AC312      Half Unit
Performance Measurement, Strategy, and Uncertainty

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Requisites

Additional requisites:

Students must have completed Elements of Accounting and Finance (AC100) or Elements of Management Accounting, Financial Management and Financial Institutions (AC103) or equivalent introductory managerial accounting courses.

Accounting Theory and Practice (AC200) is recommended to complement either AC100 or AC103, but not required.

Students who are willing to take the course but have not taken the required prerequisite courses should contact the course leader directly.

This course can be taken together with Results Accountability and Management Control for Strategy Implementation (AC311). While AC311 provides an in-depth overview of management control systems in decentralized organizations, AC312 focuses more specifically on one aspect of management control systems, namely performance measurement and the way in which performance measurement is evolving in contemporary organizations to deal with strategy formulation and decision-making under conditions of uncertainty.

This course examines practical problems that managers and employees are likely to confront in their work in a variety of organizational contexts. The fundamental question is: How do you know when you have performed well? This question draws attention on how performance is measured, visualised and assessed via performance measurement tools and frameworks, how performance measures and data sources are related to strategy formulation and decision-making, and the way in which strategy formulation and performance measurement can be adapted to confront uncertain business contexts.

The course addresses these themes in two parts. The first identifies key concepts and tools of performance measurement and how they can be used to influence behaviour.  This part of the course includes practical exercises such as designing an interactive performance dashboard and a balanced scorecard to be applied to a real-world case. The second part examines different approaches to deal with uncertainty as part of strategy formulation and performance measurement, including for example: the design and use of risk management processes; and how organisations can use large datasets to better understand key performance outcomes. As in the first part of the course, key concepts are put into practice through exercises and case discussions revolving around the use of data analytics, risk mapping and risk indicator design.

Using academic literature, examples taken from the business and popular press, and case studies, AC312 provides students with valuable insights into how performance measurement approaches can vary across contexts, and how situational factors, including business context, organisational structure, culture and behavioural variables influence them. Some cases will involve real-world data and the potential use of data analytics for strategy formulation, performance measurement and decision-making. Course activities will also include work on topical issues such as how environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues can be integrated into business strategies, how ESG results can be measured and disclosed to stakeholders, and how the risks associated with ESG strategies can be managed and mitigated.

30 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

Comprising 10 weeks of twice-weekly 1.5 hour sessions. In person seminars are complemented by online recorded (asynchronous) videos.

The course makes extensive use of case studies. Students are expected to contribute to the case discussions in each session. Students are asked to work in group on one case analysis and present their output for formative assessment in week 5 and week 11.

No single book covers the entire course. Indicative readings include:

• Beasley, M.S., Branson, B.C., and Hancock, B.V (2010). Developing key risk indicators to strengthen Enterprise Risk Management, Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO), 1-12.
• Kaplan, R. S. and McMillan, D. (2021). Reimagining the Balanced Scorecard for the ESG Era. Harvard Business Review, February, 1-10.
• Mikes, A. and Kaplan. R.S. (2015). When one size doesn’t fit all: Evolving directions in the research and practice of Enterprise Risk Management. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 27 (1), 27–30.

The following books provide an overview of key themes addressed in the course:

• Chapman, C. S. (2005). Controlling strategy: Management, accounting, and performance measurement. Oxford University Press.

• West, J. D., & Bergstrom, C. T. (2020). Calling bullshit: The art of skepticism in a data-driven world. Penguin Books

• Schildt, H. (2020). The data imperative: How digitalization is reshaping management, organizing, and work. Oxford University Press.

Case analysis / study (75%)

Project (25%)

Assessment consists of two components:  an individual take-home assessment (75%); and a group project involving an analysis of a case (25%). Further details of all aspects of assessment and coursework will be made available on Moodle nearer the scheduled start time of the course and will be updated as the course progresses with specific instructions, guidance, and feedback.

After the internal marking is complete for the individual take-home assessment, you may be invited to an interview to discuss your work either as part of a random sample, or because there may be some concerns about the academic integrity of your assessment submission. You will be informed whether you were chosen randomly or selectively prior to the interview.