Hybrid Management Accountants - the professional development path

Hybrid Management Accountants (HMA) are knowledgeable in various business disciplines, on top of their professional competence in Management Accounting. They include marketing management, strategic management, human resource management, operations management and information systems management, etc. HMA are desired because businesses need Management Accountants to comprehend business concerns wih a comprehensive and strategic perspective, and offer relevant Mnaagement Accounting support. This is also the main reason for Professional Management Accounting bodies to develop Strategic Management Accounting (SMA).  Such initiative as SMA is to overcome the MA support quality problems arising from narrow and, very often, inward focus of traditional MA practices.

The idea of HMA reflects a more general trend in Management Education to adopt a transdisciplinary approach in Management Education. The ideal of transdisciplinarity has also long been adopted in the Systems Movement. Moreover, it is clear that senior managers, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) included, are required to think strategically and holistically; thus, a narrow, functionally focused mindset will not quality a manager to take up a senior position in an organization. In this case, a HMA is more qualified to subsequently take up the job of CFO in enterprises.

In my view, there is a key problem facing part-time accounting students in their effort to develop hybrid management accounting competence (HMAC): lack of time. The prevailing business environment is complex and dynamic, and the knowledge repositories of individual business subjects, e.g. Management Accounting are expanding fast. Thus, how can part-time accounting students absorb knowledge from various business disciplines to develop HMAC. As I see it, the most important consideration is not about time; it is about mindset... Management Accountants (MA) should be open-minded about ideas from various business disciplines and be ready to consider them in their MA practices. My advice to MA: keep learning from various sources and business disciplines; the motto is "Just do it".


References

1. On transdisciplinarity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transdisciplinarity
2. An article on role of MA (pdf): http://khademi.ir/management_accounting/Management_accounting.pdf