RECENT ASSIGNMENT

ACC8000 Research in Accounting Practice
Assignment 2, Semester 2, 2017: Due 18 September 2017
Weight: 30%, Expected words (excluding references) 2000-2500
Question 1 (40 marks)
You work with an accounting firm that offers taxation and advisory services to clients. Recently, your firm decid. to increase the flexibility of working arrangements and introduce the concept of mobile athisors. Rather than meeting with clients at the office, meetings are conduct. 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 yideo 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 staffs opinions about their experiences in concluding 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 (3 marks)
b. why a qualitative approach is more appropriate for addressing the
research objectives (3 marks)
c. the population from which participants will be selected (2 marks)
d. how the sample size will be determined (3 marks)
e. how the sample of parficipants will be selected from the population (4 marks)
f. how the data will be collected from participants (3 marks)
g. exarnples of three questions to participants; for each question explain
how it is linked to the research objectives (9 marks)
h. the steps that will be taken to analyse the collected data (9 narks)
i. any possible limitations to applying the findings to other non-accounting
organisations that are considering offering mobile advisory services
(4 rnarks)
Question 3 (8 marks) Distinguish between explanatory sequential rnixed methods and exploratory sequential rnixed methods. Include in your discussion an explanation about when each type of research mixed methods design might be appropriate.
Ouestion 4 (52 mark.g. exarnples of three questions to participants; for each question explain
how it is linked to the research objectives (9 marks)
h. the steps that will be taken to analyse the collected data (9 narks)
i. any possible limitations to applying the findings to other non-accounting
organisations that are considering offering mobile advisory services
(4 rnarks)
Question 3 (8 marks)
Distinguish between explanatory sequential rnixed rnethods and exploratory sequential mixed methods. Include in your discussion an explanation about when each type of research mixed methods design might be appropriate.
Question 4 (52 marks)
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 4 will be evaluated using information from the Purdue Online Writing
Lab.
a. Finding literature (6 marks)
Find four acadernic 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 Hofstedes_culturaLdimensionç.
List your four articles using Harvard referencing.
b. Summarising article findings (8 marks)
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 (8 marks)
Rewrite your inforrnation frorn question 4 part b. above to present an argurnent about the link between ernployee 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 (8 marks)
Using the work of Hofstede, explain the cultural dirnensions of power distance and individuality. Ensure you use in-text referencing.
e. Culture and participation in budgeting (6 rnarks)
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 (9 marks)
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.