Name, Surname_____________________________________________

Seminar

The seminar is a group work of 3-4 students, it is possible to submit work after the seminar within 6
days, but the score will be reduced by 10 points.

1. Scorekeeping, Attention Directing, and Problem Solving For each of the following activities, identify
the primary function that the accountant is performing— scorekeeping, attention directing, or
problem solving—and explain why it best fits that category.

1. Preparing a schedule of depreciation for forklift trucks in the receiving department of a General
Electric factory in Scotland

2. Analyzing, for a Sony production superintendent, the impact on costs of purchasing some new
assembly equipment

3. Preparing a scrap report for the finishing department of a Toyota parts factory

4. Interpreting why the Colville Timber Resource Company did not adhere to its production schedule
5. Explaining the stamping department’s performance report

6. Preparing a monthly statement of European sales for the Ford Motor Company ’s vice president of
marketing

7. Preparing, for the manager of production control of a Mittal Steel plant, a cost comparison of two
computerized manufacturing control systems.

8. Interpreting variances on the performance report for the University of Michigan’s purchasing
department.

9. Analyzing, for an Airbus manufacturing manager, the desirability of having some parts for the A380
airplane made in Korea

10. Preparing the budget for the dermatology department of Providence Hospital.

2. Professional Ethics Exhibit 1-7 on page 37 lists four main categories of ethical standards for
management accountants: competence, confidentiality, integrity, and credibility. For each of the
following situations, indicate which of these four should influence the manager and what the
appropriate action should be:

1. At a dinner party, a guest asked a General Mills manager how a major new cereal was doing. The
manager had just read a report that said sales lagged much below expectation. What should he say?

2. Felix just graduated from business school with an accounting major and joined the controller’s
department of Pioneer Enterprises. His boss asked him to evaluate a market analysis for a potential
new product prepared by the marketing department. Felix knows very little about the industry, and
he never had a class to teach him how to make a market analysis. Should he just do the best he can
on the analysis without asking for help?

3. Mary Sue prepared a budget for a division of Southeastern Electronics. Her supervisor, the division
manager, was not happy that she included results for an exciting new product that was to be
introduced in a month. He asked her to leave the results for the product out of the budget. That way,
the financial results for the product would boost actual profits well above the amount budgeted,
resulting in favorable reviews for the division and its managers. What should Mary Sue do?