Purpose – This paper aims to focus on the local government accountants’ perspective towards their current and potential role in the sustainability reporting process and to explore potential factors influencing the further development of their role. Design/methodology/approach – A mail survey approach was adopted across local government organisations with a deeper analysis provided through semi-structured interviews. Findings – Findings indicate that accountants are supportive of involvement in sustainability reporting, but their actual level differs significantly from the level of involvement they believe they should have, pointing to the existence of an execution gap. Potential factors are investigated, highlighting the limited integration of sustainability beyond the organisational level, the lack of understanding of sustainability by accountants and the current need for further up-skilling by accountants. Research limitations/implications – The study enhances understanding of the accountant’s perception towards sustainability reporting practices within the public sector, with particular focus on local government. Originality/value – This is an exploratory study examining an area of accounting in local government in which there are few others. It seeks to contribute to the literature by exploring and examining the accountant’s perception towards sustainable development and their current and future prospects in the reporting process in the local government sector in Australia.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of the role of communication in the sustainability reporting process within Australian local councils. The study focuses on three areas; understanding and awareness levels of local councils towards sustainability, sustainability reporting methods and the importance of community engagement. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative semi-structured interview approach was adopted for this investigation. In total, 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior managers across 13 local councils. Findings – Findings indicate that sustainability reporting is very much an emerging field in local government in Australia with varying levels of understanding and awareness of sustainability amongst councils. A lack of consistency in the current communication message being produced was found along with a lack of community engagement by most councils in the reporting process. Without clarity in the communication process, sustainability reporting in the local government context will continue to falter without a clear focus. Practical implications – The paper suggests the need for the local government sector to carefully consider the role of communication in an effort to provide direction on how best to discharge their sustainability accountabilities. Originality/value – Little attention has been given to the role of communication in accounting. The findings contribute to an understanding surrounding communication process issues in an effort to advance the sustainability reporting agenda within local government.
This paper challenges maritime educators (MEs) to utilise the flipped or partially flipped classroom to meet increasingly diverse stakeholder needs. Given the international and geographically dispersed nature of the maritime industry (MI), the skills required are more complex than in a domestic situation. Further considerations include continuous improvement of learning and teaching practices whilst engaging with a unique student cohort, preparing a graduate suited to specific MI requirements and working within constrained university resources. At first, this may appear to be addressing too many divergent stakeholder expectations. The authors propose using backward course design (a design that meets the needs and goals of the specific nature of the MI through stakeholder consultation) as a premise to flipped teaching, thus unifying stakeholder requirements. Skills developed in the flipped classroom are particularly useful within the international nature of the MI. The skills required for effectively working in a linguistically and culturally diverse industry such as teamwork, decision-making, problem-solving and conflict resolution are practised in the flipped classroom. These skills along with specific consideration of MI-based cases and examples discussed in class time produce a more work-ready graduate attuned to specific industry requirements. This paper provides two application examples of the flipped classroom in the MI and highlights how this approach can lead to improved teaching outcomes for MEs.
With the need to move accounting students towards deeper learning approaches and understandings, this first cycle of an action research study sought to determine the student's perspective of the flipped learning approach. With this learning approach gaining momentum in recent times, this study focuses on a first-year introductory accounting class in an undergraduate business degree. In making changes to the learning environment, we survey students and find that there are significant differences between the flexible student, that is, students that are already exposed in a limited way to this approach, and the face-to-face student. Results indicate further action research is required if the flipped learning approach is to be considered a serious teaching and learning contender for the first-year student.
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