating two journal articles: one on the implementation of different costing methods in small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises and another on the implementation of target cost management at a shipbuilding company. The student discusses the insights gained from these articles, including the significance of standard costing in cost containment and the challenges in implementing target costing. The student also reflects on the research process, including the difficulties in selecting relevant articles and the impact of behavioral factors on the success of costing techniques. The journal concludes with the student's understanding of the importance of costing concepts in a competitive environment and the value of independent learning.

Running head: MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING
Managerial accounting
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING
Individual Reflective journal:
Accounting is the subject that I am very fond of and also because of its
growing demand in the business. Pursuing accounting as my core subject, I have
always been keen on enhancing and widening my knowledge and I am always open
to learning and also evaluating the practical usage of the knowledge. The objective
of my assignment was develop an understanding of the usefulness of the
management accounting system to the managers in their decision making process.
I have been asked to choose peered review journal articles depicting the
implementing of two methods of costing in the real life company. I chose two articles
depicting the utilization of different costing techniques titled “Management
Accounting Practices (MAPs) of Small and Medium-sized Manufacturing Enterprises
in The City of Tarlac” and “A longitudinal case study of target cost management
implementation at a shipbuilding company”. I have evaluated these two articles
critically regarding the usefulness of the costing system by the organizations.
Analysis of article has assisted me to comprehend several essential ideas of
costing system. My knowledge regarding costing and its importance to business is
enhanced after gaining insight into the facts presented in these two articles.
While the first article described about the implementation of different method
of costing amongst the respondents. The findings suggested that the implementation
of standard costing as against other method of costing was highest identified by the
highest mean score in the companies of food and beverage industry. Article cites
standard costing as the most frequently used technique but it did not explain the
reason behind the relevance of such costing system and why the mean score was
highest. The lack of information on the factors making the standard costing
relevance to manufacturing organization made me difficult to understand the
application of such costing methods. In association with this research paper, I also
reviewed some other articles for reference regarding the usefulness of standard
costing and how the organization are benefitted by the cost efficiency. Hence, after
evaluating the first article and conducting a thorough investigation on the standard
costing, I comprehend the significance of standard costing to the companies and
how they are effectively implemented and aid managers in their managerial decision.
I gained an insight into the whole idea of target costing after reviewing second
journal article. The article presented the scenario of the failure of implementation of
target cost management in one of the shipbuilding of Japan. The paper conducted
an in depth examination of implementing target costing by outlining the issues faced
by organization. I had some idea about target costing but the reviewing the article
has made by concept way more clear. I came across several new accounting terms
and other concepts finance and behavioural issues that acted as constraints in the
implementation of costing technique. This article made be acquainted with the fact
that the successful adoption or failure to implement is determine din terms of
financial and behavioural success or failure. Extensively discussed literature review
helped me in acquiring myself with a vast knowledge about the costing technique by
throwing some light on the organizational aspect, technical aspect and the factors
influencing control of such systems. The take away from this article is that the
diffusion of the costing system is the activity of managers. However, the elaborated
discussion on various aspects and some theoretical background made it confusing to

MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING
understand the whole idea at the same time. Gradually, I learnt the idea of the target
costing and why the implementation was not a success in the shipbuilding company.
Reviewing the articles offered a good learning path as I have learned the idea
of costing and its importance to business. The whole process of completing the
assignment was quite an enjoyable moment for me as it provided me with the
opportunity to learn various aspects of costing and its relevance to different
business.
My research work was quite interesting as I had to navigate around to identify
some other research work to gain an understanding of the costing methods. I
learned about various available studies database. I was not sure about the impact of
behavioural nature on the success or failure of costing technique implementation.
However, having reviewed the article on target costing, I was able to understand the
whole concept. The most philosophical thing which I came to know about research is
the availability of too many articles which makes it difficult to choose the relevant for
the analysis. The availability of so many articles called the need to narrow down and
be specific. So, the difficult part was to search and find the most suitable article for
analysis.
On completion of the assignment, I am able to understand the costing
concepts of standard costing and target costing and its importance to the
organizations in the competitive environment. I have come to know that many
contemporary organizations are still implementing traditional tools of management
accounting despite the introduction of new tools. Importance of the costing system to
the organization does not imply that there is no weakness or drawback associated
with it. There are factors that causes weakness in the implementation of the costing
technique but can be controlled by the management and needs to be thoroughly
investigated. Also, one things I have noted is that the implementation of standard
costing is more popular than target costing in the contemporary organizations. It is
so because standard costing plays a significant role in assisting organization to
achieve cost containment. The elaborated explanation on the importance of standard
and target costing to the contemporary organizations helped me in evaluating the
relevance of such costing system. The research work has helped me to develop my
ability to think critically and helped in facilitating my learning on accounting from the
experience I gained while developing the paper. Moreover, it has also helped me in
inculcating the encouragement of independent learning and make a sense of
learning from the information retrieved.