ACCA F1 Accountant in Business - 2010 - Study text

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Practice questions

Information Category

The candidate has a university degree in chemistry.

He plays football for a local amateur team.

He has been learning to speak German for several years, and has passed

some formal examinations in the language. It is his intention eventually

to work in Germany or for a German company.

He can speak German with reasonable fluency.

He has a certificate in Information Technology, which he obtained after

attending a course of evening classes at the local college.

He is currently looking after his aged mother, since he is an only child

and his father is dead. This means that he cannot be away from home

for an extended period; for example, he cannot go on business trips that

require overnight stays.

58 Ineffective interviews

What are the potential consequences of ineffective interviews?

59 Discrimination

An equal opportunities employer will seek to prevent discrimination in the work

place. Explain briefly the nature of:

 direct discrimination

 indirect discrimination

 victimisation

 harassment.

60 Wheels and circles

(a) What is the difference between a wheel and a circle pattern of communication?

Give an example of each.

(b) What do you think would be the features of a ‘Y’ pattern of communication?

61 Formal and informal

(a) What is the difference between formal and informal communication?

(b) Give examples of each, and explain why both are essential for an organisation

to operate efficiently and effectively.

62 Vertical and lateral

(a) Explain the difference between vertical and lateral (or horizontal)

communication. In what circumstances or situations would you expect to find

very little horizontal communication?

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(b) What are the main problems with vertical communication when the leadership

style is authoritarian?

63 Learning and training

Explain the views of Kolb and Honey and Mumford about learning, and explain

how they are relevant for training individuals.

64 Methods of training

Shown below are four types of training programme and four methods of training.

You are required to match each of the training methods with the type of training

programme to which it is probably best suited.

Training programme

Training staff in the customer relations department how to

deal with customer complaints

Management training for ‘high flying’ management trainees

Training for accountancy examinations

Training in health and safety procedures

Training method

Case study

Lecture

Film

Role play

65 Training and development

Explain briefly the difference between training and development.

66 Effectiveness of training

In what ways might the effectiveness of training be monitored? Use Kirkpatrick’s

model to provide an answer.

67 Job enrichment, enlargment and rotation

(a) Briefly define:

 job enrichment

 job enlargement

 job rotation.

(b) Which of these might be an objective of a job analysis and job redesign exercise?

Practice questions

68 Appraisal

Describe the three main elements of staff appraisal.

69 Competence

Suggest how the competence of an employee might be assessed.

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Paper F1

AccountantinBusiness

Q&A

Answers to practice

questions

Contents

Page

Types of organisation and organisation

structures

1 Typesoforganisation 433

2 Spanofcontrol 433

3 Managementlevels 433

4 Centralisationanddecentralisation 434

5 Criticismsofcommittees 434

Marketing. Information technology and

information systems

6 Marketingmix 435

7 Usesofinformation 435

8 Qualitiesofinformation 435

Culture, ethics, governance and social

responsibility

9 Formalorganisation 436

10 Scheinandculture 436

11 Handyandculture 436

12 Fourcultures 437

13 Hofstedeandculture 437

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14 Stakeholders 438

15 Businessandprofessionalethics 438

16 Accountant’sbehaviour 439

17 NEDs 439

18 Auditcommittee:trueorfalse? 440

Environmental influences and constraints

19 Currencyrisk 440

20 Interestraterise 440

21 Monopoly 441

22 Ageingpopulation 441

23 Downsizingandde‐layering 442

24 Personaldata 442

25 Shortquestions 443

26 Fiveforces 443

History and role of accounting in business

27 Basiclegalrequirements 444

28 Consequences 444

29 Accountingstandards 444

30 Creditcontrol 444

31 Payrollroutinesandpurchasing

routines

445

32 Workingcapital 446

33 Spreadsheets 446

34 Database 446

Functions of accounting and internal

financial control

35 Accountingfunction 447

36 Audit 447

37 Typesofinternalaudit 448

38 Auditwork 448

39 Internal control, internal controls and

internalchecks

449

Answers to practice questions

40 ITrisksandITcontrols 450

41 Fraud 451

Management and leadership



42 FayolandMintzberg 451

43 Mayo 452

44 Authorityandresponsibility 452

45 Continuum 453

46 Action‐centredleadership 453

47 HerseyandBlanchard 453

Individual and group behaviour: team

management



48 Compositionofateam 454

49 Increasingagroupsize 454

Motivation



50 Participation 455

51 Payasamotivator 455

52 Calculus 456

53 Needstheory 456

54 Blake,MoutonandMcGregor 456

Recruitment and selection



55 Stages 457

56 Applicationform 458

57 Sevenpointplan 458

58 Ineffectiveinterviews 458

59 Discrimination 459

Individual effectiveness and effective

communication



60 Wheelsandcircles 459

61 Formalandinformal 460

62 Verticalandlateral 460

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Learning, training and development and

performance appraisal



63 Learningandtraining 461

64 Methodsoftraining 462

65 Traininganddevelopment 462

66 Effectivenessoftraining 462

67 Jobenrichment,enlargementand

rotation

463

68 Appraisal 463

69 Competence 464

Answers to practice questions

1 Types of organisation

(a) A charity is a non-government not-for-profit organisation, even when it

receives most of its funding from the government.

(b) A school is a public sector organisation when it is owned by the government.

However, there are also private schools. Private schools in the UK are

currently established as charities and are funded by school fees: they are non-

government not-for-profit organisations. In some countries schools may be

operated by business organisations, whose purpose is to make a profit.

might be required to operate at a profit, in which case it is also a business

organisation.

2 Span of control

As a general rule, the span of control will be narrow when the manager has to spend

a large proportion of his time with individual subordinates, for example time spent

on monitoring and discussing work. A span of control is also likely to be narrower

in a small organisation than in a large one, although this is not always true.

Using these assumptions, the answers to the question are as follows. (Your own

views might differ, but you should have reasons for your opinion.)

(a) A narrow span of control. In a small research department, the head is likely to

work closely with the other departmental members on research projects, and

the span of control probably has to be fairly narrow. A manager may be

appointed for each research project or each group of similar research projects.

(b) A wide span of control. A site manager might have a fairly large number of

individuals and team foremen reporting to him, particularly on a large site.

each department reporting to him. In a large department, this could be a fairly

large number of departmental heads.

(d) A fashion design team is probably fairly small; therefore the head of a fashion

design team will have only a narrow span of management control.

3 Management levels

(a) This is an operational matter, involving a day-to-day operational problem.

(b) This is a strategic decision, involving the selection of a business strategy for

achieving the strategic objective of business growth.

decision. It is concerned with the implementation of business strategy. Having

made the strategic decision to develop a new computer system, tactical plans

must then be developed (a budget and timetable for the development project,

and the preparation of detailed system specifications). Tactical planning for

the project will then be converted into more detailed operational plans as the

development project progresses.

(d) A sales plan is made at a tactical level of management when it covers a longer-

term period such as one year. A tactical sales plan must then be converted into

Paper F1: Accountant in business

detailed sales targets for the next week or month, possibly for individual sales

representatives or sales areas.

4 Centralisation and decentralisation

(a) These decisions will be taken by medical staff – the doctors.

(b) Policy on hygiene standards should be set by head office, because common

standards should be applied in all five hospitals. Responsibility for enforcing

the standards should be delegated to hospital management.

the hospital management. However, in a centralised organisation, these

decisions might be taken at head office.

(d) Decisions about discharging patients should be taken by medical staff.

(e) The policy on visiting times for patients might be decided centrally by head

office management. However, policy on visiting times might be delegated to

hospital management, with each hospital allowed to decide its own visiting

times.

(f) Drugs should be prescribed by medical staff. However, head office might

establish policies on drugs that should not be used in the hospitals – for

example because they are too expensive.

(g) Hiring employees might be the responsibility of head office (in a centralised

management structure) or hospital management (in a decentralised structure).

(h) Dealing with medical insurance companies about payments for patients is

likely to be the responsibility of an accounts department at head office,

because all five hospitals would otherwise have to deal separately with the

same insurance companies.

5 Criticisms of committees

Four common criticisms of committees are as follows.

(a) When committees are given authority and responsibility, no individual has

personal responsibility for what the committee does – not even the committee

chairman. Effective management usually depends on individuals accepting

responsibility.

(b) Decision-making is usually slow, especially when committees are large. For

example, it is often difficult to arrange dates at short notice for meetings when

most committee members can attend.

therefore be very expensive.

(d) Committees might spend a long time debating issues without reaching any

consensus or decision. Committees that are little more than ‘talking shops’ are

a waste of time because they fail to achieve their purpose.

ACCA F1 Accountant in Business - 2010 - Study text - Emile Woolf Publishing

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