Fourth Industrial Revolution, Accounting Profession Well-Being, and Environmental Well-Being in South Africa

Fourth Industrial Revolution, Accounting Profession Well-Being, and Environmental Well-Being in South Africa

Odunayo Magret Olarewaju
Copyright: © 2021 |Pages: 11
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-3347-5.ch010
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Abstract

Industry 4.0 centers on the connection of physical and cyber networks to allow actionable insights and real-time information flow such that the well-being of the creatures, workplace, and the environment is guaranteed. Plastic pollution has been a major menace in South Africa and the proposed ban has not been implemented by the government. With the current measures of reducing the pollution, it was evident that the use of fourth industrial revolution has not been effective. Thus, it was recommended that government should enforce labelling of very single-use plastic and an associated fine should be attached to every single-use plastic found polluting the environment. It should be made mandatory for all management accountants to include cost for plastic pollution as one of the operating costs of each organisation. Also, it is recommended that robots can be erected around the cities, towns and workplace picking plastic waste. This will show the seriousness of the government to combat the single use plastic pollution and automatically curb the littering of the environment with plastics.
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Accounting Profession Well-Being In The Era Of Industry 4.0

Presently in the accounting sector, software and human-beings work together. The accounting profession is advancing using AI, machine learning and robotics. To be able to cope extensively, it is required of accountants to be more adaptive and advance their skills to retain stride with the mechanism. AI, machine learning and robotics are known to be free from human error and have advanced processing power, which has overridden the traditional accounting job. Notwithstanding, the demand for skilled and high-quality accountants are on the rise even though technological stands are swapping accounting jobs. It is worthy to note that AI generally aids professionals to learn, reflect and perform better. Despite the job insecurity risks posed by technological revolution, its numerous effects in accounting and in the finance sector cannot be overemphasised. According to a report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in 2015, a prediction was made of a one-third job elimination by 2025 as a result of the evolution of smart technologies (Sirkin, Zinser & Rose, 2015). Also, in 2018 a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) analysed tasks involved in over 20,000 current jobs across twenty-nine (29) countries to evaluate the probable risk of computerisation over the next twenty (20) years (Hawksworth, Berriman & Goel, 2018).

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