Using the Cohort Model in Accounting Education

This article documents a case study of a cohort-based MBA program with an accounting concentration. This ethnographic study used interviews, observations, and document review to examine the students’ experiences. Data were analyzed via grounded theory techniques. Results indicate that the cohort program provided students with knowledge about important socially-learned dimensions of the accounting profession. The interpersonal and group work skills needed in the accounting workplace are developed in a cohort program. However, the cohort model’s cooperative agenda could not eliminate individualistic, competitive tendencies. Finally, students found that their cohort experiences prepared them to handle certain informal facets of the accounting workplace, for example, office politics, grapevines and cliques

Midwest youth rowing club: A case of financial responsibility in a transient member nonprofit organization

The Midwest Youth Rowing Club (MYR) case highlights a strategic decision situation with financial and business ethics implications. The club, while having just finished its third year in existence, has been very successful and grown dramatically. The club’s dilemma, as seen through the eyes of its Treasurer, is whether it should undertake the construction of a permanent boathouse at the lake where it operates its programs. In addition to functional space, a boathouse would provide a sense of permanence and may help ensure the club’s sustainability. The club’s growth and membership size suggest that the club can finance its portion of a boathouse through borrowing. However, the club’s transient-member nature as a youth sports organization means that there is a relatively short time commitment from youth members (and their parents). While this affects the form of financing (explained in the Boathouse section of the case), regardless of its form, financing a boathouse will increase member dues and fees, and if the club’s circumstances change unfavorably, it may have to increase dues and fees further, to a level that will price itself out of its market

Understanding Transient-Member Nonprofit Organizations

This paper reports on an examination of membership nonprofits whose members are committed for a relatively short period—“transient-member nonprofits.” These organizations are pressured to attend to the current membership and long-term projects are difficult to plan, execute, and finance. While a number of organizational types are transient-member nonprofits, youth sports organizations, are an archetype. This paper’s exploratory study sought to determine how such organizations’ transient characteristics appeared in their financial reports. It considered whether transient-member nonprofits report different profits, net assets, and liabilities when compared to more dedicated nonprofits. Transient-member nonprofits report lower net assets than do other nonprofits. An analysis of the degree to which organizations are transient found that the most transient organizations tend to have significantly lower net assets and liabilities. However, organizations that are relatively more transient do not report lower annual profits than other organizations

A Case Study of Group Processes and Student Evaluation of Teaching

This paper documents a case study undertaken to understand the effect of group processes on student evaluation of teaching (SET). The study used interviews to investigate the experiences of students in a cohort model Master of Science in Accountancy degree program and how those experiences influenced SET. The cohort served as an extreme example in which group processes played out intensely, allowing the researchers better to examine them. The results showed that the participants’ common experience led to frequent discussion about various aspects of the classes and the program. A common topic of discussion was instructor performance. This discussion about instructors, in turn, appeared to affect SET. It also appeared that a mismatching of expectations and realized student–instructor relationships also affected SET