Topic 1: Case Study (1500 words)
The following short article appeared on page one of
The Age newspaper on 16 February 2015:
A family in
Cambridge received their Christmas presents from friends in Paris this week –
50 days after their parcel was posted.
French posties sent it to Cambodia, and the near-20,000-kilometre trip,
via several other countries, is estimated to have cost delivery firm
ParcelForce $240 to deliver three children’s books.
1. How do you
think the cost of $240 would have been calculated? (2 marks)
2. Regardless of
the exact method used to calculate the cost of delivering the lost parcel, in
what way or ways would such a calculation be subjective? Give examples to illustrate your answer. (2 marks)
3. If the parcel
delivery firm did not lose the parcel, would this necessarily mean that its
profit would have been $240 higher?
Justify your answer. (1½
marks)
4. If the parcel
delivery firm did not lose the parcel, would this necessarily mean that it
would have $240 more cash? Justify your
answer. (1½ marks)
5. Under what
circumstances might it be contended that there was no cost associated with
losing the parcel? (2 marks)
6. Might it
reasonably be contended that the cost of losing the parcel could be much more
than $240? (You may wish to consider
here that the incident has been reported in a newspaper article that includes
the name of the delivery firm.) Is this
a valid way to calculate the cost of losing the parcel? (2 marks)
7. If you were
asked to calculate the cost of losing the parcel, what approach would you
adopt? Justify your approach and state
any assumptions that you have made. (4
marks)
Topic 2: Essay (1500 words)
The management
accountant plays a number of key roles in:
(a) Assisting an organisation achieve its
objectives; and,
(b) Ensuring that the organisation is ethical in
its pursuit of those objectives.
Discuss this
statement within the context of each of the following types of organisation: •
A business organisation that is a manufacturer; and, • A not-for-profit
organisation, such as a charity.
In each case,
ensure that you provide illustrations of how the management accountant can
contribute to ensuring that organisational objectives are achieved and ethical
integrity maintained.
