Teaching notes 1
COURSE OBJECTIVES
By learning this course, you should be able to:
1. Recognize control problems in modern organizations and the management control systems
(including costing system, planning and budgeting system, performance measurement and reward
system, and corporate culture) that are commonly used to solve these problems.
2. Describe the features of different costing systems (i.e., rate-based cost allocation, ABC, TDABC).
3. Calculate cost allocation and profits using different costing systems; compare and analyze the
results of different costing systems.
4. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of different costing system and choose the most
appropriate system based on the business context.
5. Calculate the costs, revenue, and profits in the planning and budgeting process.
6. Evaluate different decisions (regarding customers, suppliers, or investments/projects) in the planning
and budgeting process, and select the best decision based on the business context.
7. Explain how performance measurement and reward system can be used to solve control problems
and improve organization performance.
8. Evaluate the benefits, effectiveness, and potential problems of performance measurement and
reward system based on the business context.
9. Define corporate culture, and explain how it can be used to improve organization performance
LECTURE OBJECTIVES
HC 1: ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE, CONTROL PROBLEMS, MANAGEMENT CONTROL SYSTEMS
(MCSS)
By learning the content of this lecture, students should be able to:
1. Describe the structure of modern organizations and the role of managers;
2. Explain what is agency issue and why it occurs in modern organizations;
3. Identify control problems in modern organizations;
4. Define management control systems (MCSs) and explain why MCSs are important to modern
organizations;
5. Name the control systems that are commonly used to deal with the control problems in modern
organizations.
HC 2: REVIEW OF COSTING CONCEPTS
Lecture goals:
1. Recall the basic costing concepts, including cost classification, cost behavior, cost allocation, and the
cost-volume-profit analysis.
2. Describe why a costing system is necessary for modern organizations
3. Based on the RegionFly case, calculate allocated costs using the volume-based cost allocation method.
4. Describe the features of the volume-based cost allocation method.
5. Based on the RegionFly case, identify the weaknesses of the volume-based method.
,HC 3: ACTIVITY-BASED COSTING (ABC) SYSTEM
By learning this week’s case, students should be able to:
1. Describe the key features of an Activity-Based Costing (ABC) system.
2. Calculate the allocated costs and profitability under an ABC system.
3. Compare an ABC system with the volume-based cost allocation, and explain why they are different.
4. Identify the advantages and disadvantages of an ABC system.
5. Describe the key steps to implement an ABC system, and identify the potential challenges in its
implementation.
HC 4: TIME-DRIVEN ACTIVITY BASED COSTING (TDABC) SYSTEM
By learning this week’s case, students should be able to:
1. Describe the key features of an Time-Dirven Activity Based Costing (TD ABC) system;
2. Explain the concept of time equations and how it allows TD ABC to capture the complexities
in business operations;
3. Calculate the capacity, allocated costs, and profitability under a TD ABC system;
4. Compare Rated-Based ABC and TD ABC, and explain how they are different;
5. Identify the advantages and disadvantages of a TD ABC system.
HC 5: TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP (TOC)
By learning this week’s case, students should be able to:
1. Explain what the procurement process is and why it is important to organizations.
2. Construct a total cost of ownership (TCO) matrix in order to identify all relevant costs in a
procurement process.
3. Explain the principles behind the TCO method, based on activity-based costing techniques.
4. Calculate the total cost of ownership of a company’s purchase policy.
5. Determine the optimal choice of suppliers and the order quantities to be delivered by each of
the selected suppliers.
6. Illustrate how a company’s purchase policy can be altered in order to realize potential savings,
using the TCO information.
HC 6: CUSTOMER LIFETIME CYCLE (CLV)
By learning this week’s case, students should be able to:
1. Describe the basic marketing concepts, including product segmentation, customer segmentation,
up- selling and cross-selling, and marketing campaigns.
2. Calculate customer lifetime values for the acquisition of new customers.
3. Calculate acquisition, up/cross-sell, and win-back potential.
4. Analyze and prioritize the segments that should be targeted with promotional campaigns.
5. Assess different marketing campaigns for the selected segments.
HC 7: BUDGETTING
By learning this week’s case, students should be able to:
1. Define profit plan and recognize it roles and importance.
2. Explain what variance analysis is and why it is important for firms.
3. Conduct variance analysis based on the budgets/plans and actual performance of firms.
4. Interpret the results of variance analysis, by identifying the favorable vs. unfavorable variances
analyzing the competitive effectiveness and operating efficiency of firms.
,Link to course goals:
• CG5: Calculate the costs, revenue, and profits in the planning and budgeting process.
• CG6: Evaluate different decisions (regarding customers, suppliers, or investments/projects) in the
planning and budgeting process, and select the best decision based on the business context.
HC 8: DECENTRALIZATION AND FINANCIAL PERFOMANCE MEAUSRES
By learning this week’s case, students should be able to
1. Describe the concept of decentralization, its importance, advantages and disadvantages.
2. Identify and explain the important characteristics of effective performance measures (PM), as well as
the diagnostic role of performance measures.
3. Be able to calculate and interpret different financial performance measures, including return on
investment (ROI), residual income (RI), and economic value added (EVA).
4. Discuss the advantages, limitations and the behavioral consequences of using these financial
performance measures at sub-unit level.
5. Elaborate the complexity in assessing performance in a real-life situation (e.g., business’s vs.
manager’s evaluation, financial vs. non-financial objectives, subjective vs. objective evaluation,
controllability, and transfer pricing).
Link to the course goals
• CG7: Explain how performance measurement and reward system can be used to solve control
problems and improve organization performance.
• CG8: Evaluate the benefits, effectiveness, and potential problems of performance measurement and
reward system based on the business context.
HC 9: BALANCE SCORECARD (BSC) AND STRATEGY MAP
By learning this week’s case, students should be able to
1. Explain the limitation of financial performance measures and the needs for non-financial performance
measures
2. Describe the concept and the role of strategy maps
3. Describe the concept and different perspectives of balanced scorecard (BSC)
4. Describe the procedures to design and implement a balanced scorecard, and identify the challenges of
using BSC in practices
5. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of a balanced scorecard.
Link to the course goals
• CG7: Explain how performance measurement and reward system can be used to solve control
problems and improve organization performance.
• CG8: Evaluate the benefits, effectiveness, and potential problems of performance measurement and
reward system based on the business context.
HC 10: FINANCIAL INCENTIVES AND CORPORATE MISCONDUCTS (PMRS 3)
By learning this week’s case, students should be able to
1. Based on the conceptual framework, explain how financial incentives affect managers’
behaviors/decisions and the role of the moderating variables.
2. Describe the concept of corporate misconducts and the three factors in the fraud triangle.
3. Explain how financial incentives are connected to corporate misconducts.
4. Define internal control system, and explain its role in preventing fraud and misconducts.
5. Describe the roles and features of the four internal control systems: belief system, boundary system,
diagnostic system, and interactive system.
, Link to the course goals
• CG7: Explain how performance measurement and reward system can be used to solve control
problems and improve organization performance.
• CG8: Evaluate the benefits, effectiveness, and potential problems of performance measurement and
reward system based on the business context.
HC 11: CORPORATE CULTURE
By learning this week’s case, students should be able to
1. Apply the knowledge learned from the previous ten lectures, by analyzing the control problems and
weaknesses in a real-world company and creating solutions that can alleviate or avoid these problems.
2. Describe the concept of corporate culture and explain how it is derived within organizations
3. Explain the interdependencies between formal controls and corporate culture
4. Identify the roles of employee selection and performance measurement in supporting corporate
strategy and cultures.
Link to the course goals
• CG9: Define corporate culture, and explain how it can be used to improve organization performance.
