Joseph KK Ho's work diary

There are two problems noted from Strategic Management Accounting assignment answers for students to review

A case study on self-plagiarism in self-denial mode 4 students showed me software developed for final year projects; all have almost the same functions on same application domain; they said they were busy and have adapted some work from their previous assignment. They all assured me that they have not "plagiarised".. and they were busy and were given short notice by  the school to do the project. I wonder why their project supervisor did not object to their project works in the first place... The main problems Students are not allowed to enhance course assignment to become final year project topic Students are not allowed to use their previously written/ developed works for other course works in another courseworks (e.g. final year projects). This can be considered as self-plagiarism .

The coming Strategic Management Accounting class topic is: Textbook 18: Control systems and transfer pricing Textbook 19: Control systems and Performance Measurement Students should also refer to facebook folder for some notes on clarifying the figures in the textbook examples: https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/media/set/?set=a.468035247089.257946.713727089&type=3 The following graph is used to study transfer pricing: Will do the following exercise in class: Accounting for quality exercise20-17

For a dissertation report to be really OK, a student needs to put in serious effort in study and to have good intellectual capability developed over the years. A student needs to have a genuine interest in study and in the dissertation topic. Such learning attitude takes time to cultivate and such intellectual capability cannot be built up via a few "intensive" workshops on Research Methods. Thus, to produce a dissertation report that is OK requires internal drive to learn from the student. Lecturers can, in this case, act like a mentor or a coach. Lecturers share their research experience (and sometimes, some resources) and facilitate students to find their answers that they already have in their  mind. In dissertation workshops, what I can offer is briefing on the subject of Research Methods as well as some additional resources on Research Methods, e.g. blog articles from me. I can offer some advice on how to make a student's report looks OK at first glance (i.e. no ...

For coming SMA lecture, I will cover the following topics: Chapter 20: Accounting for Quality : http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.hk/2012/10/next-topics-on-strategic-management.html Chapter 14: Motivation, budgets and responsibility accounting

A student asks me what is the difference between Management Accounting Function and Management Accounting System ; I have done some internet search and cannot find a clear response to this query; thus, I offer  my own clarification in the following note: On Management Accounting Function and Management Accounting System The following link addresses the term Management Accounting func tion (MAF): http://www.svtuition.org/2011/03/functions-of-management-accounting.html The following link addresses the term Management Accounting system (MAS) : http://smallbusiness.chron.com/objectives-internal-managerial-accounting-systems-20945.html The following link is on Management Accounting information system (MAIS) : http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01969728508927769#preview The two terms of MAF and MAS have about the same meaning. Students should also refer to textbook for further details. For our discussion on the topic of Management Accounting, the term functi...

The MISM research methods workshop topic is on Research Methods . Main reference Saunders et al. (2003) 'Chapter 4: Deciding on the research approach and choosing a research strategy' Research for Business Students, Prentice Hall Main blog references http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2012/09/the-notion-of-verstehen-in-research.html http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2012/01/business-research-strategies-agenda-for.html Also refer to my blog article: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2011/12/research-methods-study-brief-note.html You should be able to find blog articles related to Research methods in my blog; try to do searching with keyword 'research' for this purpose.

The coming MISM workshop topic is on Soft Sysems Thinking and IT .  Students are referred to the following blog article: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2012/10/soft-systems-thinking-for-itis.html Notes Theoretical level (soft systems thinking) (affiliated with the subjective/ interpretivist stance) Methodological level (soft systems methodologies) Techiques level (e.g. rich picture building, conceptual model building, CATWOE analysis) I will also demonstrate how to use GW e-library: https://portal.gre.ac.uk/cp/home/displaylogin Reference Related lecture notes Note 1 Note 2 Note the difference between purposeful and purposive: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=397869&section=15.3 In Lecture 2, I will review the following article: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2012/09/a-concern-coping-methodology-based-on.html FC forum on Systems Thinking : https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/272833847547/ FC folder on rich picture building: ...

The next Strategic Management Accounting topics are on: Quality and throughput concerns for accounting : Chapter 20 Topics not covered in previous lecture: http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.hk/2012/10/next-strategic-management-accounting.html   [solely on Customer Profitability Analysis] References On Total Quality Management: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2011/10/total-quality-management-brief-note.html On throughput accounting: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2011/10/review-of-throughput-accounting-from.html

The following questions is for class discussion on Engineering Mgt workshop covering the topics of motivation and leadership: Question 1: On motivation “Fresh graduates from the Engineering Faculty of HKU are willing to consider low starting salaries as long as the jobs offered to them provide opportunities to work with their peer groups”. To what extent do you agree with this statement? Support your viewpoints in the discussion by applying motivation theories in your line of reasoning. Question 2: On leadership Using leadership theories, evaluate to what extent Steve Jobs was a great leader in Apple Computers Ltd.

The following are upcoming Research Methods topics for MISM programme : Ethics: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2012/03/research-and-consulting-ethics.html plagiarism: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2011/08/plagiarism-what-plagiarism.html project mgt control: note the following major phases of a research process: Motivation -> Literature review -> formulate research question(s) and/or formulate conceptual framework -> formulate research strategies (e.g. survey, case study) -> formulate data generation methods (e,g, interviews, observations, etc) -> conduct data analysis (e.g. qualitative and/or quantitative ones).   Develop a project plan to capture these activities. Students need to study the workshop materials for details of the above topics Class discussion: What are the major ethical issues arising from the following research strategies: Case study Action research Survey Experiment Some general ethical issues are: confid...

The topics for next Strategic Management Accounting (SMA) lecture are as follows: Chapter 11 of textbook: Activity-based Costing Chapter 12 textbook: Pricing, Target Costing and Customer Profitability Analysis The main reading for study purpose is the subject textbook Class exercises to review are: Exercise 1 Exercise 2 References On ABC: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2011/10/activity-based-costing-brief-note.html On target costing: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/search?q=target+costing On customer profitability analysis: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2011/10/reviewing-customer-accounting-from.html Product Life Cycle notion: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2012/08/product-life-cycle-management-study.html Some readings on SMA from CIMA for reference: http://www.cimaglobal.com/Thought-leadership/Research-topics/

It appears to me that some Strategic Management Accounting (SMA) students are not familiar with the subject of Strategic Management . Here, I provide some links for a few basic concepts in Strategic Management for your quick reference: PEST analysis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEST_analysis SWOT analysis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysis Competitive advantage: http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/competitive-advantage/ Value Chain analysis: http://www.netmba.com/strategy/value-chain/ Five-force Model: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_five_forces_analysis

Some study notes on the topics of Auditing and Assurance and Risk Management in Corporate Governance : Note 1 Note 2 Note 3 Note 4 Note 5 Note 6 Note 7 Note 8 Note 9 Note 10

My latest academic article on e-learning support based on multi-perspective, systems-based (MPSB) thinking is now available online: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sres.2125/abstract   References Related online publications can be accessed via: http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.hk/2012/08/online-published-articles-of-jkk-ho-2012.html A brief introduction on MPSB research is provided in http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2011/08/multi-perspective-systems-based.html