Research in Accounting Practice Assignment
Question 1 -
You work with an accounting firm that offers taxation and advisory services to clients. Recently, your firm decided to increase the flexibility of working arrangements and introduce the concept of mobile advisors Rather than meeting with clients at the office, meetings are conducted via the Internet or at client premises A fortnightly meeting of staff is held using Zoom (a platform that allows many people to communicate via video viewing over the Internet). One hundred and thirty advisory services staff from offices in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide were invited to participate in a six month trial. The partners want to find out the staff's opinions about their experiences in conducting services to clients as mobile advisors and any staff suggestions for improvements. They ask you to conduct a qualitative research to answer the following questions:
- What do staff believe are the advantages of the mobile advisory services?
- What problems have staff encountered in operating as mobile advisors?
- What suggestions do staff have to improve the mobile advisory services?
Required: You have been asked to write a research plan for the research. Your plan should include the following issues and provide a justification for the choices that you have made. Write your research plan as a report, with appropriate headings for each section.
a. the objective of the research
b. why a qualitative approach is more appropriate for addressing the research objectives
c. the population from which participants will be selected
d. how the sample size will be determined
e. how the sample of participants will be selected from the population
f. how the data will be collected from participants
g. examples of three questions to participants; for each question explain how it is linked to the research objectives
h. the steps that will be taken to analyse the collected data
i. any possible limitations to applying the findings to other non-accounting organisations that are considering offering mobile advisory services
Question 2 -
Distinguish between explanatory sequential mixed methods and exploratory sequential mixed methods. Include in your discussion an explanation about when each type of research mixed methods design might be appropriate.
Question 3 -
This question focuses on writing an academic paper. To aid students in their learning, the task of writing a paper is broken down into steps. It is highly recommended that you use the resources from USQ that are linked through the Writing and Grammar section of the Learning Centre. Your answers to question will be evaluated using information from the Purdue Online Writing Lab.
a. Finding literature
Find four academic research articles published between 2007 and 2017 that have studied the link between employee participation in the setting of a budget and employee motivation towards achieving the budget. Make sure that the studies are conducted in countries with low power distance and high individuality following Hofstede's cultural dimensions.
List your four articles using Harvard referencing.
b. Summarising article findings
Using the four studies that you found in question 4 part a. above, summarise the findings of each article using no more than five sentences per article. Ensure you use in-text referencing.
c. Writing an argument
Rewrite your information from question 4 part b. above to present an argument about the link between employee participation in the setting of a budget and employees' motivation towards achieving the budget. Ensure you use in-text referencing.
d. The significance of culture
Using the work of Hofstede, explain the cultural dimensions of power distance and individuality. Ensure you use in-text referencing.
e. Culture and participation in budgeting
What do researchers suggest regarding the influence of the cultural dimensions of power distance and individuality on budgetary participation? Ensure you use in-text referencing.
f. Factors that influence participation in budgeting
Briefly explain three factors (excluding culture factors) in the academic literature that have been found to influence employees' attitudes to budgetary participation. Ensure you use in-text referencing.