Writer’s choice

Financial Reporting Assignment – ACCT2006 Semester 1 2021/ACC230 OUA SP1 2021 Page 1 of 19
Financial Reporting Assignment – ACCT2006 Semester 1 2021 and ACC230 OUA SP1 2021
Formatting requirements which apply to the whole assignment
Cover sheet: Your assignment must have a cover sheet. Download the cover sheet from
the assessment folder, or create one with the same essential elements.
Headings and subtitles: Before answering each question, provide an appropriate heading or subheading.
Fonts, margins and page setup: Use size 12 font, either Arial or Times New Roman. Use 1.5 line spacing. Use portrait page orientation1 and a moderate margin. Strictly adhere to all word limits.
References: You must provide complete in-text references and a complete end of document reference list. You must correctly follow the referencing style identified in the unit outline. Lecture slides or other study materials provided on Blackboard are not considered to be acceptable references – we expect that you will conduct research beyond the learning materials provided to you in the unit!
Word limits: Section one of your assignment has no word limit. Section two has a STRICT word limit of 600 words. All references (in-text and end of document reference list) and appendices do not count towards the 600 word limit. Use your 600 words wisely: do not repeat news articles.
Further requirements which apply to section one of the assignment
References: You should provide academic references where necessary.
Format: Section one of your assignment should be presented in a report format.
Note: Assignments which are not adequately formatted will lose up to two (2) marks.
1It is acceptable to use landscape orientation to display your statement of changes in equity.

Financial Reporting Assignment – ACCT2006 Semester 1 2021/ACC230 OUA SP1 2021 Page 2 of 19 Section 1: Presentation of financial statements (10 marks)
Instructions
In your pairs, you will have already chosen an ASX listed company. Your assignment will require the comparison and analysis of their last two published annual reports.
You will therefore need to obtain copies of their two most recently published annual reports. Depending on when your chosen company publishes their reports, these may be the reports for 2018 and 2019, 2018-19 and 2019-20, or 2019 and 2020. These two reports must be from two consecutive years.
Your analysis will be presented in report format. You will need to use a spreadsheet program (Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice Calc, or similar), a word processing program (Microsoft Word, LibreOffice Writer, or similar) and a PDF converter to prepare your report.
 Requirement one – preparation in a spreadsheet program (Total of 5 marks, based on completeness, accuracy and correct format of your presentation)
Once you have obtained the two annual reports, transfer their income statement, balance sheet, statement of changes in equity and statement of cash flows into a spreadsheet.
1a) Prepare a spreadsheet with these financial statements. Ensure that the statements are formatted in a professional and attractive manner.
1b) Use formulas in your spreadsheet to verify that the totals shown in the financial statements have been correctly calculated.
 Requirement two – written analysis (Total of 5 marks)
Once you have transferred the financial statements and into a spreadsheet, you will then prepare a report (using Microsoft Word, LibreOffice Writer, or a similar word processing program) which analyses some aspects of these reports.

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Your report must be formatted in a professional and attractive manner2. Further, your report must follow the conventions of report formatting3.
2a) Provide the reader with an introduction to the company you are analysing. This introduction should provide the reader with a basic understanding of what they do, which industry they operate in, company information and when their financial statements are prepared. As a minimum, we are looking for you to tell the reader the industry the company is in, when it was formed, what their structure is, what its market capitalisation is and who their auditors are.
(Total of 1.5 marks)
2b) Identify both the time period for which the reports refer and when the reports were published.
(Total of 0.5 marks)
2c) Identify the figures provided in the older of the two reports (e.g. if you downloaded FY2018 and FY2019’s annual reports, the older of the two reports would be FY2018). These figures will also be stated in the newer report, so that you can compare the results between the most recent and the second most recent year4. Compare the figures as stated in both reports. Are they the same?
If not, you must identify the differences.
If there are differences, provide reasons for why they have been changed. In a spreadsheet, you should compare the two sets of figures by subtracting one column’s figures from the other to demonstrate the ‘differences’.
2See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDF3-9e_7tA (please feel free to conduct your own research using YouTube resources) for some guidance on what constitutes professional and attractive formatting in a word processing program.
3See https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ld/resources/writing/writing-resources/reports for some guidance on what constitutes correct report format.
4For example, in Qantas’ 2019 annual report, they have reported figures for both 2019 and 2018. In their 2018 annual report, they have reported figures for both 2018 and 2017. “The older of the two reports” is the 2018 report. The figures of the 2018 financial year are disclosed in both 2019 and 2018 annual reports. You are then required to extract the 2018 figures from these two years’ reports, and then complete the task. You may ask, shouldn’t they be the same? The answer is that you would think so, but they are not always. That’s why we want you to make the comparison and confirm.

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A separate extraction of the specific year’s results is recommended in answering this question.
(Total of 2 marks)
2d) Provide a reconciliation note for your company’s most recent retained earnings account balance (if a business does not have a history of profits, they may report ‘retained losses’ or ‘accumulated losses’ instead). This information can be found and extracted from the statement of changes in equity. The purpose of this note is to explain what the balance of the retained earnings account was at the start of the period and what caused it to move up or down, thus demonstrating how it got to the ending balance.
Your analysis should provide both the reconciliation note, as well as a written explanation of the note.
(Total of 1 mark)

Financial Reporting Assignment – ACCT2006 Semester 1 2021/ACC230 OUA SP1 2021 Page 5 of 19 Section 2: Short analysis on a CSR related case. (10 marks)
You are required to choose only one case to answer in this section.
The word limit is 600 words.
Reference list, footnotes and appendices are not considered in the word count. Consistent format design with your section 1 is required.
Case 1: Financial vulnerability of indigenous consumers
On 10 March 2021, Telstra established its first “First Nations Connect contact centre that is dedicated to First Nation people in remote communities.”5 It employs eight staff, who speak a number of indigenous languages. Michael Ackland, Telstra’s Group CEO, wrote:
“We’re on a mission to improve the way we do business. Central to that is our customers, and how we serve them. That’s why we’re opening a new contact centre in Darwin dedi- cated to the answering of customer enquiries and the reporting of faults from Indigenous communities around Australia.”
(See website)
Prior to the call centre’s establishment, Telstra had pledged (and started) to buy back thousands of dollars in debt they previously sold to debt collectors.6 These actions followed an 18-month investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) which found Telstra had been exploiting vulnerable customers, many of whom are indigenous consumers living in regional and remote communities.7 Specifically, the ACCC investigated five licensed Telstra branded stores, between January 2016 to August 2018, which sold multiple post-paid plans to 108 indigenous customers who did not understand or could afford them. The average customer debt exceeded $7,400, while the largest individual debt amounted to $19,000.8 Telstra subsequently admitted to unconscionable conduct and in November 2020 was facing a $50 million fine in the Federal Court.
5 Read the full article via https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-10/telstra-indigenous-call-centre-opens-in- darwin/13235218.
6 Read the full article via https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-19/telstra-to-buy-back-debt-of-ripped-off- customers/11713902.
7 Read the full article via https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-29/telstra-debts-in-the-hundreds-of- thousands-accrued-by-just-74/10289686.
8 Read the case via https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/telstra-in-court-over-unconscionable-sales-to- indigenous-consumers.

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However, during the pandemic, cases where Telstra’s customers were being harassed by debt collectors were still being reported. This was despite other forms of debt, such as mortgages, being allowed to be deferred.9 Many of these cases involved customers signing 24 to 36 month post-paid contracts that require monthly payments. Some are as expensive as $115 per month. These customers accrued debts exceeding $1,000 after falling behind their monthly payments. The Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman (TIO) has accused Telstra of poor sales practices that put profit above customers’ interest.10
Does this sound familiar?
The 2018 Banking Royal Commission revealed that remote indigenous communities had been targeted by predatory financial practices such as payday loans, funeral insurance, predatory loans and ‘lemon’ car sales to cash in people’s cyclone rescue cheque, and more.11 One could argue that signing customers to two-year mobile phone and service contracts is equivalent to credit lending. However, telco companies are not considered as credit providers and therefore are not subject to the responsible lending obligations of the National Consumer Credit Protection Act. Banks and other financial institutions are.
Despite various government policies and programs targeting indigenous communities, indigenous Australians remain the most disadvantaged and marginalised ethnic group in Australia.12 They are also disadvantaged in the education system. Indigenous students counted for only 1.2 per cent of the domestic university student cohort in 2000. According to CPA Australia, there are about 200,000 accountants accredited by professional accounting bodies; only 38 identify as indigenous.
9 Read the full article via https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-26/internet-mobile-customers-in-debt-touble- with-telcos/12922622.
10Read the full article via https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-25/telstra-hits-vulnerable-australians-with- extra-data-charges/11173362.
11Read https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jul/03/banking-inquiry-told-indigenous-people- exploited-by-insurance-companies
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-07/royal-commission-reveals-exploitation-of-indigenous- australians/9950622. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-07/finance-program-helps-isolated- aboriginal-vulnerable-scams/9951284.
12Read https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/Completed_inq uiries/2002-04/poverty/report/c13.

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The question for Case 1:
In this section of your assignment, we want you to conduct your own research on the financial vulnerability of indigenous communities and critically analyse13 the following question:
Given that the indigenous Australians are disadvantaged in many areas such as finance and education, would improving the financial literacy of indigenous Australians be enough to prevent them from being exploited by predatory financial practices? Why?
13 What is counted as a ‘critical analysis? Please read https://www.uow.edu.au/student/learning-co- op/assessments/critical-analysis/ and https://sites.google.com/a/griffith.edu.au/griffith-health-writing-and- referencing-guide/essay-writing/Specific-essay-writing-tasks/critical-evaluation-tasks, if you are not certain about the requirement. An example of deconstruct the question would be ‘so if my answer is no, it is not sufficient, then I need to analyse what benefits it provides from improving their financial literacy (it cannot be all bad). Then, it alone, is not going to be enough to resolve the issue. What other things could be done?’. As you analyse this complicated matter, you need to remind yourself, you are not the first person thinking about these issues, so what other people (experts or researchers) have said about this. All your arguments have to be supported by facts and sound research findings. We do not want speculations, we especially don’t want you to repeat news stories.

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Case 2: Is greed good?14
“The sad truth of the matter is that most evil is done by people who never made up their minds to be or do either evil or good.” – Hannah Arendt15
The annals of history are littered with countless acts of evil. Interminable warfare, intermittent slavery, periodic genocides, endless thefts and more; as Edward Gibbon16 once noted, “…history; which is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind…”17 On reflection, something stands out: for all of the inhuman crimes visited on humanity, humanity has been culpable. It is another human who pulls the trigger, who drops the bomb, who burns farms and cities to the ground and who uses vague, empty words like impact when they should instead use words with meaning, such as effect or affect.
Business rarely descends to such depraved depths, but its history too recounts numerous instances of deceit, theft, exploitation and more. Australian commerce has had its fair share in recent years. Think of headlines you will have seen: casinos facilitating money laundering, banks taking advantage of customers, miners blowing up ancient artwork, supermarkets underpaying staff… All these things cause our society to shake our heads, but they are not done by some faceless corporation. Those financial products don’t sell or approve themselves. Those explosives don’t place or detonate themselves. People – members of our society – do.
So there is an obvious question: why? Why is it that people can be so darned beastly to each other? There have been many attempts to answer that question. In some cases, there may have even been answers.
14This case is provided by our dear colleague, Joseph (Jo) Oliver. Jo is wonderfully blessed with a mind that allows him to remember and absorb everything he reads. An ability that I am unashamedly jealous of. He is also one of the most generous person I’ve ever worked with or known, in terms of knowledge, not his tuna sandwich. I hope you enjoy reading this case and pick up some readings recommended by him (as what I will be doing). Some of the examples cited in this case truly inspire us to self-reflect on many things we have personally experienced directly and indirectly, in one way or another. As you read through this case, please be kindly reminded that the pronoun ‘I’ used in this section is Jo.
15From The Life of the Mind, via https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hannah_Arendt – before you protest the use of Wikiquote, there are many other sources which cite either this wording or a variation of it.
16An 18th century historian known for writing the epic The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I’ve read the whole thing and, if you have the temperament to read the whole 3800 page volume (or a 900 page abridged version), I wholeheartedly recommend it: Game of Thrones has nothing on Gibbon’s Decline and Fall.
17From The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

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Going with the flow
“Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil…” – Exodus 23:1-2, King James version of the Bible.
“…that reasonably intelligent and well-meaning young people are willing to call white black is a matter of concern. It raises questions about our ways of education and about the values that guide our conduct.” – Solomon Asch18
In the 1950s, social psychologist Solomon Asch conducted an experiment to see if an individual’s opinions could be swayed by majority influence (refer to the footnote for where you can find more information about this experiment).19 Participants were placed in a room with 7 others. They were given two cards. On the first, there was a single line. On the second, there were three lines. The participant was asked to identify which of the three lines on the second card was the same length as the line on the first. One of the three lines was clearly shorter and one was clearly longer than the correct answer. The trick though was that the other 7 people would give their answer first – and they had been instructed to give the same wrong answer on most occasions. The genuine participant would always be asked for their answer last. When the group gave a wrong answer, would the participant conform to the obviously incorrect view of the group?
Out of 123 participants, only 29 gave the correct answer on all 12 occasions when the others went against them. 76 gave an incorrect answer on at least 3 of the 12 occasions; 46 gave an incorrect answer at least 6 times; 22 gave an incorrect answer at least 9 times and 6 people gave an incorrect answer on all 12 occasions.
18From Solomon Asch’s article Opinions and Social Pressure, published in Scientific American, Vol 193, No 5 (November 1955). The article can be accessed via Curtin Library’s catalogue: https://catalogue.curtin.edu.au/permalink/f/iiil99/TN_cdi_crossref_primary_10_1038_scientificamerican11 55_31.
19There is a broad overview of the experiment and its findings on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asch_conformity_experiments. You can refer to the footnote above for an easily accessible description of the experiments, written by Solomon Asch himself. If you have the inclination, there is a 70 page article which goes into plenty of detail about the experiments – Studies of Independence and Conformity: I. A Minority of One Against a Unanimous Majority, published in Psychological Monographs, Volume 70, Number 9. You can access it via Curtin Library’s Catalogue: https://catalogue.curtin.edu.au/permalink/f/iiil99/TN_cdi_proquest_journals_916300088 Pages 27 onwards, where the author discusses the reactions of the participants, what forms their resistance or conformity took, and more, make for very interesting reading.

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Of course, one could very reasonably ask if the behaviour of people in a trivial task – identifying a line on a card – when heavily outnumbered (one to seven) could in any way be representative of how people would behave in a more serious situation, or when faced with less overwhelming opposition.
Just following orders
“Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.” – Stanley Milgram20
In the 1960s, Stanley Milgram ran a famous experiment (read the footnote for where you can find more information about this experiment)21. I shall provide a short description, but this cannot do it full justice: I strongly recommend you refer to the links provided in the footnote to gain a full understanding. Two subjects turn up to a laboratory, where they are told by a scientist in a lab coat that they will participate in a study on the effects of punishment on memory. One is assigned the role of “learner” and another the role of “teacher”. The teacher is told the task they are to perform: teach the learner a list of paired words and punish the learner whenever the learner makes a mistake. Punishment involves flipping a switch on a generator to administer an electric shock, which gets increased with each mistake (the learner is strapped to an electric chair). The electric shocks are clearly marked, ranging from 15 to 450 volts, and written descriptions of the shock level are also provided on the electric shock generator, ranging from “slight shock” to “danger: severe shock”. What the teacher does not know is the experiment is rigged: the learner is always an actor and no electric shocks are actually delivered. The learner deliberately makes mistakes and thus the teacher is told by the scientist to administer the punishment accordingly; as the shock level
20From The Dilemma of Obedience, an article written by Stanley Milgram in 1974. It can be accessed via Curtin Library’s catalogue: https://catalogue.curtin.edu.au/permalink/f/iiil99/TN_cdi_proquest_journals_1301190075
21The Wikipedia article has a very good overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment In the external links section of the Wikipedia article, there is a link to a documentary of the experiment which is available on Youtube. The article referenced in the footnote above provides a brief overview of the experiment on the second page, followed by a discussion of what it might mean. Another article, Some Conditions of Obedience and Disobedience to Authority, also by Stanley Milgram, provides further detail about the experiment and has some interesting transcripts. Only nine pages long, it is easy to read and very interesting; it can be accessed via the Curtin Library catalogue: https://catalogue.curtin.edu.au/permalink/f/15oatim/CUR_ALMA11181863150001951

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increases, the learner starts to protest and simulate increasing amounts of pain. The protests (and simulated pain) increase in intensity as the shocks get stronger until the learner stops responding (though the shocks still increase beyond this point). If the teacher said they wanted to halt the experiment, the scientist tells the teacher they must continue; the experiment will stop after the teacher voices a fifth desire to stop, or if the teacher administers the 450 volt shock three times.
The experiment has been repeated a number of times, in various forms and in different parts of the world – and often with similar results. In Milgram’s first experiments at Yale University, 65% of participants administered (even if they were reluctant to do so or questioned whether doing so was right) the strongest electric shock. Even at a less prestigious setting – a private office not affiliated with a prestigious university – 48% of participants administered the strongest shock.
As the article Some Conditions of Obedience and Disobedience to Authority stated, “…With numbing regularity good people were seen to knuckle under the demands of authority and perform actions that were callous and severe…”
But one could look at the two experiments presented so far and see them as just that – experiments. Much as they might show insight into the human mind, are they not just experiments, conducted in artificial settings, in circumstances too trivial or too extreme to represent the reality of most business dealings?
Greed is … ?
“…greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms: greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.”
– Gordon Gekko, Wall Street. 22
22Gordon Gekko is a character in the 1987 movie Wall Street. If you have any interest whatsoever in finance, watch the movie. The monologue he delivers, part of which was quoted, is very well known, and “greed is good” is seen by some as the perfect summary of the prevailing 1980s economic doctrine.

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“There is no institution so ruinous for men as money; money sacks cities, money drives men from their homes! Money by its teaching perverts men’s good minds so that they take to evil actions! Money has shown men how to practise villainy, and taught them impiousness in every action!” – Creon, Antigone23
Money may not, as the Bible claims, be the root of all evil24, but a cursory glance at the history of business shows it is definitely the root of some evils. Yet it is not just some shadowy, faceless corporation that will degrade themselves in the quest for profit: provide ordinary people with a monetary incentive and sometimes they will do some rather terrible things.
I could cite numerous misdeeds, but doing so would be tedious. The recent Hayne Royal Commission into the banking and finance industries alone uncovered enough examples to fill a report hundreds of pages long. Citing a few examples should suffice to illustrate the broader point:
A Bankwest relationship manager, at one time named a “rural and regional champion”, wrote up to $33.5m in loans each year in order to reach targets and earn generous incentives, which included luxury holidays and massive cash bonuses. The incentives could be almost as much as the individual’s salary. In order to write these loans, the banker inflated property values, misappropriated customer funds and backdated documents.25 After the banker left, the property values were revised and the loans called in by the bank.
One of Australia’s largest insurance companies, Insurance Australia Group (IAG), offered car dealers commissions of up to 50% if they sold add-on insurance to customers. The add- on insurance, such as tyre and rim insurance, offered little or no value to customers: over a decade, IAG earnt over a billion dollars in premiums for such insurance, but paid out less than a tenth of that in claims. 26
23The tragedy Antigone is a 5th century BC play written by the Greek playwright Sophocles. Creon is one of the characters. Depending on the translation used, the above quote (line 295 onwards) will vary in phrasing, but the sentiment will remain the same. As an aside, the title character, Antigone, is a daughter of Oedipus: yes, that Oedipus, meaning she is also his half sister.
24“For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” – 1 Timothy 6:10, King James version of the Bible.
25Refer to the article Bankwest’s Big Bonuses Drove Loans Frenzy, by James Frost, published in the Australian Financial Review on 29 June 2018. It can be accessed via the Curtin Library databases, such as Factiva.
26Refer to the articles IAG Admits Junk, published in the Hobart Mercury on 27 October 2018 and Insurer Offers Car Yards Bonuses, written by Jeff Whalley and published in the Hobart Mercury on 19 September 2018. Both articles can be accessed via the Curtin Library databases, such as Factiva.

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Sales staff at a Sydney based company used high pressure sales tactics to sell funeral insurance to thousands of children and babies, after a Vespa scooter and a Sunshine Coast cruise were offered as incentives.27
In 2019, ANZ abolished individual bonuses for all staff except their most senior managers. This came after the Royal Commission’s final report “drew a direct link between poor behaviour of staff and the structure of incentivised remuneration. “In almost every case, the conduct in issue was driven not only by the relevant entity’s pursuit of profit but also by individuals’ pursuit of gain,” Commissioner Hayne said in his final report.”28
A few sundry points
Conforming to those around them, refusing (or being unwilling) to defy authority, pursuing personal gain: these are some possible causes which have been presented as reasons for otherwise ordinary people – not people in high, managerial positions, but people who may not be too different from you or me – doing some rather bad things. These are not, by any means, the only reasons why people might do these things.
Consider, for example, some of the other quotes which turn up in the articles already referred to, such as this in relation to the Milgram experiment:
“At first no vocal feedback was used from the victim. It was thought that the verbal and voltage designations on the control panel would create sufficient pressure to curtail the subject’s obedience. However, this was not the case. In the absence of protests from the learner, virtually all subjects, once commanded, went blithely to the end of the board, seemingly indifferent to the verbal designations (“Extreme Shock” and “Danger: Severe Shock”) … A force had to be introduced that would strengthen the subject’s resistance to the experimenter’s commands… This force took the form of protests from the victim. Initially, mild protests were used, but proved inadequate. Subsequently, more vehement protests were inserted into the experimental procedure. To our consternation, even the strongest protests from the victim did not prevent all subjects from administering the harshest punishment ordered by the experimenter…”29
27Refer to the article Staff Selling Indigenous Funeral Plans Offered Incentives by Michael Roddan, published in The Australian on 5 July 2018. It can be accessed via the Curtin Library databases, such as Factiva.
28Refer to the article ANZ Ditches Individual Bonuses by Elizabeth Knight, published in the Canberra Times on 7 August 2019. It can be accessed via the Curtin Library databases, such as Factiva.
29From Some Conditions of Obedience and Disobedience to Authority, third page of nine, under the heading of “pilot studies”.

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Though it was an experiment under different circumstances and with different stakes, could Milgram’s observation of the lack of feedback from the suffering party and its effect on subject behaviour at least explain, in part, why ordinary employees are willing to engage in practices which are harmful to others, whom they may only encounter on the other end of a sales phone call, or once in an office or showroom?
Another quote about the Milgram experiment, from a different article, could present another possible reason:30
“What, then, keeps the person obeying the experimenter? … a number of adjustments in the subject’s thinking occur that undermine his resolve to break with the authority … One such mechanism is the tendency of the individual to become so absorbed in the narrow technical aspects of the task that he loses sight of its broader consequence … in this experiment, subjects become immersed in the procedures, reading the word pairs with exquisite articulation and pressing the switches with great care. They want to put on a competent performance, but they show an accompanying narrowing of moral concern. The subject entrusts the broader tasks of setting goals and assessing morality to the experimental authority he is serving.”
Could this explain, at least in part, the aggressive sales tactics of employees who sell products to vulnerable customers? Could they have become immersed in the selling of product, putting great effort into obtaining sales and the way in which they do so, leaving the broader goals and questions about morality to the higher management of the business they work for?
There are two more quotes from the same article which I shall present:
“Although a person acting under authority performs actions that seem to violate standards of conscience, it would not be true to say that he loses his moral sense. Instead, it acquires a radically different focus. He does not respond with a moral sentiment to the actions he performs. Rather, his moral concern now shifts to a consideration of how well he is living up to the expectations that the authority has of him. In wartime, a soldier does not ask whether it is good or bad to bomb a hamlet; he does not experience shame or guilt in the destruction of a village: Rather, he feels pride or shame depending on how well he has performed the mission.”
30From The Dilemma of Obedience.

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“Some people treat systems of human origin as if they existed above and beyond any human agent, beyond the control of whim or human feeling. The human element be hind agencies and institutions is denied. Thus, when the experimenter says, “The experiment requires that you continue,” the subject feels this to be an imperative that goes beyond any merely human command. He does not ask the seemingly obvious question, “Whose experiment? Why should the designer be served while the victim suffers?” The wishes of a man – the designer of the experiment – have become part of a schema which exerts on the subject’s mind a force that transcends the personal. “It’s got to go on. It’s got to go on,” repeated one subject. He failed to realize that a man like himself wanted it to go on. For him the human agent had faded from the picture, and “The Experiment” had acquired an impersonal momentum of its own.”
Again, Milgram refers to situations which are usually far removed from business. But if you substitute wartime with business, bombing a hamlet and destroying a village with sales and profits, the experiment with the company the employee works for, could you explain, at least in part, why ordinary, low ranking employees of organisations will commit acts which bring harm to others?
I have presented you with some possible reasons why employees of a business may engage in acts which harm customers. Such ideas as complying with the opinions of the majority, obeying authority, pursuit of personal gain and the others mentioned are not the only reasons why people have done what they have done. Yes, the situations presented tend to be more extreme than business and yes, not all people in the experiments conformed to a wrong majority opinion or blindly followed authority. However, perhaps it explains some of the bad behaviour we see in business, and in doing so, perhaps it has given you a starting point for understanding why ordinary, low level employees would engage in acts which harm others.

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The question for Case 2:
Conduct research of your own into the ways in which members of Australia’s indigenous communities have been taken advantage of by companies.
We want you to:
Identify reasons why low level employees of companies would engage in activities which benefit the company, but take advantage of indigenous customers. Briefly outline measures which you think an ethical company should take in order to ensure their employees – and thus by extension, the
company – does not engage in behaviour which takes advantage of vulnerable indigenous customers.
To be clear, we are looking for explanations for why, for example, an employee working in a Telstra store would sell a post-paid plan to an indigenous customer who could not understand nor afford the contract. The aim of this question is to get you to identify why ordinary employees might engage in activity which is harmful to others.31
31Please note that, as stated above, we have provided a starting point of possible reasons for why the employees did what they did, but you are by no means limited to looking at only those reasons. Any reason, adequately supported with evidence and your research, is sufficient.

Financial Reporting Assignment – ACCT2006 Semester 1 2021/ACC230 OUA SP1 2021 Page 17 of 19
A gentle reminder when you try to answer section 2 (general tips for any essay tasks)
• Answer the question.
While it sounds easy, you can lose marks when you don’t answer the question. It won’t matter how amazing your essay is if you misunderstood or didn’t answer the question (instant fail when we find such essays). You should avoid repeating news stories (many have been covered in our introduction to the question) at all costs!
• Reference properly.
Reference everything, even if you think you had this idea first (most likely it is not).
We do not want (either you choose Case 1 or Case 2) to see unsupported speculation, but plausible reasons which are supported by evidence.32 Remember,
you may use appendices – which do not count towards your word limit – to provide supporting evidence for your claims. However, the body of your answer must contain all the arguments which support your case.
32For example, suppose your house was robbed. If I asked you why the person robbed your house, and you said “because the burglar was looking for money to support a drug addiction”, I would expect to see evidence – such as quotes from a court transcript or newspaper article on the trial – showing that the burglar was a drug addict.

Financial Statements Assignment Section 2 Rubric – ACCT2006 Semester 2 2020/ACC230 OUA SP3 2020 Page 18 of 19
Marking Rubrics for section 2
Definition of critical thinking: Critical thinking is a habit of mind characterised by the comprehensive exploration of issues, ideas, artefacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion.
Benchmark
Fail (0 – 49%) – Pass (50 – 59%)
Milestones
Credit (60% – 69%)
Milestones
Distinction (70% – 79%)
Capstone
High Distinction (80% – 100%)
Addressing question
Issue/ problem to be considered critically is stated without clarification or description.
Issue/ problem to be considered critically is stated but description leaves some terms undefined, ambiguities unexplored, boundaries undetermined, and/ or backgrounds unknown.
Issue/ problem to be considered critically is stated, described, and clarified so that understanding is not seriously impeded by omissions.
Issue/ problem to be considered critically is stated clearly and described comprehensively, delivering all relevant information necessary for full understanding.
Evidence
Selecting and using information to investigate a point of view or conclusion
Information is taken from source(s) without any interpretation/ evaluation.
Viewpoints of experts are taken as fact, without question.
Information is taken from source(s) with some interpretation/ evaluation, but not enough to develop a coherent analysis or synthesis.
Viewpoints of experts are taken as mostly fact, with little questioning.
Information is taken from source(s) with enough interpretation/ evaluation to develop a coherent analysis or synthesis.
Viewpoints of experts are subject to questioning.
Information is taken from source(s) with enough interpretation/ evaluation to develop a comprehensive analysis or synthesis.
Viewpoints of experts are questioned thoroughly.

Financial Statements Assignment Section 2 Rubric – ACCT2006 Semester 2 2020/ACC230 OUA SP3 2020 Page 19 of 19
Benchmark
Fail (0 – 49%) – Pass (50 – 59%)
Milestones
Credit (60% – 69%)
Milestones
Distinction (70% – 79%)
Capstone
High Distinction (80% – 100%)
Influence of context and assumptions
Shows an emerging awareness of present assumptions (sometimes labels assertions as assumptions).
Begins to identify some contexts when presenting a position.
Questions some assumptions.
Identifies several relevant contexts when presenting a position.
May be more aware of others’ assumptions than one’s own (or vice versa).
Identifies own and others’ assumptions and several relevant contexts when presenting a position.
Thoroughly (systematically and methodically) analyzes own and others’ assumptions and carefully evaluates the relevance of contexts when presenting a position.
Student’s position
Perspective, thesis/hypothesis
Specific position (perspective, thesis/hypothesis) is stated, but is simplistic and obvious.
Specific position (perspective, thesis/hypothesis) acknowledges different sides of an issue.
Specific position (perspective, thesis/hypothesis) takes into account the complexities of an issue.
Others’ points of view are acknowledged within position (perspective, thesis/hypothesis).
Specific position (perspective, thesis/hypothesis) is imaginative, taking into account the complexities of an issue.
Limits of position (perspective, thesis/hypothesis) are acknowledged.
Others’ points of view are synthesized within position (perspective,
thesis/ hypothesis).
Referencing Rubrics
Rhodes, Terrel. Assessing Outcomes and Improving Achievement: Tips and Tools for Using Rubrics. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities. 2010