Accountant in Business

Chapter 15 : Business ethics and ethical behaviour

2009-07-25T00:44:00.007+08:00

Definition of business ethics

Ethics is the analysis of right and wrong, and associated responsibility.
Business ethics is the application of ethical values to business behaviour.

What is “right” or “wrong”?

1 The consequences

2 The motivation of the parties concerned

3 Guiding principles

4 Duties

5 Key values

Why business ethics is important?

Determining whether a decision is ethical :

Is it legal?
Is it contrary to a published code of ethics?
Is it a fair use of power?
Would you be embarrassed if you had to justify the decision to your mother

What is profession?

the mastering of specialised skills during a period of training
governance by a professional association
compliance with an ethical code
a process of certification before being allowed to practise

Accountant’s role in promoting ethical behaviour

Accounting issues :

Creative accounting
Directors’ pay arrangements
Bribes
Insider trading

Production issues :

Should the company produce certain products at all?
Effects on the environment
Test products on animals?

Sales and marketing issues :

Price fixing and anti-competitive behaviour
Target advertising at children?
Advertised by junk mail or spam mail.

Personnel issues :

discrimination
fair balance of power between employer and employee
safety and health of the workplace

Codes of ethics and codes of conduct

The policies can either be broad generalisations or can contain specific detailed rules.

Example : IFAC Code of Ethics & ACCA Code of Ethics

By : Yichun

Chapter 14 - Committees in the business organisation

2009-07-23T20:08:00.006+08:00

1. A committee is a group of people to which some matter is committed.

2. Rules in a committee is designed to:

promote smooth running
consistency and fair play are maintained
minimise effects of bullying tactics
ensure proper record of all proceedings is kept

3. Size may affect the efficiency in a committee:

individuals is large committee do not have enough time to voice out opinions

few in group may mean lack of expertise

4. A successful committee should:

representative of all interests
have a chairperson
circulate reports
worth the cost of its operation

5. Purpose of the committee:

gather information
generate ideas
disseminate (give out)information
Delaying mechanism

6. Types of committee in an organisation

Executive - power to govern, appointed by shareholders
Standing - deal with business and meetings on a weekly and daily basis
Ad hoc - complete certain task, normally temporary
Sub - relieve parent committee of some of its work
Joint - coordinate activities of 2 or more committee
Management - contain executives, not all decisions are taken by the Board

7. Board of directors is a group of people legally charged with the responsibility to govern company. Their role :

lay down strategy, general policy and broad sectional policies
ensure legal standards are met
sanction capital expenditure and the method of disposal of profits

8. Steering committee is to oversee a major project, generally IT based.

9. Ethics of a committee in an organisation with respect to :

conflicts of interest
confidential information
complaints of customers
transaction involving related parts of the company

10. Advantages and disadvantages:
ADVANTAGES:

Responsibilties are shared
Ability to undertake larger volume of work
Poor talent, judgment and allow specialisation
Improves coordination between work groups

DISADVANTAGES:

Slower decision making
Waste time and resources
"experience" committee may dominate
Cannot act quickly and flexibly to meet sudden changes in a situation

11. Roles of a chair and a secretary of a committee:
CHAIR:

Keep meeting to a schedule and to the agenda
Maintain order
Ensure correct procedure is observed
Ensure impartiality

SECRETARY:

Fix date and time of meeting
Assist chairperson making notes
Prepare minutes

12. Skills and knowledge of an effective chairperson:

Skills in communicating
Ability to be decisive
Sound knowledge of relevant regulations
Skill of summarizing
Ability to silence people in a firm and friendly manner
An awareness of non-verbal behaviour.

By: Timothy J.P

Chapter 13 : Stakeholders

2009-07-17T23:47:00.002+08:00

• A stakeholder is a group or individual, who has an interest in what the organisation does, or an expectation of the organisation.
• It is important that an organisation understands the needs of the different stakeholders.

• Internal stakeholders are intimately connected to an organisation, and their objectives are likely to have a strong influence on how it is run.

• Connected stakeholders can be viewed as having a contractual relationship with the organisation.

• External stakeholders include the government , local authorities etc. This group will have quite diverse objectives and have varying ability to ensure that the organisation meets their objectives.

• The needs/expectations of the different stakeholders may conflict.

Mendelow’s power-interest matrix

• If an organisation is having difficulty deciding who the dominant stakeholder is, they can use Mendelow’s power-interest matrix.

• It is important that an organisation meets the needs of the most dominant stakeholders, but the needs of the other stakeholders need to be considered – nearly every decision becomes a compromise.

• By plotting each stakeholder according to the power they have over the organisation and the interest they have in a particular decision, the dominant stakeholder(s), i.e. the key player can be identified.

By C.Zakee

Chapter 3 : Organisational Culture

2009-07-17T00:59:00.000+08:00

Chapter 3 Culture

It is an energy source that connects people together.

Culture have 3 components

Norms, Symbols and symbolic actions – birthdays, Beliefs

Facts that shapes culture in organization

Size of the organization – turnover, number of stuff etc

Technology advancement – product (Microsoft compare to Handcraft Company)

Diversity – product range, geographical spread

Age – Manager experience, business establishment

History – Decision maker’s past success, lesson learnt from

Ownership + control – Sole trader/Shareholder/Public

Writers of culture

Schein

Founder sets the culture. Leaders are determined by the culture later.

Artifact – tangible

Espoused Value – Strategies and Goals (Slogan etc)

Basic assumptions values- unconscious level

Handy

Power – Teo En Sing

Role – Definite Job responsibility

Task – Result driven, one team one goal

Person – trade union – one for all, all for one – trade union

Hofstede

Individualism VS Collectivism – MYOB vs attached culture

Uncertainty – France and Japan dislike

Power distance – degree to accept an inferior position

Masculine vs feminity – Japanese vs Finland

Confucianism vs dynamism – Love of humanity vs Result driven

By : Alwyn =____+

Chapter 2 : Organisational Structure

2009-07-17T00:56:00.000+08:00

Entrepreneurial

The advantage of entrepreneurial is that it response quickly, make quick decisions, exhibit good control, goal congruence, and highly bonded with workforce.

The disadvantage of entrepreneurial is that it is lack of career structure, resulting lesser promotional opportunity. Very much depends on the talent of the entrepreneur and it cannot cope with growth and diversity

Functional Organization

Economic of Scales can be achieved to cut cost; also, operation can be standardized. Intra-department is more comfortable and better opportunity in career path.

Disadvantage of it are empire building, managers may serve in their own interest but not the company’s. Also, it is slow in decision making. Moreover, conflict happens frequently between departments, also, not able to cope with diversification.

Divisional / departmental

Advantage – it enable growth as each ahs clear responsibility in divisions. The training of General Manager is made easier. It is also fast to adapt in diversification. Top management are focus in strategic planning

Disadvantage – it is highly potential to lose control, lack of goal congruence. Duplication may occur, cost ineffective. Allocation of resources made tedious. Specialist may feel lonely.

Geographically structured.

Advantage of it is that it enable growth in spread out places. Divisional manager can response clear and quickly. Top management are more focus in strategic planning.

Disadvantage are similar to divisional structured

Matrix

Advantage – flexible in their scope, customer-oriented. It encourages team building spirit, opinions and expertise gathering

Disadvantage – dual command, dilution of functional authority. Time constrain and also high in admin cost.

Scalar Chain – line of authority that can be traced up and down.

Span of control is either wide of narrow.

Narrow because managers may be lack of leadership skills, changing work requirement, employee lay backs or the personnel (manager and employee) maybe scattered. Therefore a narrower span of control is highly recommended and vice versa.

Centralize and Decentralize depends on who makes the decisions. If mainly are employees making decision it is decentralized, vice versa.

Advantage of decentralize are because managers can focus on strategic planning. Divisions/Departments make good local decisions, moreover, quick to response. Employees are more motivated too.

Disadvantage may be risk of losing control. Dysfunctional organization and lack of goal congruence. Poor decision made by inexperience employees. Higher cost may incur in training and hiring people. Duplication instances are common.

Informal organization exist because of common goals among employees, goals may differ from the organization. Personal relationship may also cause the immergence of informal organization. Natural leaders may be non-managerial personnel.

Informal organizations are highly motivated and communicative. However, may prove to be inefficient in working (disintegration) and may have resistance to change. Grapevine effect - the gossiping company’s news without basis.

Impact of informal organization

Formal organization may adapt to informal organization. Insist in formal organization but also allow informal organization to continue. Cliques may disintegrate the team member, action should be taken to reduce the effect – by changing break time, etc.

By : Alwyn =_____+

Chapter 1 : The Business Organisation

2009-07-11T21:20:00.000+08:00

1.1 What is an organisation?

Organisations are social arrangements for the controlled performance of collective goals. As there are no widely accepted definitions of organisation, some term can also be used such as organisation refers to a group arranged for efficient work or a process to achieve stated objectives. Organisation also means there is structure and order.

The key aspects of the definitions are as follows:

Collective goals- defined primarily by their goals. For example, a hospital has a main goal of treating people.
Social arrangements- Working alone are not an organisation. Organisation’s structure is to enable people to work together to achieve a common goal. For example, a football team’s common goal is to win a match by scoring more goals than their opponents.
Controlled performance- Organisation has systems and also procedures to make sure they achieve their goal in a time frame.
Boundaries

1.2 Why organisations are needed?

- To achieve results where team work is needed

An organisation also enables people to:

Share skills and knowledge- People from different departments under the same flagship can share their skills among themselves.
Specialise- Individuals with specialise skills can work together to achieve a better results in an organisation to achieve the common goal
Pool resources- A group of employees with different skills used to achieve the common goal

1.3 Classifying organisation by a profit orientation

Profit seeking or non profit seeking

Profit seeking

Main objective is maximising wealth and expanded into three primary objectives:

to continue in existence
to maintain growth and development
to make profit

Non profit standing (NPO)

Financial objective is not primary.

Seeking to satisfy particular needs of their members

Examples of NPO:

Old folks home
Orphanage

One specific category of NPO is mutual organisations. Mutual organisation is an organisation with no shareholders. It is formed by a group of people to provide a range of services that serves the interest of their members and decisions are made mutually

1.4 Classifying organisations by ownership/control

Public Sector

Providing government services and thus controlled by the government

Examples are the police force and military

Private Sector

Non government and is part of the nation’s economy

Co-operatives

An autonomous association of person united voluntarily to meet their common needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise.

2.1 Main Functions within an Organisation

a. Research and development- Improving existing products and developing products

b. Purchasing- Buying goods and services for the business need

c. Production- Converting raw materials to finished goods

d. Marketing- Identifying market needs, market research, product design, pricing, promotion and distribution

e. Administration- Administrative support and processing transactions

f. Finance- Bookkeeping, financial reporting and control, budgeting and raising the capital

g. Human Resources- Recruitment, training and development

2.2 Co-ordination

The regulation of diverse elements into integrated and harmonious operations

Mechanism for co-operations:

regular meeting between managers of different department
effective communications
clear, well-documented and reporting lines
supervision

Co-ordination can be achieved by:

Standardised work process
Standardised outputs
Standardised skills and knowledge
Direct supervision
Standardised adjustment

3.1 Different levels of planning

a. strategic planning- long term, looks at the whole organisation and defines resources requirements

b. tactical planning- short term, looks at divisional level and specifies how to use resources

c. operational planning- very short term e.g. Like a daily basis, in fine details and mainy concerned with control

3.2 Nature of Strategic Planning

a., long term perspective

b. looks at the whole organisation as an individual product and market

c. sets the directions of the whole organisation and integrate its activity

d. consider views of stakeholders and shareholders

e. analyses the organisation’s resources and defines resources requirements

f. relates the organisation to its environment

g. looking at gaining sustainable competitive advantage

3.3 The Strategic Planning Process

Breaks down to three distinct steps

1.Strategic Analysis- three key areas

to identify opportunity and treats
to identify strength and weaknesses
to understand stakeholders expectation

2.Strategic Choice

What is the basis of our strategy? How are we going to compete?
Where do we want to compete? Which country, market and products?
How to get there?

3. Strategic Implementation

Once determined, long term plans have to be translated into actions and strategy may involve major changes.

By : Yong Shien