Business School (Paisley Campus)

Session 2017-18

Module Code: ACCT 11021

The Professional Accountant and Governance

MOCK EXAMINATION PAPER

Answer BOTH compulsory 30-mark questions in Section A.

Answer TWO 20-mark questions in part B.

 SECTION A Answer BOTH questions

Question 1

XYZ company operates in the leisure industry and already has a number of business interests
including ice skating rings and an artificial dry ski slope. At the last board meeting, a suggestion was
put forward to convert the artificial dry ski slope into an indoor snow dome to compete with rivals
who have introduced similar facilities in other parts of the country which XYZ’s customers are now
travelling to use.

Such a change would mean that XYZ company would use the latest snow making technology to
create snow in a controlled environment. This would provide a better experience for customers than
the artificial dry ski slope, which currently uses plastic matting in place of the snow.

A project team has been set up to develop the idea and the project team are now at the stage of
investigating the feasibility and delivery of the proposal.

a) Critically discuss the purpose of a project feasibility study, making reference to the different
types of feasibility that should be considered for the indoor snow dome project. (18 marks)
b) Distinguish between project risk and project uncertainty. (4 marks)
c) Describe the ways in which risks associated with a project can be managed. (8 marks)

Question 2

LMN Company is a producer of fruit and cola drinks with a well-established position and brand
recognition in StuLand. The potential for future growth in StuLand is limited with the market
reaching saturation. Since the company has growth aspirations, it is assessing whether this can be
achieved by offering its existing product range into new markets in other countries. One possible
method of achieving market entry that has been identified is through a joint venture with a company
that is already established in ZooLand. A feasibility study is needed to assess the viability of the
proposed market development strategy. As part of the study an assessment is needed of the
competition within the industry and the attractiveness of the market for fruit and cola drinks in
ZooLand.

Required:

Using Porter's Five Forces model critically analyse the feasibility study to assess the competition
within the fruit and cola drinks industry in ZooLand. (30 marks)

SECTION B Answer 2 only

Question 3

Kevin has recently been promoted to his first management position. In the past, he very much
enjoyed working as part of a team, but is having some difficulty in adapting to his new role as leader
of a team. In his recent appraisal he has acknowledged that his style of management is not effective
in all instances. In particular, he feels that he has not been very flexible in dealing with some of the
issues that he has faced. He has identified that he would benefit from leadership training to help him
better understand the alternative styles of management that he could adopt to help him develop to
become more effective in his role.

Required:

Critically discuss, with reference to four theories, the different management / leadership styles Kevin
could adopt to help him to become more effective in his role. (20 marks)

Question 4

It has been claimed that the performance management of employees assists organisations to achieve
their goals.

Required:

Critically discuss the general and specific aims and objectives of appraisal, the benefits and
limitations. (20 marks)

Question 5

Ken is the CEO of STU company, a manufacturer of frozen goods. The company is facing difficult
business conditions with strong competition coming from supermarket own branded products and
consumer demand for variety and new products as their tastes change. However, Ken is aware of the
problems the company has encountered when undertaking new product development in the past.
Whilst collaboration is essential, instead there have been disagreements and arguments between the
various departments.

The Marketers complain that the R&D department is very slow in responding to their proposals in
the new recipes and the whole process of R&D takes too long. The production department has
protested that R&D does not consider the implications of for the production process when coming
up with new recipes and product packaging. The sales team is frustrated by the length of time the
whole new product development process takes. The lack of new products puts it at a disadvantage of
when negotiating with retailers to sell their products.

The finance department is concerned that the investment in new product development does not
provide adequate returns, and both the marketing and R&D departments are always over budget.
However, other departments see Finance as controlling and sanctioning spending rather than
supporting new product development.
Ken knows that to remain competitive, change needs to be made to the new product development
process in the company. He has decided to establish a new cross functional team to work on a range
of ready prepared frozen foods to appeal to the luxury end of the market. However, in the past cross
functional teams have had limited success, there was always arguments between employees and
their overall performance has always fallen below Ken’s expectations.

Required:

(a) Critically analyse the nature and causes of conflict between the different departments in STU
company. (12 marks)
(b) Using Tuckman’s theory of group development stages, identify what needs to be done to
weld the new cross functional team together. (8 marks)

END OF QUESTION PAPER