Administrative Accounting in the Accounting Curriculum.

Abstract There is a healthy difference of opinion concerning the scope which may justly be assigned the accounting courses of a well-integrated collegiate curriculum in business administration at both the undergraduate and at the graduate levels. There are clearly discernible trends of emphasis among the offerings of the collegiate schools of business in the United States. Although educational forces may be detected and projected into the future with questionable accuracy, it is possible to secure some guidance in accounting curriculum policy-making by an exploratory survey of current conditions. Interpretive observations of any great validity must await a full-scale research endeavor aimed at the renovation and refurbishment of the accounting curriculum in the light of reliable evidence that such changes would be justified by sound educational aims. This paper is an attempt to "sift out" some of the educational forces which have formed our accounting curricula of the past and which may be expected to shape the developments of the future. An important set of forces is contributing to the development of the field of administrative accounting and may be expected to affect the basic curricula of our schools of business and industrial administration. There is considerable apparent argument concerning the degree of emphasis which should be assigned the currently basic segments of the administrative curriculum. The liaison (and the quality of the relationships) between the staff of the divisions of marketing, finance, management, economics and accounting often has an important bearing upon the content and scope of the accounting courses which will be offered by the accounting division.