Challenges Faced by Accounting Professionals in Public Sector Organizations
Discuss about the Changing Organizational and Societal Contexts.
The research issues relates to the factors that have been highlighted by the researchers with respect to the topic of the research that have significant impact. The research topic that has been taken into consideration refers to the impact of technologies and innovations on the accounting professionals who are operating in the public sector organizations. The research issues are the challenges that have been identified by the researcher that has key impacts on the operational activities of the accounting professionals in the public sector companies (DENIS et al., 2015). In the same manner the three research issues that have been recognized in accordance to this topic have been explained as follows:
One of the essential features that is related to the process of accounting has been the construction of audits. In this circumstances if the accounting professionals and the auditors are not following the ethics related to audit and remain biased to the company and any one individual, then it is seen that it can lead to false information and results that can seriously hamper the operational activities of the organization or can even have an impact on the value of the stakeholders (Bromley, & Meyer 2017). This issue has been observed in various instances like in case of Enron where the auditors have not maintained ethics and being biased have disclosed false financial information, which lead to serious after effects. This is one of the key challenges that are faced by the public sector organizations and the accounting professionals and therefore use of accounting technologies can be useful in mitigating this issue and thereby safeguarding the sentiments of the stakeholders and the society as a whole.
The next issue of the research comprises of the audit future and the use of big data in the profession of accounting. In the current time period, it is seen that audit is undertaken in the conventional manner. However, in order to enhance the activities of audit, the accounting professionals can make use of big data with the help of which the process of auditing can be enhanced. However, this can turn out to be an issue due to the fact that the accounting professionals may not prefer the use of the big data as they may face issues in understanding the use of big data and may feel that the use of the same can hamper the auditing process extensively (Oulasvirta, 2014). The community and the society may even dislike the use of big data as they may feel that use of big data may not be fruitful for them. Hence, it can be determined that future of audit and the use of the big data in the public sector organization is one of the key research issues that has been identified in accordance to this topic.
Impact of Biases in the Construction of Audits
The third issue that has been recognized has been human resource. The availability of human resource has an essential role to play because of the fact that accounting professionals undertake the accounting practices and therefore availability of skilled and experienced accountants are helpful in the creation of better and effective accounting results. It is seen that attracting new and skilled accountants in this sector has been one of the key issues as the non-availability of accountants would not be able to undertake the process of accounting in the public sector (Bracci et al., 2015). The availability of limited qualified accountants is a key concern for the public sector organization because they are concerned with providing effective services to the community and the society. It is therefore essential for the public sector organizations to create plans and policies that would be helpful in attracting new accountants and motivating the existing ones so that they are able to provide effective level of services and accordingly improve the accounting activities of the business.
The research questions are constructed in order to have an idea about the aspects with respect to which analysis would be undertaken with the help of which results can be attained as to how innovation and technologies have been able to improve or affect the accounting practices of the public sector companies.
This question has relevancy because of the fact that there are several factors that have an impact on the work practices and the expectations of the accounting professionals. This is due to the fact that the accounting professionals have an essential role to play in the development of the accounting practices for the public sector organizations. These factors needs to be recognised because of the fact that understanding of these factors would be helpful in determining the fact that which are the factors have positive impact on the accounting professionals and which are the factors that have negative impact on them (Noordegraaf, 2015). In this manner, the positive factors can be implemented and accordingly measures can be taken in order to mitigate the negative factors. The accounting professionals have an essential role to play for the public sector companies and therefore measures needs to be taken with the help of which the accounting professionals are satisfied and deliver their performance in an effective manner. The maintenance of effective work practice and satisfying the expectations of the accounting professionals is helpful in creating an environment that would be pleasant for the professionals and accordingly they can perform effectively (Alzeban, & Gwilliam 2014).
It is known that public sector organizations are concerned with providing satisfactory products and services to the consumers of the country and therefore accounting practices have a key role to play. The accounting professionals construct plans and policies and implement technologies and innovations with the help of which the members of the society would be happy and satisfied (Massaro et al., 2015). The stakeholders are one of the essential parts for the public sector companies and therefore there are several measures and steps that are taken in order to take care of them. The accounting practices are dependent on the needs and the expectations of the customers and therefore the policies and the plans are framed accordingly. The accounting principles assess the market from time to time in order to discover what are the needs and the requirements of the market and the consumers so that they can make additional changes in their plans and policies with the help of which the operational activities can be enhanced and in the same manner the additional values can be given to the stakeholders and themselves (Andrews et al., 2015). The incorporation of the accounting technologies even forms a part of this strategy because of the fact that use of these technologies would reduce the time consumption on the posting of the financial transactions and maintaining records of the same and this would enhance the service quality and even reduce time involved with the accounting transactions for the accounting professionals (Rosenberg Hansen, & Ferlie 2016). This would enhance the satisfaction level of the employees and accordingly the operations of the public sector companies can be enhanced. The assessment of these activities can be helpful in the development of better services from the accounting professionals and improving their own values and their values of the shareholders.
Use of Big Data in Auditing
This one of the significant question and answering the question would be helpful in gaining the answers that is related to this topic. It is seen that there are several tools and strategies that are available to the researchers and accordingly understanding the strategies and the tools that are suitable for the accounting professionals for the public sector companies requires special emphasis because of the fact that this leads to the development of better services (McGivern et al., 2015). One of the essential factors that are related to the identification of the tools and strategies is the development of competitive edge and increase in the level of employment. Every public sector companies have their unique set of plans and strategies and accordingly they select their ideal tools and strategies in order to attain competitive edge (Heald, & Hodges 2015). The companies assess their extent of competence with respect to their rival companies and the employment status and the other aspects so that effective level of results can be attained. These results are used by the accounting professionals to create their plans and policies and choose the most suitable tools for the purpose of implementation (Raudla, & Tammel 2015). The accounting innovations and the technologies have essential role in this aspect because of the fact that these technologies can be helpful in eliminating the inefficiency level and improve the accounting practices of the public sector companies. The accounting professionals assess the tools that have been incorporated from time to time in order to eliminate any faults and mistakes that are existent within the plan (Head, & Alford 2015). The analysis of this question can be helpful for the researcher in reaching conclusive results in accordance to this paper.
The research methodology is related to the kind of data that would be selected by the researcher in order to take the research ahead and gain effective results that would be helpful in the completion of the paper. The researcher in this paper has selected positivism philosophy because of the fact that the research would address the objectives that are existent in reality (Adams et al., 2014). This would be helpful in the development of an idea about the data that is suitable with this research topic. The researcher has chosen deductive approach as the researcher would be making use of the models and frameworks that have been used earlier by other researchers. The paper would be undertaking quantitative data analysis as the responses that have been attained will be transformed into numerical values and thereafter results can be attained. The research would be making use of primary data and this kind of data can be collected by selecting a sample set from a large population pool. The researcher has selected descriptive research design in this paper because of the fact that all the variables that have been discussed would be explained in an explicit manner in order to undertake the process of data analysis (Kuipers et al., 2014). The data would be collected with the help of survey analysis and the survey analysis would be undertaken by constructing a close ended questionnaire so that the respondents can answer them in a precise manner. The responses that would be collected would undergo analysis with the help of software that are available to the researcher and thereby effective results would be attained. The researcher has maintained the codes of ethics and therefore all the data that has been collected would be fair and true and the results from the research paper would be valid and authentic.
Reference List
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