Accounting Information System Selection in Small Organizations by Gray - Essay Example

Article Critique: Accounting Information System Selection in Small Organizations: Incongruences Between Accounting Professionals Submitted by: XXXXXXX Student Number: XXXXXXX Tutor’s Name: XXXXXXX Subject: XXXXXXX Subject Code: XXXXXXX University of XXXXXXX Date of Submission: XX – XX – 2010 Number of Words:1492 (Excluding Bibliography) Introduction: With the growing numbers of small businesses, there has also been a surge in the need for accounting information systems. An accounting information system is a system used by businesses to maintain their accounts (David & Merle, 1996). The main reason accounting information systems are used is that it includes proper collection of data as well as provides information to the decision makers to make informed decisions. Accounting information systems were previously paper based, however with the growth of technology, now most companies use electronic accounting systems. The main aim of this paper is to provide a critical review of the article “Accounting Information System Selection in Small Organizations: Incongruences between Accounting Professionals” by Glen L. Gray. This paper will provide a brief overview of the article following which the findings and limitations of the article will be discussed. The next section will deal with the importance of the article and the reasons for choice. Importance of the Article and Reasons for Choice: The article by Gray, is one which focuses on small organisations and their need for accounting information systems. The article is of great importance to the field of study as it touches upon some essential aspects of the overall systems in the companies. It is essential to note here that the author has touched upon essential reasons that can sometimes cause the failures of the systems, i.e. the incongruences. This article is of immense importance for the field of study as it helps identify the possible issues and also clearly brings out the incongruences, which help the companies identify where the corrections can be made to improve the use of the systems. The article can prove to be a major contributor to the literature in the field and can assists readers to correctly and effectively understand the incongruences between people. It also acts as a clear literature to identify, “The existence of incongruences between different groups of accounting professionals participating in this study (who have at least similar educational backgrounds) could indicate an even higher potential for incongruences between accounting professionals and clients (who have more dissimilar backgrounds)” (Gray, 1991). The article also helps in more informed decision making and will prove to assist the readers with better understanding of what parts of the accounting information systems is going wrong and to correct it accordingly. The article clearly pays a lot to the literature in the field and as a student this helps in identifying the areas that need to be focused upon and also helps in identifying possible loop holes which can be further used for further research into the area. Brief Overview of Article: As has been discussed earlier, the article deals with the Incongruences between the accounting professionals. Gray has conducted an excellent research, where he has focused on the accounting professionals. The author has identified 146 attendees from a Microcomputer Conference. The author effectively divided them into three main categories, i.e. “(1) hardware attributes: multiuser capability, execution speed, and maximum configuration; (2) software attributes: usability, performance/ audit trail, and versatility; and (3) feedback-from-other-users attributes: ease of use and learning, ease of installation, and satisfaction of expectations” (Gray, 1991).The study was conducted with a main objective of identifying the incongruences between the various groups of accounting professionals. Like the users, accountants and also combination of experiences. The author explains that the main reason this has been chosen is due to the literature available which highlights that the incongruences are the underlying cause for the system failures. The author hence has used four main incongruences for investigation of this study. The chosen incongruences include: “(1) relative weights assigned to each of the nine attributes; (2) stated minimum acceptable threshold levels for each attribute; (3) within-group consensus in assigning weights; and (4) consistencies in applying assigned weights when making holistic judgments” (Gray, 1991). Discussion of Findings: The research results clearly indicate that there is clearly incongruence between the various groups. For the research, the groups agreed that a ranking is required to be made for the features like usability, performance and also the audit trail attributes. The study reveals that there is clearly incongruence between the groups. The author explains that four of the attributes have different weights and two of the attributes had significantly differences in terms of their threshold levels concern various pairs of the subject groups. The findings also reveal that there were within group consensus which was lesser levels of differences. The subjects have clearly shown a broad level of diversity and there was clearly lack of consistency levels within the groups as well. The findings also revealed that the subjects of the different groups of accounting professionals with similar educational background indicated a higher level of incongruences than the people who had different backgrounds. The author has very effectively provided a step by step explanation of each part of the findings and has clearly and evidently explained how each of them is interrelated. The authors have effectively and very effectively explained the need for the accounting information systems and has effectively also gone forward to explain that the systems success is clearly reliant on the users and groups like accountants. The author has very effectively explained the findings based on within group consensus, consistency. The author has also very effectively provided a clear conclusion of the findings which make it even simpler for the readers to understand and absorb. The research findings can easily be concluded as follows: Firstly the author explains, there is a clear agreement by the accounting professionals pertaining the software attributes. Secondly, the author explains, “On the other hand, preference incongruences do exist between different groups of accounting professionals. Four out of the nine attributes had significantly different weights, and two attributes had significantly different threshold levels for the various pairs of subject groups” (Gray, 1991). The author also highlights that the existing literature was used to identify the weights and the threshold levels. The author has provided a clear and concise findings which help the overall results to be clearly understood. The next section will detail the limitations of the research. Limitation of Research: The research has been clearly based only on the small accounting information systems and the author has not concentrated on the large accounting information systems at all. Although this is the main objective of the study, including a basic overview of the large accounting information systems and pertaining literature would help the study provide a more rounded and better focused research (Raghunathan & Wobser, 1995). Explaining the literature in brief regarding the large accounting information systems will allow the study to get a brief description of the two and then focusing only on small accounting information systems would have helped in better overall understanding of the concepts as well as the difference in the two types of information accounting systems. As explained by the author, “The objective of this study was to develop baseline information regarding small AIS selection, which was motivated by the general lack of literature on this relatively new domain” (Gray, 1991). This clearly states the authors views however as a reader, it is essential to gain an insight into both the aspects to effectively understand the research and the overall findings of the research. It is essential to note that the author has been able to express the overall research and the findings effectively however the paper lacks an insight into the limitations from the view point of the author as well. Another minor limitation of the research is the use of tables and graphs however lack of clear collected data. As a reader the data collected also plays a major role in the understanding of the research and the overall synopsis of the research. Conclusions: The article has very effectively touched upon the small accounting information systems and has provided details of the findings very well. The author has very has included a detailed analysis of the implications for the management. This clearly provides a detailed understanding of the findings of the paper. The authors have also included excellent and well thought out questions in the conclusions which need to be examined. A positive aspect of this article is the quantitative research that the author has completed. This provides clear picture of the accounting information systems in use and also helps in gaining an insight into the views of the various groups. The one area that the research lacks is a qualitative research. Conducting a qualitative research would help bring in the view points of experts in the field as well which would be very beneficial in development of the literature pertaining this area of study. Finally a very positive and excellent presentation that the author has included is that of the further research recommendations. The author has effectively divided the section and provided research recommendations based on each section. This shows evidence of clarity of thought and ideas and thereby provides a fully rounded and complete paper. Bibliography David, B. H., & Merle, M. (1996). Accounting Information Systems: The Challenge of Extending Their Scope to Business and Information Strategy. Accounting Horizons , 16- 22. Gray, G. L. (1991). Accounting Information System Selection in Small Organizations: Incongruences Between Accounting Professionals. Journal of Information Systems , 17 - 35. Raghunathan, B., & L.Wobser, S. (1995). Accounting software selection by small business organizations. National Public Accountant , 20. Read More