The Relevance of Strategic Management Accounting Essay

The Relevance of Strategic Management Accounting - Essay Example Strategic management can be defined as the process of analyzing various initiatives taken by an organization, involving the resources available to them and performance within their external environments. This is in a bid to realize the mission and vision of the company and its objectives through developing modes of approach that will allow the organization to realize these aspects of its business (Friedl, Hans-Ulrich, & Burkhard, 2005). Management accounting can be described as the use of various accounting information by managers of an organization to assist them in making proper decisions in situations that they may be faced with. Therefore, strategic management accounting can be considered to be a combination of these two ideas whereby management accounting is used to enhance the strategic decision making that takes place in an organization, in a bid to increase the chances of success in a business (Mulcaster, 2009). ... The management processes that take place here deal with handling the organization as a whole, including the various enterprises that it may be involved with. Corporate strategic management accounting involves the handling of all businesses to ensure that there is no enterprise that may be causing the organization to suffer a loss (Friedl, Hans-Ulrich, & Burkhard, 2005). This level of management accounting is handled by the top brass of the organization, and decisions are made by top officials within the organization, such as members of the board of directors with assistance of advisors familiar with the situation that they are facing. Business strategic management accounting – This level of strategic management accounting deals with businesses belonging to an organization on a personal level. This is to say that it handles the management (Mulcaster, 2009) of the various businesses that an organization may be involved with according to the particular needs and situations that t he business may be faced with. This level of strategic management accounting is also handled by top level management, but in this case management is of that particular business such as the company CEO and heads of departments (Armstrong & Greene, 2007). This level of management allows the organization to concentrate on their various enterprises in a manner that allows them to address the various problems that they may face on a one-on-one level that allows the involved parties to figure out the proper solutions needed to take care of the complications that may have arisen (Clinton & Van der Merwe, 2006). This is an essential practice in any organization as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and thus all the enterprises of an

Human resources management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Human resources management - Essay Example This is what creates financial profits for business. However, from the employee’s point of view, job satisfaction is likely to be the primary variable people look for in their job. Riggio states that ‘job satisfaction consists of the feelings and attitudes concerning one’s job’ (1990: 186). Judge et al (2001) acknowledge that there is a high correlation between job satisfaction and job performance, and Landy (1989) goes as far to describe this relationship as the ‘Holy Grail’ of industrial psychologists. However, Drenth et al claim that ‘there is no support for the widely held view that satisfied employees achieve higher and increased effective levels of performance’ (1998: 284). It is therefore the purpose of this assignment to discuss if a happy workforce is a productive workforce. In order to determine how increased job satisfaction could lead to increased productivity, I believe that it is important to discuss the factors that make people want to work in the first place in order to gain a holistic perspective on the issue. This is the same approach Vroom (1995) took in her analysis on the motivational bases of work. Vroom highlights five motivational factors that encourage people to work. Firstly, she acknowledges ‘work roles provide wages to the occupant in return for their services’ (1995: 35). Secondly, working keeps people busy and active, and stops people becoming idle. Thirdly, jobs can provide employees with continually engaging environments in which to work. Fourthly, there are many social satisfactions derived from work, and social psychologists have emphasised the fact that work is a social activity, requiring interaction with other people. Finally, Vroom (1995) highlights that sociologists have emphasised the importance a person’s occupation has on their social status, and the respect it can generate. There therefore appears to be two types of conditions that affect the like lihood that people will work; economic incentives and motivational factors. Herzberg et al’s (1959) Two Factor Theory receives a lot of interest from many managers in work organisations, who wish to discover how employee satisfaction can improve job productivity. In their study, respondents of mid-level administration staff were asked to examine the points of their career at which they’d experienced the most positive and negative feelings. They were asked to indicate the causes of this and the effects that arose. The most positive feelings that led to higher employee satisfaction were ranked, and are as follows; Achievement and recognition from senior management for successful completion of tasks The work itself, i.e. how much of a challenge it was, responsibility concerns such as working without a supervisor, being promoted and being put in charge of other workers Salary and a rise in wages Other factors with lower frequency including status, the policy and management of the company The factors leading to dissatisfaction related to the working environment and were labelled as ‘hygiene factors’, such as working conditions. Factors relating to job satisfaction were labelled ‘motivating factors’, and included intrinsic factors such as the possibility of promotion or increased responsibility within an employee’s job (Hollway, 2000). Herzberg et al (1959) concluded that ‘feelings of self actualisation and growth are the key to