Assignment:
Topic 1: Ethics and budgeting
Budgeting is generally regarded as an essential technique for planning and controlling an organisation's activities. However, budgeting systems can also create incentives for unethical behaviour.
Using examples to illustrate your discussion, explain:
• How the use of budgets in planning and controlling an organisation's activities may create incentives for unethical behaviour; and,
• What strategies organisations can adopt to minimise the risk of their budgeting system leading to unethical behaviours.
Topic 2: Accounting for overhead
Modern manufacturing processes are typically characterised by large-scale automation, with machines replacing people. Consequently, manufacturing overhead has often become a much more significant component of total manufacturing costs and this presents a particular challenge for cost and management accountants. Competitive pressures make it essential that firms have accurate and up-to-date cost data, but overhead is an indirect cost and allocating it to individual products and product lines will always involve subjectivity and estimation.
Discuss the difficulties associated with allocating overhead costs in the contemporary manufacturing environment and identify strategies that firms can adopt to help make their overhead allocations more accurate and reliable.
Presentation
The assignment is to comply with the University's General Guide for the Presentation of Academic Work. Students are required to use the APA style of referencing. See comments below regarding word length. Each group is to submit a single copy of their assignment.
Assessment criteria
In assessing submitted assignments consideration will be given to:
• Overall neatness, completeness and quality of presentation. Graduate students are expected to achieve a satisfactory standard with respect to this criterion as a matter of course and for this reason, no credit will be granted for achieving it. However, assignments that fail to achieve the minimum standard in connection with this criterion will be penalised. The expected standard concerning this criterion is as specified by the University's General Guide for the Presentation of Academic Work.
• Timeliness of submission. Graduate students are expected to be able to meet reasonable deadlines for the submission of assessable work as a matter of course. For this reason, no credit will be given for submitting the assignment by the due date. However, assignments that are submitted late will be penalised at the rate of three marks out of 30 per day that the assignment is late.
• Demonstrated application of appropriate cost and management accounting knowledge, skills, values and attitudes. This criterion pertains to the overall quality of the content of responses to the assignment requirements. Specific factors to be taken into account include: accuracy, comprehensiveness, demonstrated understanding of the topics, and the location and effective use of relevant research materials.
Each essay is expected to be between 1,200 to 1,500 words (1,500 words being the maximum length). These guidelines exclude the cover sheet, abstract and list of references.