changing roles of management accountnats

1487 Words3 Pages

Introduction
In a report produced by Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), it delivered a message that, under the influence of the financial crisis and the advanced development of information technology (IT), the remaining core difference to stand out a business lies in the decision-making function. This explains the trend of management accountants (MA) turning into a more advisory role (Burns, Quinn, Warren, Oliveira, 2013), or saying the emergence of business partner. Business partner, a role that supports the decision making process with their analytical skills, is evolved from the traditional MA, usually being stereotyped as ‘bean counter’ or ‘scorekeeper’ (Friedman and Lyne, 2007). Some scholars claimed that the emergence of business partner will change the role of MA yet some argued the role of MA has not changed much. The objective of this paper is to critically appraise the changing roles of management accountants. The cause of the change will be examined followed by evaluating the changes, and lastly the future of management accountants will be discussed.

Changing Business Environment
When the business environment changed, the need and content of accounting information would change, and hence affecting the nature of the role of MA. There are two main factors that have changed the business environment, the financial crisis and IT development.
The outburst of financial crisis changed the direction of most of the business and reshaped the importance of management information. ‘Never waste a crisis’ (Henry, 2012) because it is ‘an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid’ (Emanuel, 2008). After the 08/09 financial crisis, global businesses therefore took the chance to reflect on thei...

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...ner has to be able to ‘simplify complex situations’ (Coldbert, 2009). Therefore, no matter which level of business partner a MA is pursuing, he/she has to be able to communicate and incorporate the management information in a simple way, making non-finance people to easily understand.
Conclusion
The role of MA has experienced a radical change over the past few decades, causing by the outburst of financial crisis and advance IT development, requiring MA to add value to management information. There is a hybrid role of MA, becoming a business partner, yet it does not mean the traditional role of MA is less important than the advisory role. The role has mainly changed from bean counting to providing consulting on management information. With the development of the world, MA should keep improving themselves in pursuing the goal of most of the business, value creation.

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