The topic on this reading was on the political influence of accounting. Through the discussions and peers, I noted that the accounting profession is not only a debit credit theory, but actually a subject that has profound impact on the political environment as well as the regulatory frameworks of any nation.
One important aspect of accounting especially in the political and regulatory environment is the ability of accounting to impact positively with regard to the ethical considerations that govern politics of a nation. Some of the most important issues that came up in these discussions included the reasoning for the existence of a political concept in accounting as well as the effects of the international financial reporting framework on the political environment. I must confess that I had never imagined any impact that accounting would have on the political powers that be, before the subject was introduced this week.
The topic of discussion this week was on the Measuring Accounting’s Value: A Normative Perspective. In this lecture, we discussed the importance of studying the theoretical framework of accounting. Here, I appreciated the nature of the theoretical framework of accounting and also appreciated the value that such a framework plays in the development of the accounting profession.
Another major issue of discussion was whether there was actually the need for the study of a conceptual framework in accounting and the relevance of this framework in the ongoing provision of professional accounting services. The developments that have been reached by the international accounting standards board in their development of the conceptual frameworks are also issues that were widely discussed.
Honestly, the use of theory in accounting was new to me and many others; however, at the end of the lecture, everyone appreciated the need for the development of a conceptual framework.
In tutorial five, we enjoyed watching the film ‘the inside job’ together with colleagues. This was an interesting film to watch, as it starred renowned movie actors. The most interesting bit is that whatever happened in the film could at one way or another be related to the accounting subject.
While accounting is an almost exact science, the qualities of positivism are mainly embroiled in the film, making it an interesting watch. By watching this film, it was quite possible to link the same to the profession in general as well as the accountants or clients specific needs that need to be addressed.
In lecture 6, accounting in concept was the topic of study. In this topic, while the commonly held belief was that accounting was mainly used financial reporting, the issue of environmental accounting as well as sustainability in the profession was also discussed. I found it rather interesting to note that besides the figures, there is a lot that can be discerned. Key among these is the issue of the triple bottom line reporting in which a company or corporations should be able to report on her, economic as well as environmental and social performance. This was rather intriguing, as conventional wisdom has it that accounting figures are purely financial.
This lecture discusses the efforts of the international accounting standards board for the development of the international financial reporting standards. In this lecture, we learnt that the IASB has spent a lot of efforts in the development of these standards for use in all nations. This will be able to provide the intended uniformity in the processing of financial statements. During my search for other activities of IASB as well as their recent pronouncements, I had to do a lot of research which led me to discovering very important aspects of accounting and its adoption not only regionally but also internationally.
In this lecture, we discussed the issues in management control systems. We agreed that in every organization there was the need for control, which was preceded by a discussion as to what controls really are. It was noted that the element of control can actually be discussed with regard to a number of issues. The design of a management control system was also found to be the fascinating bit, since such a design would comprise of all the needs of the organization with regard to the issue of control in the management systems.
The topic for this lecture was on the issue of Organisational Behaviour and Effective Reward Systems. We learnt that the behaviours exhibited by people either individually or through a group are generally dissatisfied in one way or another. This, according to the topic is the rationale for the implementation of an effective reward system. Some of the important lessons included deficiencies that are mainly experienced by a conventional performance management syst5em as well as a clear identification of the characteristics of a performance management system.
The lecture discusses the issue of corporate governance, reporting as well as accountability in business. Reference is made to the signature Enron case which is widely read as an accounting case study. The core of the discussion was to show that creative accounting, or modification of financial statements is a widespread practice in many nations. The management of the threats that face accountants in their practice is a worthy issue that leads to the development of a more correct and fair way of reporting.
