Do not-for-profits need their own conceptual framework?

This paper raises the issue of whether not-for-profit (NFP) organisations require a conceptual framework that acknowledges their mission imperative and enables them to discharge their broader accountability. Relying on publicly available documentation and literature, it suggests that current conceptaul Frameworks for the for-profit and public sectors are inadequate in meeting the accountability needs of broader NFP-specific accountability and the formulation of NFP-appropriate reporting practice, including the provision of financial and non-financial reporting. The paper thus theoretically challenges existing financial reporting arrangements and investes debate on their future direction

Back to the future: The broadening accounting trajectory

Copyright © 2001 Academic PressContemporary accounting practice has shown signs of a broadening scope of activities being undertaken both from within and as a service provided to organizations. Based upon a historiographic linking of past and present, this paper examines the past 100 years of broadening professional practice in the discipline as a basis for offering a presentist examination and critique of contemporary accounting education and research opportunities. The scope of what constitutes accounting work is found to have been expanding for over 100 years, becoming increasingly at variance with accountants’ traditional beancounter image. Recent professional accounting association investigations reveal an array of contemporary environmental factors that have accelerated this broadening of the profession’s scope into financial planning, assurance services, strategic, risk, knowledge and change management, and management advisory services. This has called for an expanded accounting skills base which has gained momentum towards the end of the 20th century. The elements of some of these developing areas of professional work and their implications for contemporary and future education and research are examined.http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/622801/description#descriptio

Applying Conceptual Framework Principles to Superannuation-super-1 Fund Accounting

The Australian accounting standard AAS 25 Financial Reporting by Superannuation Plans was the first pension accounting standard internationally to apply established conceptual framework (CF) principles. In Australia those principles have guided standard setting for more than a decade. However, AAS 25 has been criticized for failing to provide useful financial information. The analysis provided in this paper addresses this paradox. The findings reveal major anomalies in AAS 25 associated with the treatment of accrued benefits that distort financial position and performance measures. The conceptual flaws in the standard are attributed to the misapplication of CF principles and an absence of adequate guidance in the CF for non-corporate entities such as superannuation funds. Distorted financial information produced by superannuation plans has potential undesirable taxation and social outcomes. Consequently, there is an urgent need to update the Australian and international conceptual frameworks to provide guidance for revising accounting standards that better reflect current fiduciary and ownership relationships in non-corporate entities such as superannuation funds

The role of reflection after placement experiences to develop self-authorship among higher education students

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020. Innovation calls for graduates to be critical practitioners who can challenge the status quo, engage in complex problem-solving, and create new ideas to enhance economic and social well-being. These capabilities require self-authorship, confidence, maturity and authority to enact their vision in an increasingly complex world of work. According to Baxter Magolda (1998), a self-authored individual is no longer dominated by the ideology of others and can make meaning critically and independently using their own knowledge, an ambitious expectation of new graduates. In this chapter, theoretical ideas about self-authorship are discussed that highlight its complex relationship with social structures and established professional practices. We explore students’ progress towards self-authorship in two Australian universities from those students who recently completed an authentic workplace learning experience. Gathering qualitative data from collaborative reflective activities during workshops, we examined how students interpreted and drew meaning from their workplace experiences. Progression towards self-authorship was evident yet students largely remained bounded by others in their host placement in their thinking and behaviour. Work placements proved useful for gauging and developing self-authorship, exposing students to situations which demanded an internal voice and invoking, in partnership with deliberate reflective activities, complex meaning-making of their learning experiences. We present collaborative strategies for educators and industry to enhance self-authorship among higher education students