ACCG 399: Accounting in Context

Current Conceptions of Accounting

Tutorial 1 - Week 2

Thought Activity:
For the past few years in university, I have learnt and gained much knowledge that
related to accounting, accountability and accountant. I also have learned how the role
of accountant has changed in the past few decades. Now, with the development and
expansion of technology, the practice of accounting has become more about providing
advice and orientation for a business, rather than just doing basic accounting role such
as recording transaction or creating financial statement etc.
As my love for numbers, I have always enjoyed learning about accounting, such as
learning about how to make a journal entry, balance sheet or financial statement. I
enjoyed learning about the skills of accounting.
Although I love accounting, sometimes, I still find it difficult and confusing, as there
were lot of laws, concepts and theory. Furthermore, I also often confuse about these
techniques and methods such as consolidation. However, as I keep learning and
practicing, it becomes more natural and easier. It is always fun and happy when I
surpass these challenges.
Despite the fact that learning accounting is quite difficult and struggle, I would still love
to learn more about the roles of accounting, as there are still a lot of things that I need to
discover throughout my course and my future career. I also want to challenge myself
through all of these struggles, to be able to see what my level is, and how I can improve
it.
In approaching my learning in the future, I believe that just apply my knowledge is not
enough, I also need to learn more about accounting, accountability and accountant, as
these concept will continue to change in the future. I should not have relied to much on
what I have learn; with an open-mined, I am eager to absorb more knowledge from my
future careers and surroundings.
Tutorial Engagement Activity:
Collage
Drawing henna: Accountants will collect the financial receipts and detailed
information from many departments and then they must take this information and

carefully enter the number and data into balance sheets, income statements or cash
flow reports without making an error. Therefore, being accurate and paying attention
to every detailed is an important accounting skill.
Taking photo, harvesting: I chose this image, as it reminds me of what I have
learned in class, domination and exploitation, the view that accounting provides
techniques for the extraction of wealth in support of elite business interest groups at
the expense of environment and social activities.
Time: This is a valuable resource for business firm. As an accountant, you
should know how to manage, balance and use your time efficiently and effectively.
Buddha: One of the most important factors in business is the ethic of
accounting. It requires accountants to act honestly, and present information in the
clearest and most accurate way possible. Without ethics, it would lead to the risk of
frauds and may result in worst consequences. One of the examples is the Enron case.
Technology: It represents the growing role of technology in accounting.
Technology is a very significant valuable resource in business, especially for
accountant. With use of the computer an accountant can now perform statistical
accounting or forecasting analysis with greater efficiency. Furthermore, with the help
of technology, accountant can now work faster and more accurate.
Photo of a creative cake: In the lecture, ideology was also mentioned. According
to Claudia, accounting systems form part of a divine ideology that sustains a society to
be able to produce and reproduce itself.
Water: This picture reminds me of transparency in accounting. As an
accountant, you are required to fully, accurately and timely disclose information.

Post-Thought Activity
1. How did you find your experience of this tutorial activity, in general?
I found this tutorial activity is very different and creative from any of the
previous tutorials. With this activity, I am able to engage more with my
classmates, and also learn more about their thoughts of accounting. This activity
has brighter the classroom environment, create a lot of funs and laugh. Through
this activity, I am able to develop my innovation, think of accounting in a more
creative way. I found this activity very unique.
2. How did it make you feel when completing this activity?
Normally, in tutorial, we just deal with number or all kind of theories and
concept of accounting; after completing this activity, my thoughts of accounting
have change. With this activity, I also able to think outside of the scope, rather
than just focus on the numbers and theory, I now find that most of things
surround me are related to accounting, accountability and accountant.
3. Can you identify two useful aspects of this activity?
Firstly, I help me to improve my thinking and innovation, to be able to think
outside of the scope, to be able to make connections with the things I saw to
accounting. Secondly, this method of teaching helps the class to engage and
interact more with each other, help us to focus more in the tutorial, also improve
the class environment.
4. Can you describe how you visualised (saw) accounting, based on the
images you sourced?
Based on the images I sources, I visualized accounting in many aspect. Firstly, I
look into the basic of accounting skills, such as pay attention to detail, carefully
when recording transactions or making report, manage and organise your time. I
then look into the aspect of ethics, by using the picture of Buddha, as it is a very
important factor of business, without this, it can result in the worst consequence,
such as bankruptcy. With ethics, it required transparency, full, accurate and
timely disclosure information. Furthermore, with the improvement of
technology, accounting role has changed significantly. In the lecture, we have
learned about accounting as metaphoric construction, accounting is now more
about ideology, domination and exploitation.

5. Look back to your written description outlined in your Thought Activity

and think about this in comparison with your collage image. Has your
perspective changed or developed in any way since then, if so can you
describe this?
In comparison with my collage images, my perspective has developed and
changed, in term of accounting as metaphor. I now view accounting with openmined, and not rely too much on numeric and theory in textbook.
6. Can you briefly outline key aspects of the discussion that took place in class
afterwards? Can you describe how this discussion made you feel? Was it
beneficial for you? If so, can you outline why and if not, can you describe
this?
The discussion about how you can connect the images to accounting,
accountability and accountant. The discussion made me feels more open-mined
and aware towards accounting. It is beneficial for me as I help me improve my
knowledge of accounting, to not narrow accounting in just numeric aspect. It
helps me to picture more about accounting rather than just focus on calculating.
7. Outline what you gained personally from completing this activity?
As what I have said in the previous question, this activity help me to improve my
thinking and innovation, to be able to think outside of the scope, to be able to
make connections with the things I saw to accounting.

Discovering the Political Influence on Accounting

Tutorial 2 - Week 3

Thought Activity:

A brief synopsis of the content of the article

Link:

Article: Half of big banks unprepared for accounting shake-up

http://www.morgij.com.au/half-of-big-banks-unprepared-for-
accounting-shake-up/

The article is about how half of big banks response to the new international accounting
standards which is due to take force in less than two years. About half the big banks
around the world is not ready for change in IFRS 9. IFRS 9 is a part of a suite of
measures by the International Accounting Standards Board to overhaul accounting
since the financial crisis.

Why you personally chose to include this article (this could include for
example, any interest or connection that you may have to the contents of the
article)?

I personally chose this article as this highlights the pressures placed on the banks by
changing the accounting standards. Research has found that, within 91 banks across the
globe, around 46% do not believe they have enough resources to deliver changes by the
implementation date, which is less than 18 months. Around two thirds of the banks are
unsure how these changes might impact their balance sheet.

A detailed description of how the article relates to the concepts/theories that

were discussed in the regulatory and political influence on accounting
practice lecture.

As we have learned in lecture about the impact of adopting IFRS and how the change of
regulation can influence on accounting practice, this article is all about how banks
response to the change of international accounting standards. Most of them are unsure
about the new change; they are worry about how it will affect their balance sheet and
they are scared that these changes will cause their capital ratios to deteriorate. These
pressures occur because they know they must follow these new rules although they are
unsure about these changes, which highlight the important of regulation. This case is an
example to show how political and regulatory can influence in accounting practice as
with these new standards, a lot of big banks are affected. Furthermore, many are still
unsure whether this level of regulation is really needed.
Tutorial Engagement Activity

A copy of the notes you took on your peers newspaper/professional magazine

article presentation during activity one.

Lees article: New Petrobras CEO must walk political accounting mine field.
The article is about the seemingly political appointment of an oil company CEO by the
president of Brazil. A Banker was chosen for the CEO position rather than someone who
is more suitable, which the article suggests is an oil executive to run the company called
"Petrobras". The Brazilian President (Dilma Rousseff) - has noticed the negative impacts
of this company being in control of a banker, although has denied any knowledge of the
knowledge of the corruption scheme. Petrobras has lost around $22 billion due to price
fixing, bribery and political kickback scandal - leading to the Brazilian government to
get angrier at this mismanagement. Petrobras workers such as executives from the
company and supplier have been arrested due to the corruption probe. Petrobras is
failing to publish their financial stocks. By June, investors can declare the company in
default, which may force Petrobras to repay their liabilities ($54 billion in bonds)
The reason for inclusion of this article is because this article highlights the concerns
relating to government appointments and how government can influence in accounting
practices.
The article related to the political and regulatory influence on accounting because it
shows the important of independent in key role outside of government and how these
appointments can be useful to manipulate and control the release of information.

An outline of key aspects of the discussion that took place with your group in
activity two.
o We were just aware that political and regulatory played some important
roles in the profession of accounting.
o We were not aware that the political and regulatory could influence to that
extend to accounting practice.
o Government can cause a big issue for accounting firms and accountants. Ex:
Lees article, when Political meetings were arranged to ensure problematic
issues such as potential bribery, corruption, and kickbacks were covered and
disputed effectively.
o Changing in international accounting standard can stir up so much trouble to
the accounting practices.
o By reforming IFRS 9, the regulators hope to avoid the problems that
occurred during the crisis, when banks could not book accounting losses until
they happened, even though they could see them coming. This change should
help to keep banks properly capitalized for the loans they have made.
o With the current business operating environment, Globalisation and the
recent introduction of IFRS, it may help to increase the transparency,

o
o
o

therefore the risk would be decrease and the cost of finance could also be
cheaper.
With IFRS and Globalisation, it is building up uniform standards for global
markets.
A political and regulatory climate therefore considered more about uniform
standards and transparency.
I get to understand more about how political and regulatory can influence in
accounting practice. It helps me to feel more at ease, as now I has known that
how important of regulation to my future career.
With these regulations, I think that it would increase the pressure to
accounting firms and accountants. However, with a lot of scandals that
involve in the failure of ethic and morality in accounting practices, I think
these regulations might be helpful in reducing those problems.

Post-Thought Activity
In undertaking this exercise, talking with your peers and hearing the discussion that
ensued in your tutorial. Outline what you have gained personally as a result of your
engagement? How might you start to prepare yourself to enter such a political and
regulatory professional context in which your ethics and judgement may be called
into question? What might be the effect of such political and regulatory influence for
the accounting profession?

From the discussion that was undertaken, I have known more about the accounting
profession in a different aspect, which is the knowledge of the effects of political and
regulatory on accounting practice.

To prepare myself to enter such a political and regulatory professional context, the
most important thing is that I need to understand clearly about these political and
regulatory. Another substantial factor is ethics; as I have study about Enron case in
ACCG315, I know how important ethic and moral are in the workplace.
Furthermore, with my previous experiences in various part-time jobs and the
knowledge gained from school and works, I have already started to prepare myself
to enter such a context. Therefore, I believe that even in such a heavy regulated
working environment, or even at a time when my morals are conflicted; I will be
able to maintain my ethical judgment, moral and integrity.

In order to maintain the truthfulness, and to benefit society as a whole rather than
vested interests, such political and regulatory are required. Furthermore, accounting
profession is mainly about transactions, reports, statements etc., therefore, it is
important to have rules and principles to follow. And those rules and principles are
bind by the laws; therefore, a political influence becomes necessary to maintain the
integrity in accounting practice. Additionally, in order to make sure firms operate
properly and follow those rules and principles, regulatory influence is important, i.e.
ASIC.

ACCG 399: Accounting in Context

The Conceptual Framework and Accounting Standard Setting
Tutorial 3 - Week 4

Thought Activity

Without doubt, the development of conceptual framework played a significant role
in accounting practices, as conceptual framework can be seen as an attempt to define
the nature and purpose of accounting. Early writings on this subject were mainly form
academics as conceptual framework is basically about theoretical and conceptual issues
surrounding financial reporting and form a coherent and consistent foundation that will
underpin the development of accounting standards.
Furthermore, it is necessary to have conceptual framework, as it is a principlebased system, which accounting standards are developed from an agreed conceptual
basis with specific objectives. Therefore, it will lead to uniform standards, which apply
internationally amidst global markets.
However, it could be argued that, a rule-based accounting system might not be
flexible enough as financial statements are intended for different type of users;
therefore, it might not suit for all users with one specific standards. With the diversity of
user requirements, there may also be a need for variety of accounting standards, each
produced for a different purpose.
As I have mentioned earlier about how conceptual framework is basically related to
financial reporting; conceptual framework will form a theoretical basis for determining
how transactions should be measure, which will be helpful for financial reporting to
provide useful information for economic decision-making. With these standards and
principles from the framework, it helps to build the confidence of user in financial
reporting as their understandings about these financial statements have increased. It
also become easier to compare between the financial statements of different companies
which will also be helpful for economic/business decision-making.

Tutorial Engagement Activity

A summary outlining your experience and discussion that occurred within

your group and the presentations from other groups.

In the tutorial, we have discussed about the Confucian values and how it had
influenced in the way business relationships handling and companies managing, how
conceptual framework may work on these country. We learned that how Asian begun to
adapt to the Western way to manage their corporation. As the conceptual framework
was not developed in Asia, and with the influences of more than 2000 years of
Confucian values, it would be hard for old generation to change their way of believe and
work. Asian businesses tended to be hierarchical, thus the relationship between
employers and employees is one of superior-subordinate, and unquestioned obedience
is expected of employees. Ways that Confucian societies tried to implement Western
corporate practices were the recruitment of independent directors onto internal
boards. Furthermore, as Asian business begun to expand more globally, it is important
to follow the conceptual framework as CF can help to increased international
compatibility of accounting standards and help to run smoothly within the Western
values. And as younger generations are tended to study overseas, they become more
open mind to foreign value, thus problems from Confucian values are no longer serious.
Post Thought Activity

A written response (500 words maximum) of how the class activities have
expanded your thoughts.

Before the class, my knowledge was limited to theory and practical of accounting, I
was not really known that culture background could affect to accounting and business
environment. Through the article The Application of Anglo-American Corporate
Practices in Societies Influenced by Confucian Values and the discussion within the
tutorial, I found that different culture could influence significantly to the business
practice.
Furthermore, through the activities, I also learn that the article was biased towards
Western countries and it was not discuss about Western culture and values, although

the article is about the comparison between Western and Asian values (Confucian), and
how these Asian countries could adapt with Western way of corporate practices.
On the one hand, it was true that those Asian countries such as Japan, China and
Korea are influences by Confucian values as these values present traditional and
historical of their countries. With the businesses that were operated around or more
than 100 years ago, their ways of managing their business was hierarchical, it required
respectful and obedient within the work environment. Until now, some organisations
still believed and operated with these values.
On the other hand, the article was over 10 years ago, these comments might not be
true anymore. As my classmate has discussed in the tutorial, she said that with a lot of
Western corporations have cooperated with Asian organisations, and Asian business
also expand globalization, it clearly points out that Confucian values were no longer
influenced much in business practices. And as the rapidly increase in number of Asian
studying abroad, Confucian values were no longer a problem.
Moreover, this article mentioned how poor the Asian corporate governance, as after
the Asian Financial Crisis, many companies were anxious to rebuild themselves. This
comment was strongly bias against Asian companies, as with the good corporate
governance, Enron failure was still happened, and resulted in many worst
consequences such as the lost of trust of citizen towards the American economic
system, the lost of citizens retirement savings, the lost of jobs for of 4500 employees,
with seem to be even worsen than the resulted from Confucian values. Another
irrelevant comment is about how Confucian societies focused only to long-term growth
and stability while Western was making profits over the short term. Nowadays, almost
every business around the world tends to balance between short-term and long-term
growth and benefits, therefore this statement wasnt quite correct.
I also learn how these conceptual frameworks can help to increase the users
understanding of financial statement confidence in financial reporting and make it
easier to compare with different companies.
Lastly, I learned how the conceptual framework could work in those societies that
are influences in Confucian values as to help the corporations to run smoothly when
cooperate with Western business or when they expand globally. These conceptual
frameworks can also help to build a uniform standard and build a stronger connection
between the countries around the world.

Measuring Accountings Value: A Normative Perspective

Tutorial 4 in Week 5
Thought Activity
Normative accounting is principle based, positive accounting is practice based on what is
happening.
As the theoretical framework is the basic foundation of accounting, a collection
of significant concepts that underlie the accounting practices, which is the foundation
of the accounting profession; therefore it is critical for an accountant to learn about
these concepts.
A conceptual framework is referred to the presentation and preparation of
financial statements. This also is referred to the structure and guideline for the
accounting practice to follow. These foundation frameworks is also helps for the future
development and shaping of accounting standards as a references and guidelines.
As we engage in the business world as accounting service professionals, this
framework is important. When the nature of standards and rules associated to
accounting keeps changing and updating, the framework is remain as the foundation
and basic of accounting standards. Furthermore, when money is important in everyday
life, ethics and moral are critical in the business world, as such, the presence of a
framework helps to keep and ensure that these accounting practices in line. And as
professionals, it is necessary for us to follow these rules and guideline to keep out
procedures and practices are qualified and integrity.
The 2010 IASB has mentioned that the main objective of general purport
financial reporting were focused on the provision of financial information to users for
their use to make decision related to financial or accounting matter specific to the firm
whose information they have requested. Internal users use these reports as
information for decision-making and strategizing; while external users use these
reports to find potential investments. Thus, the purpose of financial reporting is to
provide useful, reliable and relevant information to help users for their decisionmaking regarding their interactions with the firm.
Tutorial Engagement Activity
o The process of producing financial statements, which disclose and financial
status and management, investors and the government of an organisation is
called financial reporting.

o Its scope should be the financial information of the reporting firm to show the
financial performance and position of the reporting firm.
o The needs of the users for the financial information will ultimately determine the
need to produce financial reports.
o Financial reporting provides useful, reliable and relevance information to users
to make decision related to financial and economic.
o Primary qualitative characteristics are understandability, relevance, reliability,
comparability, timeliness and materiality.
o Elements of financial reporting are basically assets, liabilities, equity, revenue
and expenses.
o The measurement basis that should be employed are fair value, market value,
disposal cost and historical value; these measurements can be changed
according to the use and user of information.
o It is difficult for accounting to consider such a measurement solution to evaluate
and assign a numerical value to the environment, as it is very uncertain and vast.
However, in regarding to offsetting carbon footprints and emission, it may be
able to account for sustainability solution.
o The dollar value of the damage from emission can be measured by finding the
wheel costs, costs of diminishing assets, cost of habitat etc. Then firm should be
responsible in minimizing the impact of the operations on the environment
through recognising these economical uses of resources.
o Accountants have the knowledge and ability to manage resources efficiently,
which is needed in this case. Accountants also have the expertise required in
relate to recognise the resources value into their financial reports.
o The accounting for financial objects such as liabilities and expenses may not be
physical in nature. The physical objects are tangible objects that hold a physical
form, which are recognised by an accounting firm such as assets, PPE, machinery
and inventory.

Post Thought Activity
The image portrays two people with two opposite situations, one man who sit
comfortably in a balance chair company A between three legs, which are social,
financial and environmental; while another man, who is unbalanced and seems to be on

the verge of falling over as his chair company B just rests on the single leg financial.
By looking at this picture, it shows clearly that two men with their companies illustrate
the two ends of a scale regarding to the company priorities, and their contribution to a
companys performance.
Company A represents a company with well performance by showing the
balance between three aspects of the business world: financial, social and
environmental, each aspect is important which every company need to concern. By
balancing between these three aspects, it shows that the company is operated and
managed successful. To be a well-being company, it needs to be able to consider
environmental needs to ensure that their operations and managements are
environmentally sound and sustainable for the future of the company as well as the
environment. In addition, company also should concern about social needs for not just
to its staff, but also for other companies, customers, and community and government
around it. Lastly, the financial aspect represents the companys business side, which
concern much more about the making-profit. By balancing between these three aspects,
company can be stable and develop more in the future.
In a sharp contrast, company B showing their priority focus only on profits,
which is unbalanced and would be failed eventually. A business model that focused
solely on financial profit is inherently unsustainable if it ignores two critical elements
necessary to its success: human and planet (social and environmental). When the
business world has changed and grown dramatically in the past few years, the focus on
business more about generating the profits in a way that is better for both social and
environmental rather than focus solely on profits. As the picture has portrayed, by
solely focus on financial may lead to the failure of the company.
This image not only demonstrates the successful and failure of business firms, it
could also be related to our daily life. Within our life, we usually need to make decision
between company A and B situation; we need to think whether our priority is only
about the money, or by making this decision, does it have any impact on the social and
environmental around us; this kind of decisions are happened usually in our career or
our daily life. By solely focusing on money, it might be a question about whether ethics
and integrity are presented in this objective.

Accountings Positivistic Tendencies: Overlaying a Social Science

with Pure Scientific Rationale
Tutorial 5 - Week 6
Thought Activity
After watching the documentary film, I am quite surprised that how the objective regulators
are not doing there jobs properly while many risky investments happened.
o I am quite shocked of how from just one CDO or one property, but many people can
insure that property while they didnt actually own it; it will be very risky if the CDOs
went bad, then it would cause a big loss.
o I am also surprised how SEC didnt do anything, didnt investigate about this issue,
they even lifting leverage limit on the investment banks, which make things become a
lot riskier.
o I am also really impressed about Rajans argue about how the incentive structures,
that generated huge cash bonuses based on short-term profits but which imposed no
penalties for later losses, encouraged bankers to take risks that might event destroy
their own firms or even the entire financial system, and I am believe in his opinion, it
is easier to generate performance by taking on more risk.
o Furthermore, there is no liability towards those rating agencies if rating CDOs proved
wrong, while most of CDOs rate triple A, and I see this is really unfair toward the
investors.
o

I keep questioning how these people can do that to the society. They only care about
their own interest; their short-term profit while this can cause other to lose all of their
money.

o Rating agencies could have stopped the party and immediately cut off the funding to
risky borrowers, but they didnt, as they only care about their own interest, the more
structured securities they gave a triple-A rating to, the higher their earnings were.
o At the time 2004-2006, the top year for subprime lending, but despite numerous
warnings, such as FBI, Rajanhowever the Federal Reserve Board did nothing.
o It is really depressing of how these fact in Inside Job was shockingly true. It is really
hurtful of how the ethics seem not important as all, this affected significantly to the
societies.
o After watching this film, I become unsure whether the current business is moral or
not.

Tutorial Engagement Activity

A reflective description of a key aspect in your learning that occurred for you during the
completion of your tutorial activities one, two and/or three.
o How greed can influence people terribly, especially in the film, some of the top
ratings like AA+ were retained for companies on the very day they were
bankrupting. It was quite shocking to realize that how badly these rating
agencies were corrupt and how many people would have lost their hard earned
money because of them.
o The connection between all the stakeholders and parties is more than what I had
initially thought. With these corruptions between these connections, it caused
people to lose their jobs, their homes and their savings.
o How importance regulation to these business, with the lack of regulation,
everything become a big mess; corruptions, fraud and conflicts of interests keep
growing.
o This is a global issue, not just in America; as the film showed that there is no
meaningful action has been taken to stop it happening all over again. It showed
the important of the government and regulator if they dont do anything, things
keep getting worse.
Post Thought Activity
o Begin to think about how the university is constructed. What is the political context
in which it operates? Who provides funding of the university and what do they
expect in return?
The political context is constructed under the education department, and is
regulated for by the relevant minister. The funding of the university is provided
from both student fees and political funding such as through grants and
contributions. And as the level of oversea student is rapidly increase, universities
where there is a large number of oversea students will have less funding from
the government and ATO in the form of HECS as this is available only to domestic
students.
o Investigate the role the professional accounting bodies have in your education.
How much influence do they have over the construction of accounting education
programmes and curriculum design. What does it mean to be accredited?
The role of the professional accounting bodies is to manage the funding and

finances of my education. Their roles are also influence over the designs and
programs of my education as curriculums and courses are designed to be within
budgetary constrains, which are usually limited by the accounting bodies.
o Does IFAC or IASB play a role in an accountants educational outcomes?
IFAC and IASB do play some role in an accountants educational outcomes, as
they are international base bodies and international guidelines have expanded
globally thus, it increased significantly in accountants education. And as
Australian standards had started to reflect with the international standards, IFAC
and IASB played even more important part of accountants educational
outcomes.
o What role does accounting firms play in shaping educational outcomes?
Accounting firms play a significant role in shaping educational outcomes, as
these are the places where accountant will start their careers; thus, the
requirement and desires of accounting firms are the qualifications that
accountants will required to have and achieve. By learning what accounting
firms require and seek, it is clearly that it will shape the accountants education
programs.
o How might professional accounting bodies, accounting firms and international
accounting bodies such as IFAC or IASBs aims be related?
Professional accounting bodies and international accounting bodies aim to
regulate accounting practices, they aim to create a uniform standards and
policies.
In relation to regulatory bodies, they aim to guide the accounting practice and
maintain its integrity and objectivity as a profession, as they are responsibilities
for the rules and standards they create.
o What is it that they appear to be aiming for in an accounting workforce?
They appear to be aiming for transparency, uniformity and integrity of the
accounting profession in an accounting workforce. Furthermore, they also aim to
guide the accounting practices and create professionals of accountants, as they
want to keep the accountants role as professional and integrity as possible.
o Could this be explained through positive accounting theory?
This could be explained through positive accounting theory, as in explaining, and
predicting of accounting. Its overall intention is to understand and predict the

choice of accounting policies across differing firms. So, researching to choose

which set of guideline and which regulatory body would come through the work
of accountant through their career.
o How might this be explained through political capture theory?
In ensuring the integrity, professional and transparency in accounting practice,
the accounting profession is being looked after well, the people are looking for
ways to improve, so that they are free from criticism from the public or anything
negative against them (political capture).

Critiquing Current Accounting Research

Tutorial 6 in Week 7

Thought Activity
Soft background music and attractive visual effects make me focus more on the
message
Short but the video has emphasized clearly what they want to tell audiences, i.e.
research is the enemy of cancer, it is the key to solve problem
Give the positive feeling towards cancer
By looking at the video, it is hardly to define anything that related to accounting.
But in term of the message, the meaning of the video, which is the need of raising
funds for the researching of cancer, it related to accounting due to the presence
of money. And as there is a fund, there will be a need for financial report, and
disclosure about the uses of this money; those activities are basically accounting
practices.
Cancer destroy from inside, as in accounting, ethic can also destroy accounting
from inside.

Tutorial Engagement Activity
1. Take it in turn for the first 10 minutes to share your initial reaction and thoughts of
the video clip with each other. In doing this try to identify in your descriptions what it is
that you found in common? Were there differences that you have found in each
description? Can you also identify what these were?
In our group, the thing that we have in common in our description was that all of
us agreed on the importance of research in the field of medical is the same in the field
of accounting. There were also some different but interesting thoughts in our group
such as the relation between cancer in medical and fraud in accounting of one
student.
2. Spend 5 minutes discussing in a group if you were able to find connections or
relations between the film clip and accounting? Did you find this activity difficult? If
so, can you describe why this might be, if not, why not?
The relation of the film clip and accounting is that with research in the accounting
profession, we can reduce the error in the practice and prevent catastrophic event
such as the GFC. Also, research helps with explanation of the theory or the practice of
accounting. Moreover, as mentioned above, the cancer in medical field can be thought
as fraud in the accounting profession. There was no difficulty in the activity because
the 1-minute clip was easy to understand and the visual aid in the clip expressed the
idea thoroughly.
3. For the final 5 minutes can you describe your feelings towards research as a
group? What is research? How is it purposeful? What are its limitations?
Research is the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources
in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions. The purpose of research is to

explore, describe and explain a specific event or a topic. There is a parallel between
how people come to understand something and the process of researching an idea.

How has research, in our discipline of accounting, assisted to enhance and/or
develop society?

The nature of the business environment is very important to the research development
because the business environment includes all of the internal and external factors that
affect how the company functions including employees, customers, management, supply
and demand and business regulations. An example of a part of a business environment
is how well customers expectations are met. However, the business environment
changes drastically therefore, the monitoring of it for research purposes and to make
sure that it is conducive is very hard. As regard to the development of society due to
accounting research, it is almost certainly to say that accounting research help
enhancing the society because firstly, it improve the quality of the accounting practice
which will effectively reduce fraud in the profession. Secondly, it will help creating more
jobs in the accounting research field for the society.

On the other hand, the nature of accounting research is the workings and
communication between the academics and accountants to enhance the accounting
profession. Therefore, it is hard to define due to the shift over time. . As a rough
overview, early accounting research (pre-1960s) was mostly normative (i.e., arguing for
the correct accounting treatment, or what should be). With the advent of the Journal
of Accounting Research, advances in finance such as the efficient market hypothesis,
creation of large data sets and the statistical abilities to analyze them (i.e., computers),
and the publication of Ball and Browns seminal work in 1968, accounting research
moved into positive research (i.e., examining what is rather than what should be).
Although this change has had its critics, it has resulted in a significant increase in
research output (and many new journals). Some of the greatest development in
accounting are Positive Accounting Theory, Fair value accounting, history cost

The limitation in accounting research is because of the changing of the business
environment, it can be hard for researcher to monitor and calculate and estimate the
changes in their calculation. Moreover, there are some political issues in the profession,
which can be lobbied by the parties involved, and it will change the regulation. Also, the
regulation can affect the researching method of researchers.



Post thought Activity.
Research in our discipline of accounting is clearly helpful in assisted to enhance and
develop society in many ways through gaining knowledge and also the impact of

accounting research. The research is continuing to improve the accounting profession

practice, as the role of accountants and professional accounting becomes more
significant when the business world is growing rapidly.
First of all, accounting research helps developing a Stakeholder Agreement with the
roles, responsibilities, and interrelationship between accounting academia, policy and
practice clearly mapped out. This model could go a long way to improving accounting
research quality and have an impact on society. Secondly, it provides greater incentives
for academics to engage more with policy and practice. E.g. business school leaders and
faculty members should have Performance Indicators (PIs) set in relation to industry
engagement, as part of their accountability and professional development plans.
Placing more academic staff into businesses, regulatory agencies and professional
services firms so they can experience the real world of accounting. This crossfertilization would be for extended periods domestically and internationally, and
provide an alternative form of outside study.
Moreover, throughout the 1990s, social and environmental accounting research has
increasingly gained prominence and developed substantially. During this time, a
number of theories such as stakeholder theory, political economy theory, and
legitimacy theory, were employed with the aim of explaining rather than simply
describing social and environmental accounting and reporting practices. The 1990s also
witnessed growth in research attention on the internalization of external
environmental costs, via full costs accounting methods, and more particularly, on the
reintroduction of the social eco-justice issues, in addition to those of eco-efficiency. In
relation to the research within the context of developing nations, early research only
focuses on documenting the extent or level of social and environmental disclosures.
This focus was different from the early research undertaken in developed nations which
provides a critical analysis of the role of conventional accounting in a society and social
reporting content analysis. While early research on developing nations did not provide
a notable contribution in terms of research methods and theoretical frameworks
employed, this appeared to be important in understanding the level of social
disclosures practices of organizations operating in developing countries. Since 2005
social and environmental accounting research on developing nations provides a
significant contribution in terms of theoretical frameworks embraced and research
methods employed. Some recent studies utilize interviews in order to provide in-depth
understanding of management motivations for social disclosures. Moreover, the
increasing engagement of both academic researchers and stakeholder groups as
discussed above indicates that academic interest in social and environmental
accounting and disclosure practices has not waned in recent years; rather they continue
to be investigated by academics through 30 attempts to determine the rationales
underlying such practices.

Developing one set of Accounting Standards to rule them all

Tutorial 7 in Week 9
Thought Activity:
My country is Vietnam and it has not adopt IFRS yet. But as the demands from World
Bank, IFC and foreign investors become unavoidable, therefore, firms in Vietnam are
required to adopt International Financing Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2020.
By 2018, Vietnam should have the required legal framework for applying international
financial reporting standards. The lack of the international reporting standard subject
businesses in Vietnam to additional work for their statutory reporting commitments
and harms the domestic Vietnamese business by restricting their access to foreign
capital.
Many evidences showed that the switch to IFRS brought important economic results,
with long-term benefits outweighing short-term costs and implementation challenges.
Furthermore, a finance ministry official has said that the benefits of adopting IFRS
include transparency, accounting quality, comparability and market liquidity among
others. Therefore, by adopting IFRS in 2020, Vietnam will hopefully attract more foreign
investments.
In my opinion, as every country has their own culture and each country also has a
different value of money, it would be hard to comply a uniform standard globally.
Furthermore, the adoption of new regulation will be costly; therefore, future initial
investment of resources in Vietnam will be covered for these costs. However the future
outcome is not very certain and we are still uncertain about the required period to
cover for these adoption costs. Hence, I am still unsure whether this will bring much
benefit to Vietnam, as it requires a long-term process to see the outcome for the new
regulation adoption, but Vietnam is not a very wealthy country. In addition, I also worry
about what if even after adopting new regulation, our country still does not attract
many foreign investors, then it will bring a big loss to our country, and also affect a lot in
our life.
Tutorial Engagement Activity:
-

My classmate is from China, and her reactions were also not positive. A common
reason for Chinas adoption of IFRS was for also for the potential attraction of

foreign investment; however, stakeholders from China have yet to found this
adoption to fully lead to the benefits they had desired for at the beginning.
One set of accounting standards that will rule them all
Advantages:
-

Convenience and uniformity in financial reports

Attract more potential foreign investment, which lead to an increase in capital

Easier for various users

Transparency, accounting quality, comparability and market liquidity among

others.
Disadvantages:
-

Uniformity constricts variation and therefore may not attend to different

countries and economies.

Uniform standards are not catered to each economy specifically.

Lack of specilisation leads to a very narrowed, horizontal approach to reporting.

In relate to accounting standards and the context of the accounting profession,

harminosation refers to the bringing together common standards. So with regards to
the IASB and FASB, this concept is finding that common ground in relate to the
differences in standards and bring them together. While standardisation refers to the
framework of agreements to which those within a certain industry adhere to or abide
by in order to maintain integrity of the performances by those relevant parties.
According to IASB and FASB, this could make reference to the establishment of
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles to ensure reliability, relevance, consistency
and comparability. Lastly, condorsement refers to the combination of conversion and
endorsement. It describes the movement of accounting standards from different
countries to a more align direction to that of IASB. This concept refers to the
combination and fusion of differing standards, in order to amend.
Standardisation of accounting standards on a global basis can be seen to have some
connection to standardisation in an accounting practice, as the accounting standards
define much of what occurs within an accounting practice. While standardisation
accounting standards may create a uniform set of standards and guidelines in some
certain aspects of accounting, this may not essentially be equally met in accounting

practice. Accounting practice may diverge from the standardised accounting standards
according to what the accountants are required to do, as such while different practices
or accountants abide by the same standards, this does not essentially guarantee a
standardised accounting practice, due to the variances of practices.
Post-Thought Activity
Regarding their efforts to standardise accounting practice globally, or these cracks,
there are still many challenges being faced by the IASB, examples can be seen to be with
countries that are slow or hesitant to adopt IFRS. Many countries still have not adopted
standardised accounting practice yet or have expressed no interest or desire to do so.
With this reason, it forms the cracks, which the IASB are still trying to fix these
problems, as globally standardised accounting practice cannot occur where many
countries still have not adopt it. The problem was evident with Japan and India, whom
initially had not adopted IFRS, which as a result created cracks for the plan of
standardised accounting practice. However, these examples of countries also serve as
the concrete for such an effort, as while they were initially the cracks, however they
changed their mind and decided to adopt IFRS later on, and they then formed part of the
bigger group of countries who are contributing to the effort, and as such assist greatly.
As more countries move towards standardised accounting practices, there would be
more governments, companies and firms that would follow the trend, as such, this
snowball effect is borne of the cracks, which initially plagued the IFRS.
The largest impact that can be associated personally with the globalisation of
accounting is mainly with regards to how much of the efforts and time that are
required, also works and tasks that need to be done. Much of what may occur currently
for domestic firms and practices is focused on exactly that, a national or domestic
mindset regarding firms interacting with each other within Australia. Therefore, the
impact of globalisation would lead to more diverse and unknown environments with
respect to current contextual happenings. While the globalisation of accounting would
mainly be a positive occurrence, as it brings more benefit many firms, companies and
countries. However, as a professional, in order to maintain their qualifications and
remain as a professional, they will need to have more open-mind and learn much more
about the globally focused accounting practices. With the globalisation of accounting
standards, there will create a more unified and conformed set of standards and

guidelines to abide by, as such, strategies to assist in this impact would be focused on
learning and gaining more knowledge as much as possible and expanding perspectives.
Furthermore, being able to see the bigger picture of organisations and their desires, as
well as the greater goal of multinational firms would also assist greatly in a way that
would be more comfortable and easier to work within the accounting profession within
an environment of interconnected countries brought together by globalisation.

Exploring the Notion of Success and Effective Reward Systems

Tutorial 9 in Week 10
Thought Activity
Currently, my employment is within a hospitality/service industry, where most of the work is
focused on customers. As I am just a part timer in a small dessert shop, therefore I think my
workplace structured tend to be centralized. Business owners typically develop the shops
mission and vision, and set objectives for us workers.
The group norms and beliefs are pretty much focused towards the provision of services to
serve the needs of their customers. These were easy enough to identify as they are instilled,
repeated and reinforced throughout my work.
Being a service assistant, there is very little motivation given that it is a role I see no future
in, nor desire to pursue further as a career choice. As a service assistant, I work within a team
but much of the work is delegated and as such I am responsible for my own tasks, thus, I
have the responsibility and am as a result accountable.
I am uncomfortable about the little wage payments, but it is hard for an international student
to find a workplace that gives high pay. Therefore, I myself can only learn to live with it,
given that managements focus is only on cutting costs in order to save more money.
In term of reward, currently other than verbal affirmation, performance is yet to be something
I have witnessed rewarded, which is definitely something that could be done differently in
order to reflect performance better.
Tutorial Engagement Activity:
During the activity, I create several things to represent success:
-

Book: represent for knowledge which is the most important factor

Lock: represent the challenges that often associated with reaching objectives and
goals

Key: represent the right strategies and methods that can solve these lock challenges
to reach the final goal.

Potential methods of assessing and measuring success could be through analysis of

employees activities and methods to attaining goals and objectives. Wherein the ends is
something that a firm or company desire to achieve, leaders could measure the success of


their employees through understanding and observing how those employees choose to go
about completing and attaining their objectives, and what is their strategies.
The ability to relocate and generated revenue serve as good measures and indicators of
success, however just as important as these measures of success are the means by which
employees attain these aspects. As a result, a method of implementing measures for success
could be through cross-referencing revenue generated and resumes of employees and their
work experiences against their strategies and methods using to achieve these goals.
Independent reviews or interviews or just discussing about their strategies and methods could
create a foundation for appropriate measures of success.
Performance indicators could be drafted as revenue generated, either per individual employee
or as a group, or even by division or department. This, in conjunction with reviews could
serve as a potential means of performance measurement in the future; these could serve as
Key Performance Indicators.
Effective rewards system generates to motivate employees. A motivated workforce can be a
significant factor in business success. Rewards are positive outcome that serve as a result of
an employees performance. There are two type of rewards: intrinsic and extrinsic:
- Intrinsic motivation is what you have to offer yourself and is driven by personal interest or
enjoyment in the work itself, example: sense of satisfaction, achievement and personal
growth.
- Extrinsic reward is tangible and offers by manager or supervisor, example: salary and
wages, bonus, recognition, promotion.

ACCG 399: Accounting in Context

Visually Exploring what it means to be Professional
Tutorial 11 - Week 12
Thought Activity
Money: This photo demonstrates what the accounting
profession is centered around. In my opinion, it can be
linked in various aspect, the desires, experiences, and
aspirations of accountants, also the reason for why many
choose to become the profession. The picture is significant
as money plays an important role in the daily life of a person
whether he is a consumer, a producer, a businessman, an
academician or a politician. It is used as common measures
of values and also promotes division of labour and
productivity.
Books: This represents the knowledge,
the basic academic foundation for
accounting student. And the outcome
from these knowledge forms numerous
necessary skills, which are required by
your future employer.

important

skills

that

As a student, these books are basically

what I rely upon as to learn all of the
foundation before entering to a real-life
practice. And knowledge is one of the
professional must have.

the

Laptop: this photo represents and relates to

technology and its influence in the profession
accounting role. Technology knowledge/ skill is
significant as an accountant, thus more
opportunities will come to you if you have the
ability to use technology and any accountingrelated software. And as our generation is
practically surround by technologies, wherein so
much of our learning and work relies on
technology. To maintain as professional as
possible in an environment of constant
technological development, it is important to
remain up to date and relevant with technologys
information.

Clear ruler: This image represent for both principle/rule,

and transparency. As a professional, it is critical as in
complying with all the related rules and principle when
performing any duty and work. While following those
related rules, a profession accountant also needs to
understand the important of transparency in financial
statements/reports and carries out their work as
transparency as possible. Transparency is an important
ethic value as a professional. Therefore, as to increase my
own value, I always try to follow the rule and be honest.

Objective and Independence: this photo

demonstrates a important ethic value within
accounting
profession,
objective
and
independence. Accountants must remain free
from conflicts of interest and other questionable
business relationships when conducting
accounting services. I believe that objective and
independence is an essential value as an
accounting profession.
Failure to remain
objective and independent may hamper an
accountants ability to provide an honest
opinion about a companys financial
information.

Growth: To maintain the level of

professional and success career, growing
and developing is important. As the evergrowing business industry wherein
technologies, regulations and environment
keep changing, you need to keep expanding
your knowledge by learning, practicing and
analysing new information regarding to
these changes.


Tutorial Engagement Activity

Money and Knowledge are mutual photos that all member of our group have taken. The
reason is money is one of the most significant items that present in our daily life, and more
specifically within the accounting industry. Knowledge is a basic factor that every
professional must have.
My images were a bit different for my group as it is more about characteristic, significant
requirement for an accounting professional. While my friends images were about banks,
E&Y building- which demonstrate the place where an accounting professional work and her
goals of working in on of these building.
Furthermore, we also found that ethic and integrity is also significant factors, which are
required to be a professional.
To develop these attributes and maintain as a professional, it requires learning more knowledge
from real-world practices, and through many years of experiences.
I believe that there is a difference between personal and professional identity. Regarding to
myself, my personal identity refers me with my family, my best friend, and when I am at
home, outside of work and school; while my professional identity is the image that I want to
present to my employers and colleagues, this identity present whenever I am in work-related
situation. These two identities show the balance between work and life/family, and this could
be seen as a common case for most workers.
During the activity, I come to understand more about other perspective relating to accounting
professional, and encourage us to think more about our future career, and how we can improve
ourselves.

Post-Thought Activity
8. How did you find your experience of this tutorial activity, in general?
There is no doubt that this tutorial activity is unique and creative as usual, it made me think more
about my future career prospects as an accounting profession. The experience was enjoyable,
comparing with the first tutorial when we just chose images from a magazine, which had limit
resources, this activity encouraged us to explore more, and
9. How did it make you feel when completing this activity?
This activity made me feel more professional, as if I has already become an account within the
accounting profession industry, where I get to think more about my current job, observe from the
real-world practice and reflect on future aspirations. During this activity, I felt as if I was one more
step closer towards my future career as an accountant.
10. Can you identify two useful aspects of this activity?

Encourage innovative and creative thinking.

Learn from other points of views and reflect my own perspective.

11. Can you identify two aspects of this activity that you did not like?
In general, I enjoyed this activity; there was nothing that I did not like. The only one aspect I can
think of is that I would prefer taking photos as a group rather than by myself.


12. Can you describe what it was like to take photographs for this task? Did you find it difficult? If
so, do you think there might be a reason for this can you describe this?
As I believe that we have trained ourselves to become more creative throughout those previous
tutorials, as well as the unlimited resources to take pictures, this task was not difficult as all. The
only difficult that might arise would be in relate to the lack of creation or vision, which could make
it hard to take 6 photographs.
7

To what extent has this activity assisted you in understanding yourself as an individual better?
Can you describe this? Can you reflect on how this makes you feel?

In relate to understanding my own self better, this activity allowed me to reflect on myself as a
current person and individual, as well as a much greater extent in understanding the person I want
to be, or may become in the future. Through various perspectives around the accounting profession
from other members, I am able to reflect and understand myself better. Learning from others made
me fell as if I become more knowledgeable and genuine.
8

If you think about the common attributes your group discussed on being professional, how
would you go about further developing these for yourself?

Further developing on being professional for myself can be continuing in reflecting myself in
relate to the concept of money, knowledge and experience gain from real-world practices,
networking and ethical. Furthermore, I can also reflect in much greater extent through
understanding and learning numerous issues from all of the scandals within the current as well as
the future profession of accounting. I believe that these aspects are necessary and useful for my
future development.
9

Outline what you gained personally from completing this activity?

Personally, I am able to expand my point of view relating the accounting profession through
connecting things around our daily life with accounting and reflecting from others perspectives. I
also learned some methods and approaches for my future development in both personal and
professional aspects.

Integrated Reporting: A Road Towards Enhanced Corporate Governance or

Financial Reportings Decline
Tutorial 12 - Week 13
Thought Activity

Document your reflections on and feelings towards the framework?

This framework attempts to improve consistency and quality of financial reporting/information

available to providers of financial capital, thus increase efficiency and productivity of capital
allocation. I feel that this framework is promising as it drives board and management to look at
their whole business with a bigger picture through this much more integrated lens, which can


lead to stronger cross functional communications, more productive dialogue among employees
at all levels across business activities, and more meaningful dialogue with external stakeholders.

How does this framework compare and contrast with current reporting requirements?

Compare with current reporting requirements, an integrated report looks beyond the traditional
time frame and scope of the current financial report by providing the wider as well as longerterm consequences of decisions and action and by making clear the link between financial and
non-financial value (including factors such as capital, environmental and social).

Describe the impact this new means of reporting has for the future accounting professional?
Will the skills and attributes required by accounting and assurance professionals (auditors)
be different to what they are now? How so?

As IR framework has stated that The cycle of integrated thinking and reporting, resulting in
efficient and productive capital allocation, will act as a force for financial stability and
sustainability, it means that the future accounting professional will need more evolved skill sets
to be valuable for your firms. Thus these new developments will have potential impact on the
accounting profession. For example, future auditors may include non-accounting trained
persons who are subject matter experts and the accounting profession could also be transformed
into one in which accountants are not merely accounting trained but are also business savvy.

As a future professional about to enter (re-enter or embark on a continued career) in the

accounting profession, how does this make you feel?

I have a mixed feeling, excited and anxious, about my future career as a professional; it is a
challenge as well as an opportunity for myself. As I will soon be able to apply my knowledge to
the real practice, I need to become a valuable employee to my organisation so my employer
would not regret hiring me.

Describe any broader implications this may bring to the accounting profession.

Since this new framework requires looking and reporting beyond financial numbers, audit and
accounting firms would likely need to enhance their multi-disciplinary knowledge and
capabilities. Therefore, we need to change our focus of accountancy study, rather than focusing
only on accounting, we also need to focus on other areas related to it such as business process
and suitability. This is to enable us to learn more broadly and cope with modern business
complexities.

Based on your reading and your prior knowledge from this course can you describe your
thoughts on the future of accounting?


As a part of a global corporate environment that is changing rapidly and will continue to
change, the accounting profession will need continuing to adapt to these change. In general, the
future is unpredictable, the change and development is continuing without stopping, thus the
only way is to adapt to the world in which it operates by learning and experiencing more.
Post Through Activity:
The IIRC has defined integrated reporting as a concise communication about how an
organizations strategy, governance, performance and prospects, in the context of its external
environment, lead to the creation of value in the short, medium and long term, thus it brings a
board range of benefit to business benefits. Especially since business value is heavily influenced by
a companys strategy, plans and operations, therefore expectations are growing for businesses to
demonstrate to their stakeholders that they are doing rather than simply turning in profits. However,
the traditional reporting only focuses on reporting past performances, which may not
communicate the full extent of the companys business value; thus integrated reporting will become
significant to the future accounting.
With regard to accounting information, the biggest change is about what information is required to
report. The future of accounting information will be presented in various aspects other than the
traditional aspect financial consideration, these aspects consider the factors that form the
foundation or have impact on the entire industry such as social, environmental, governance
information. In our increasingly complex world, many of the growing sustainability risks could be
arise such as climate change, changing consumer preferences, poison food and nature resources etc.,
traditionally, these risks do not feature clearly in companies financial report. And consequently,
companies and investors may have oversight some potential significant risks and opportunities.
Thus, integrated reporting allows both companies and investors to see the bigger picture by provide
more significant non-financial information.
Similarly, as an organisation, when company starts processing the integrated reporting, they need to
consider both internal and external stakeholders fairly. Many argue that it is important for a clear
communication on what the organisation represents and its strategy. Therefore, company needs to
review its entire communication process behind corporate reporting regarding both internal and
external factors, in order to attract suitable potential stakeholders. Hence, integrated reporting
compels organisations doing the reporting to look at how their business strategy, governance,
performance and prospects tie with the creation of value over the short, medium and long term.
With integrated reporting, more information is provided including non-financial factor, this
becomes a challenge for auditors to provide assurance on the appropriateness and adequacy of the
information disclosed. Especially with external auditors, they might not have sufficient


understanding of the businesss key drivers; it is more difficult to assure something that you do not
fully understand. Also, due to the expansion of the scope of assurance, future auditors may include
non-accounting trained persons who are subject matter experts.
In general, integrated reporting can bring a numerous of benefits to future accounting, but there are
also many challenges that company will need to face. For that reason, the adoption of integrate
report is a continuous learning journey for organisations as well as accounting profession.