A study of accounting teaching strategies in hospitality management department from Theory of constraints point of view Ching-Hsu Huang a*, Hung-Yu Chang a, Yu-Chun Huang b, Hsiang-His Huang c and Hui-Hua Fan a* a Department of Hotel and Restaurant Management, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, No.1 Hsieh-Fu Road, Nei-Pu, Pingtung, Taiwan ROC b Department of Accounting and Taxation, Shih Chien University, 200 University Road, Neimen, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.O.C c Department of Industrial Management, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, No.1 Hsieh-Fu Road, Nei-Pu, Pingtung, Taiwan ROC *Corresponding Author: chinghsu@mail.npust.edu.tw; ffan@mail.npust.edu.tw Preferred presentation: Oral ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to develop an accounting-teaching module for the hospitality management departments in vocational education systems based on theory of constraints (TOC). The TOC hospitality accounting modules were developed and include teaching material, assessment, accounting competency index, teaching accreditation. In addition, the quasi-experimental design was conducted to explore the influence of TOC-based teaching strategies on students learning achievement of accounting conception. The TOC-based teaching strategies were manipulated in the experimental group while the control group didn t receive the intervention. The methods of data analysis included content analysis and ANCOVA. The result showed that there is a significant effect of TOC-based teaching method on students hospitality accounting achievement after controlling for the pre-test scores, F(2, 113) =17.40, p=.000. Finally, implication for designing TOC-based hospitality accounting module and teaching strategies were suggested for the curriculum revolution and teaching quality assurance. Keywords: TOC-based teaching strategies, Hospitality accounting, Learning achievement Introduction
Hospitality accounting is one of the peculiar areas in hospitality management education. Unlike the accounting departments, the hospitality accounting was not expected to teach students in hospitality management department become modern accountants. But the hospitality accounting profession is still making gains towards the skills and knowledge which the students have to master (Chen and Downing, 2010; Harris, 1997). They included the analytical and explanatory, broad knowledge of the business, oral communication, connecting of financial and non-financial information, knowledge of information technology, expert ethics, interpersonal, presentational, commercial, management skills, strategic thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, and written communication (Kavcic and Mihelcic, 2006). The majority of teaching methods in hospitality accounting are theory or exercise driven and the teachers believed that students can learn eventually by repeating enough exercise (Harris, 1997; Damitio and Schmidgall, 1991). There are other alternatives which can help students to learn more effectively and efficiently, such as role playing, case studies, group projects, interactive class discussion, integrated modules, gaming, simulation, and others (Chen and Downing, 2010). It seems there are learning constraints in the learning process for students to learn the hospitality accounting. The theory of constraints (TOC) has been demonstrated to facilitate goal achievement for many different kinds of industry, such as small business, hotels and other (Dalci and Kosan, 2012; Gupta, Chahal, Kaur, and Sharma, 2010). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to address the application of theory of constraints (TOC) as a complementary technique to aid students learning and professors teaching in hospitality accounting education. It tired to demonstrate that the use of TOC in learning hospitality accounting can enhance students motivation in terms of understanding and application of all the accounting disciplines in real-life examples for promoting long term retention of accounting knowledge. In order to accentuate the peculiar nature of the TOC-based thinking and decision-making process, this study pose some research questions. They are showed as followings. How much improvement students will make after TOC-based teaching? How can the students start a process of ongoing improvement? How can the learning become more effectively and efficiently? Literature Review The TOC is a management concepts and principle introduced by Goldratt and Cox (1994) in the book title The Goal and designed to help manage systems better. It was defined as a set of tools to build upon a small numbers of assumptions and provide a process of continuous ongoing improvement (Sivaubramanian et al., 2003).
The vital premise of the TOC is that there is a limited number of constraints which prevent someone from achieving their goal and they believed that there is always more than one constraint in any organization or system. In addition, the constraints will prevent an organization from achieving their goals. The TOC seeks to improve the organization by focusing continuous improvements on the weakest links of constraints in the system (Dalci & Kosan, 2012; Gupta, Chahal, Kaur, and Sharma, 2010; Gupta and Kline, 2008; Watson, Blackstone, & Gardiner, 2007; Zadry & Yusof, 2006 ). The TOC is a new powerful management philosophy that can identify the limited numbers of constraint in the system which prevents the organization form achieving the goal. It prevents a thinking process to improve the cause and effect logic relationship among individuals, system and organization (Goldratt & Cox, 1994). Figure 1 is the TOC framework that shows the continuous improvement and the thinking process is a cycle which the organization can continuous identify the constraints/factors prevent them from achieving goals. The TOC has evolved from unsolved problem Find out the weakest circle Constant improvement NO Inertia YES Finish To find out the defect of the weakest circle Cooperation of to other circles Break the limit of system To break the restriction PDCA Integration of teamwork Measures determination Whether the problem is solved or not Figure 1. The TOC framework of continuous improvement simple production into other areas, such as performance measurement, problem solving, thinking tools, logistics and others (Spencer & Cox, 1995). The TOC has
also been applied to and broadly discussed in other fields, including operations management, project management, supply chain management, process improvement and in a variety of production environments (Watson, Blackstone, & Gardiner, 2007). They showed the evidence that the TOC can result in increasing the performance and indicated that the TOC produce great levels of output in terms of improving operation at a hotel (Dalci & Kosan, 2012; Watson, Blackstone, & Gardiner, 2007). Methodology An education perspective for application of TOC There are two major components of the TOC and they are five focusing steps of the TOC and the thinking process (Goldratt & Cox, 1984). They are (1) identify the system constraints (the weakest links), (2) decide how to exploit the system s constraints, (3)subordinate everything else to the above decision, (4) elevate the system s constraints, and (5) go back to step (1) but don t allow inertia to cause a system constraints. The five focusing steps are sequential and this study applied the five steps to the learning and teaching in hospitality accounting education (Gupta, Chahal, Kaur, and Sharma, 2010; Zadry & Yusof, 2006). The teachers or professors should implement a process of ongoing improvement consisting of five focusing steps. The TOC hospitality accounting modules were developed according to the five focusing steps and include teaching material, assessment, accounting competency index, teaching accreditation. In addition, the quasi-experimental design was conducted to explore the influence of TOC teaching module on students learning effectiveness and efficiency of accounting conception. Then it also was examined the TOC-based teaching strategies by conducting the quasi-experimental design. The method of developing the module is the developmental research that adopted from the TOC. In addition, the module was based on the hospitality academic, business professional s and students points of views. The accounting and hospitality management committee was established to ensure the reliability and validity of the assessment and the accreditation instrument. This study collected qualitative and quantitative data, and the data collection included observations, assessment, peer comments, learning diaries, and research journals. In the hospitality accounting class, the number of students is around twenty years old in the hotel and restaurant department, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan. This study examined the research questions by using the quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test. There are two classes in the experiment. One is experimental group and there was 54 students in the group while
the other one is control group and the sample size is 59. In the experimental group, the teacher organized students into small groups of four to five students and manipulate the TOC-based teaching strategy. didn t receive the intervention. On the other hand, the control group The teacher in the control group taught the hospitality accounting by using traditional teaching method which was lecture and exercise-driven. The pre-test and post-test were performed for both groups and data were analyzed by conducting analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and post hoc Benferoni test. Results The independent variable is the teaching method which included two levels: TOC-based teaching method and no intervention. The dependent variable was the students hospitality accounting achievement scores and the covariate was the students scores on pre-test. A preliminary analysis evaluating the homogeneity-of-regression assumption indicted that the relationship between the covariate and the dependent variable didn t differ significantly as a function of the independent variable, F(2, 113) = 2.02, p=.158. The result showed that there is a significant effect of TOC-based teaching method on students hospitality accounting achievement after controlling for the pre-test scores, F(2, 113) = 17.40, p=.000. <.001 which was shown as Table 1. However, only 6% (ω 2 =.06) of the total variance in hospitality accounting achievement scores was accounted for by the two levels of teaching methods controlling for the effect of the students pre-test scores. Table 1 ANCOVA for Hospitality Accounting Achievement by Teaching Methods Score SS df MS F p Pre-test 357.60 1 357.60 2.02.158 Teaching 1385.44 2 3076.86 17.40.000 Methods Error 19455.55 110 176.87 Total 522335.50 113 Discussion The findings on the post-test scores from teaching methods under two conditions were significant as it tested whether the use of TOC-based teaching strategy improves or enhances students hospitality accounting learning. Accordingly this positive finding was considered in line with Fekri, Shafiabafy and Nooranipour (2012) that recommended the effectiveness of TOC-based teaching method on enhancing students entrepreneurial skills. Moreover, the finding referred students achievement
improves because of the continuous improvement in TOC-based teaching method. The use of TOC-based teaching method in real learning environments and the emphasis on abundant identification learning constraints, comprehensive feedbacks and evaluations by exposing the students to hospitality accounting in the classroom facilitate the learners accounting knowledge acquisition. The results of this study suggested that the TOC-based teaching strategy provides hospitality accounting. The new TOC-based hospitality accounting information kept presenting by evaluating the constraints accounts for the efficacy and effectiveness in producing learning as compared to the same information in traditional hospitality accounting teaching methods. Thus, the use of TOC-based teaching strategy increased the students learning comprehension of hospitality accounting. If the assumption is confirmed by further research, the students might feel confident and open to learn hospitality accounting. Therefore, it is encouraging presenting TOC-based teaching strategy in the hospitality accounting classroom or other hospitality management courses. Acknowledgement This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of Taiwan, R.O.C. under the grant number MOST 104-2511-S-020-003 -. Their contributions have been critical to our work. References Chen, M., & Downing, L. (2010). Using simulations to enhance students learning in management accounting, Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education, 18(4), 27-32. Dalci, I., & Kosan, L. (2012). Theory of constraints thinking-process tools facilitate goal achievement for hotel management: A case study of improving customer satisfaction, 21, 541-568. Damitio, J. W., & Schmidgall, R. S. (1989). A comparative analysis of lodging general managers hospitality accounting educator s views of the importance of accounting skills, Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 13(3), 43-52. Damitio, J. W., & Schmidgall, R. S. (1991). A comparison of hospitality executives, educators, and students views on the importance of accounting skills, International Journal of Hospitality Management, 10(3), 219-228. Fekri, K., Shafiabafy, A., & Nooranipour, R. (2012). Determine and compare effectiveness of entrepreneurship education based on multi-axial model and theory of constraints and compromises on learning entrepreneurship skills, Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 69, 566-570.
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