Dr M Hall, OLD 2.11

This course is intended for students on MSc Law and Accounting, MSc Development Management, MSc Management and Strategy, MSc Management, Information Systems and Innovation, MSc Management and MSc Management and Economics, MSc Regulation, MSc Regulation (Research), MSc Public Management and Governance, MPA Public and Economic Policy/MPA Public Policy and Management/MPA International Development/MPA European Public and Economic Policy/MPA Public and Social Policy and the Diploma in Accounting and Finance. Also intended for MSc students who have not previously studied accounting subjects to a significant extent, but only with the agreement, in writing, of the MSc (Accounting) Course Tutor. Students who have previously studied Accounting are asked to seek advice before selecting this course.

Note: this course also forms the second half of the full-unit course AC464 Management Accounting and Financial Accounting: Decisions, Control, Reporting and Disclosure. Students wishing to take both the half-unit courses AC490 and AC491 would be required to take AC464 instead. Students cannot take AC490 in conjunction with either AC464 or AC490.

This course provides students with an introduction to the most important aspects of management accounting, including cost accounting, the role of accounting information in managerial decision making, and the role of accounting systems in planning, organisational design and performance measurement.

The following areas are covered in the course:

1. The role of management accounting and management accountants in organizations: differences between management and financial accounting, reporting/compliance vs. adviser roles of accountants, changes to the role of management accountants.
2. Cost accounting: cost terminology and cost behaviour, cost-volume-profit relationships, overhead cost allocations, traditional and activity-based costing systems.
3. Accounting for managerial decision making: the role of accounting information in short-term decisions, such as pricing, resource allocation, inventory management and outsourcing, the role of accounting information in long-term decision making, such as capital investment decisions and investment appraisal.
4. Management accounting and organizational design: responsibility centres, planning and budgeting, financial performance measurements, variance analysis, and incentives.
5. Performance measurement: non-financial performance measures, the balanced scorecard, limitations of performance measurement, linking management accounting information to managerial work.

10 sessions of two hours and nine classes of one hour in LT. A two-hour revision session is held in ST.

Students are expected to produce several pieces of written work, including accounting exercises, analyses of case studies, and essays. At least two pieces of written work will be collected for feedback during the course. Students are also required to participate actively in a variety of discussions and debates as part of the class activities.

A detailed reading list will be given out at the start of the course. Illustrative references include: Kaplan (1988), One Cost System isn't enough, Harvard Business Review, pp.61-66, Hope & Fraser (2003), Who needs budgets?, Harvard Business Review, pp.108-115, Emsley (2001), Redesigning variance analysis for problem solving, Management Accounting Research, pp.21-40, Ridgway (1956), Dysfunctional consequences of performance measurement, Administrative Science Quarterly, pp.240-247, Ittner & Larcker (2003), Coming up short on non-financial performance measurement, Harvard Business Review, pp.88-95.

A two-hour (plus 15 minutes reading time) written examination in the ST.