Competency Integration in Business Education ACBSP International Conference 4 November 2016

Raef Lawson, PhD, CFA, CMA, CPA Vice President-Research & Policy and Professor-in-Residence IMA® (Institute of Management Accountants)

About IMA • IMA® (Institute of Management Accountants),

founded in 1919, is a leading global professional association of accountants and financial professionals in business.

• A network of 80 000+ members and over 300 chapters worldwide (including 100 student chapters).

• Global headquarters in US; regional offices in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

• IMA offers a professional certification program, the Certified Management Accounting (CMA).

• IMA has numerous programs to support the teaching and research efforts of the academic community.

The Need for Competency Integration in Business Education

Integration: How Business Professionals Add Value

The Need for Competency Integration in Business Education

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Globalization and technological change are rapidly changing the

environment in which businesses operate. • Business professionals increasingly operate cross-functionally, in

increasingly complex environments, collaborating with other managers in order to improve organizational performance.

Greater competency requires students to achieve higher levels of

cognitive development for thinking about and using acquired

knowledge.

The cognitive development literature suggests that thought

processes develop in hierarchical levels or stages, with each level

laying the foundation for the next-higher level.

Competency Integration and Level of Cognitive Ability

Knowing Identifying Analyzing Prioritizing Anticipating Demonstrate knowledge in unambiguous situations

Identify ambiguous problems and relevant information

Analyze relevant information, viewpoints, and alternatives

Establish and apply priorities for reaching conclusions

Anticipate and adapt to changing conditions

Achieve First

Achieve Second

Achieve Third

Achieve Last

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D

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r Kno

wle

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and

M

ore

Con

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ual C

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exity

The Need for Competency Integration in Business Education

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Students’ initial exposure to a technical skill typically focuses on skill mastery with minimal integration.

They may then learn how to integrate foundational competencies with other discipline-specific and broad management competencies.

Students may continue to learn how to further integrate foundational competencies cross functionally to apply that knowledge effectively to tasks requiring them to address realistic, complex business problems.

The knowledge, skills, and abilities of a business education should emerge and be developed within the curriculum as integrated competencies, as this is how those competencies are deployed within organizations.

Levels of Competency Integration

Curricular Integration

Curricular Integration – HOW?

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Levels of Competency Integration

10 Source: “Focusing Accounting Curricula on Students’ Long-Run Careers: Recommendations for an Integrated Competency-Based Framework for Accounting Education” Lawson, Raef A., Edward Blocher, Peter C. Brewer, Gary Cokins, James E. Sorensen, David E. Stout, Gary L. Sundem, Susan K. Wolcott and Marc J. F. Wouters), Issues in Accounting Education, May 2014.

Curriculum Integration Example: Capital Investment Decision

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Accounting Competencies Foundational Competencies

Broad Management Competencies

Communication

Quantitative Methods

Analytical Thinking & Problem Solving

Interpersonal

Technology

Leadership Governance, Risk & Compliance

Additional Core Management Competencies

Ethics & Social Responsibility

External Reporting & Analysis

Financial statement preparation and analysis

Taxation: Compliance and Planning

Tax implications

Assurance & Internal Control

Internal and external audit implications

Planning, Analysis & Control

Screening and preference decisions

Behavioral issues

Organizational change

management

Corporate social responsibilities Risk assessment

Cost of capital, Capital structure,

Real-options analysis

Source: “Thoughts on Competency Integration in Accounting Education”, Lawson, Raef A., Edward Blocher, Peter C. Brewer, Jan Taylor Morris, James E. Sorensen, Kevin Stocks, David E. Stout, Gary L. Sundem, and Marc J. F. Wouters, Issues in Accounting Education, August 2015.

Curriculum Integration Example: Inventory Management

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Accounting Competencies Foundational Competencies

Broad Management Competencies

Communication

Quantitative Methods

Analytical Thinking & Problem Solving

Interpersonal

Technology

Process Management & Improvement

Governance, Risk & Compliance

Additional Core Management Competencies

Ethics & Social Responsibility

Planning, Analysis & Control

Strategic performance measurement

Information Systems

Document and data flows for inventories

Assurance & Internal Control

Internal and external audit implications

External Reporting & Analysis

Inventory accounting

methods Ratio analysis

Global sourcing decisions Lean production

Managing inventory risks

Collaborative supply chain management

Source: “Thoughts on Competency Integration in Accounting Education”, Lawson, Raef A., Edward Blocher, Peter C. Brewer, Jan Taylor Morris, James E. Sorensen, Kevin Stocks, David E. Stout, Gary L. Sundem, and Marc J. F. Wouters, Issues in Accounting Education, August 2015.

A Framework for Including Integrated Competency-Based Learning Objectives

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Enterprise Performance Management (EPM)(Strategy Formulation and Analysis, Planning, and Execution)

A Life-CycleManagement

Approach

A Value Chain Management

Approach

A Stakeholder Management

Approach

A Resource Management

Approach

A Technology Management

Approach

Capital Investment Decision-Analysis

External Reporting & Analysis Other Accounting Competencies

Broad Management Competencies

LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5 LO6

Source: “Thoughts on Competency Integration in Accounting Education”, Lawson, Raef A., Edward Blocher, Peter C. Brewer, Jan Taylor Morris, James E. Sorensen, Kevin Stocks, David E. Stout, Gary L. Sundem, and Marc J. F. Wouters, Issues in Accounting Education, August 2015.

Implementation Opportunities & Issues

Identifying Opportunities for Integration

Identifying opportunities for integration requires connecting different aspects of a particular accounting topic. At an abstract level, it may be helpful to think about several connections:

How are ex post and ex ante aspects related? How are financial and nonfinancial aspects of a topic related?

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Integration Opportunities

• The best way to address implementation challenges may be to consider that it is NOT an “all or nothing” decision.

• Instructors can • Integrate topics within a given course • Integrate topics across courses that they teach • Coordinate with colleagues teaching other accounting courses,

for example, on the basis of a common case that is used across courses.

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Integration, regardless of who initiates it or how it is implemented, can occur without necessarily involving a complete curriculum overhaul.

Implementation Issues

• Development of content needed for more integrated business education.

• Organizational challenges for implementing more integrated business education in schools and colleges.

• Deployment of pedagogical methods that draw on higher levels of cognitive development of students.

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Implementation Scope and the Levers of Complexity

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•Number of Courses

•Number of Competencies

•Number of

Professors

• Number of

Learning Objectives

Within and Across Competencies

Areas of Expertise

Existing and

New

Accounting and Broad

Management

Key Processes in Comprehensive Curriculum Integration

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List All Desirable Relevant Topics

Select "Need-to-Know" Topics

Formulate Topics into Courses

Organize Courses and Sequence into Programs

Develop Potential Current (and Future) Staffing

Source: “Managing the Curricular-Change Process: Implementing Competency-Based Accounting Education”, Lawson, Raef A., Karen V. Pincus, James E. Sorensen, Kevin D. Stocks, and David E. Stout, Issues in Accounting Education, forthcoming 2017.

Life-Cycle Stages of Curricular Integration

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1

4 3

Growth

Maturity Decline Renewal

Decline

2 5

Implementation

Cur

ricu

lar

Inte

grat

ion

Time

Source: “Managing the Curricular-Change Process: Implementing Competency-Based Accounting Education”, Lawson, Raef A., Karen V. Pincus, James E. Sorensen, Kevin D. Stocks, and David E. Stout, Issues in Accounting Education, forthcoming 2017.

For More Information

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“Focusing Accounting Curricula on Students’ Long-Run Careers: Recommendations

for an Integrated Competency-Based Framework for Accounting Education” (Raef

Lawson, Edward Blocher, Peter C. Brewer, Gary Cokins, James E. Sorensen, David

E. Stout, Gary L. Sundem, Susan K. Wolcott and Marc J. F. Wouters), Issues in

Accounting Education, May 2014.

“Thoughts on Competency Integration in Accounting Education” (Raef Lawson,

Edward Blocher, Peter C. Brewer, Jan Taylor Morris, James E. Sorensen, Kevin

Stocks, David E. Stout, Gary L. Sundem, and Marc J. F. Wouters), Issues in

Accounting Education, August 2015

“Managing the Curricular-Change Process: Implementing Competency-Based

Accounting Education” (Raef Lawson, Karen V. Pincus, James E. Sorensen, Kevin

D. Stocks, and David E. Stout), Issues in Accounting Education, forthcoming 2017.

Q & A

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What are YOUR

experiences/ challenges/

successes with

curricular integration?

Feel free to contact me at: RLawson@imanet.org