Raef Lawson - Competency Integration in Business Education

1. 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)

2. 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.

3. The Need for Competency
Integration in Business Education

4. Integration: How Business Professionals Add
Value

5. The Need for Competency Integration in
Business Education
5
 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.

6. 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
6
DeeperKnowledgeand
MoreContextualComplexity

7. The Need for Competency Integration in
Business Education
7
 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.

8. Levels of Competency Integration

9. Curricular Integration
Curricular Integration – HOW?
9

10. 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.

11. Curriculum Integration Example:
Capital Investment Decision
11
Accounting CompetenciesFoundational
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.

12. Curriculum Integration Example:
Inventory Management
12
Accounting CompetenciesFoundational
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.

13. A Framework for Including Integrated
Competency-Based Learning Objectives
13
Enterprise Performance Management (EPM)
(Strategy Formulation and Analysis, Planning, and Execution)
A Life-Cycle
Management
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.

14. Implementation Opportunities &
Issues

15. 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?
15

16. 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.
16
Integration, regardless of who initiates it or how it is
implemented, can occur without necessarily involving a
complete curriculum overhaul.

17. 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.
17

18. Implementation Scope and the Levers of
Complexity
18
•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

19. Key Processes in Comprehensive
Curriculum Integration
19
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.

20. Life-Cycle Stages of Curricular Integration
20
1 43
Growth
Maturity Decline
Renewal
Decline
2 5
Implementation
CurricularIntegration
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.

21. For More Information
21
 “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.

22. Q & A
22
 What are YOUR
experiences/ challenges/
successes with
curricular integration?
Feel free to contact me at:
RLawson@imanet.org