Corporate Government- Significance and Issues

Research and agree on 3 articles where a relevance to ACC03032(contemporary issues in accounting theory ) can be demonstrated

Your 3 articles need to be chosen to allow the critique set out in #3 below to be achieved. This is intended to extend the depth of your analysis and application of theories in comparison to your individual efforts.

While you may find articles relevant to several Topics in the unit, it is strongly suggested you choose a single topic as the focus for your choice and critique. This is primarily a constraint imposed by the Report length and the time for your presentation.

Consistent with Assignment 1, research and agree on three (3) articles published after 1 January 2018. Your articles can be sourced from business publications or media (e.g. business journals, newspapers, periodicals, Internet contributions, TV reports, etc.) and/or academic journals. However, please observe the following:

• Your three articles should not come from the same source (e.g. a single publication);
• Your three articles should not come from the same type of source (e.g. NOT all from an academic journal or a newspaper etc.)

This is intended to extend the depth of your analysis and application of theories in comparison to your individual choices.

1. Prepare a report as detailed below

Limit your written report to a maximum of four (4) typed pages (excluding cover sheet (if used), executive summary (if used), contents list (if used), reference list (required, please use Harvard style)). Consider the equivalent of 500 words per page. Material submitted beyond four pages will not be assessed. written reports must be submitted electronically in your Area PRIOR TO your Presentation. Exercise COMMON SENSE with your report format and focus on the substance NOT font size, font type and margins etc.

What are we looking for our report?

Identify and apply any of the theories covered in ACC03032 that you believe would assist a reader to understand the issues being discussed in the articles you have selected.

1. Identify the theoretical issue(s) covered in a topic(s) of ACC03032 that relates with the most salience (relevance) to the overall contents of your selected articles. DO NOT DEFINE INDIVIDUAL THEORIES!
2. Provide examples of agreements, disagreements or coverage disparities between the contents of the articles and the contents of the chosen ACC03032 topic coverage in the ACC03032 Study Guide, Readings and textbook. To do this, you need to compare the articles' content with the content of the various resources used in ACC03032 and in that comparison, you should identify agreements (similarities), disagreements (differences) and disparities (where one source mentions something and the other does not). DO NOT SUMMARISE THE ARTICLES! Use examples to illustrate theory.
3. Critique the articles. To do this you should at least:
   • assess the significance of agreements, disagreements or disparities identified in the previous section. (Note: this is intended to assist you in deciding which articles to use in your assignment: you should choose those articles with the most significance in their agreement or disagreement with ACC03032 and NOT just between the articles. Degree of significance is a judgmental matter in this instance, but you could ask the ‘so what?’ question and if your answer is ‘I don’t know’ then it is likely that the degree of significance is minor and so you should choose a different article. Similarly, if there are very large disparities between ACC03032 and the articles' content – using theories not covered in the unit - you may need to assess whether the articles have salience (relevance) with respect to ACC03032).
   • assess whether you are in a position to form an opinion on the accuracy of the content of the articles (for example, are sources of information revealed in the articles? Or is the author in a position to be trusted in respect to this topic?)
   • question if the articles’ coverage of the issues has been balanced and comprehensive enough to present useful information (more than a single perspective identified and presented) - DO NOT SUMMARISE THE ARTICLES!
   • evaluate the worth of the articles to a decision maker who must consider similar issues in their respective roles (e.g. an investor seeking to evaluate investment opportunities; a manager wanting to make a resource allocation decision; a citizen wishing to exercise her civic rights; etc).

Note also there is an additional one-page summary guide available in this folder courtesy of Dr. Sally Ashton-Hay from the Academic Skills Department.