TBC

This course is available on the BSc in Accounting and Finance. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

Available to students on other undergraduate/Diploma programmes with the permission of the Accounting Departmental Tutor.

Students must have completed Elements of Accounting and Finance (AC100) or Elements of Management Accounting, Financial Management and Financial Institutions (AC103). Accounting Theory and Practice (AC200) is recommended to complement either AC100 or AC103, but not required.

AC311 examines financial management and organisational planning and control issues, focusing on how both financial and non-financial “results-oriented” practices intricate to planning and budgeting; decision rights and transfer pricing; and performance measurement and incentive systems, among others, guide and affect managerial action and decision-making. In other words, AC311 considers both the decision-facilitating and decision-influencing roles of management accounting. As such, the course evaluates the use of financial and non-financial performance measures with particular emphasis on their behavioural consequences and both the features and limits of quantification and the use of “result-oriented” organisational practices and controls. The course then naturally progresses into incentive systems, which entails the assignment of various forms of organisational rewards, such as bonuses and promotions, and their effects. Overall, this course, aided by case studies, provides students with valuable insights on how financial management and management control systems vary across contexts, and how several situational factors, including organisational structure, culture, decision-making processes, and behavioural variables influence them.

The course aims to enhance students’ awareness and understanding of how financial management and management control are used in the processes of managing organisations. It also provides students with knowledge of the roles of financial management and control systems in a wide variety of organisations and contexts.

22 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the MT. 1 hour of lectures and 1 hour of seminars in the ST.

TBC

Case studies and applications will be used extensively. Students will be expected to present cases and contribute to in-class discussions. 

Detailed reading lists will be distributed at the start of the course. Illustrative references include: Bhimani and Bromwich, Management Accounting: Retrospect and Prospect, Elsevier/CIMA (2009); Bhimani, Contemporary Issues in Management Accounting, OUP (2006); Olson, Guthrie & Humphrey (Eds), Global Warning: Debating International Developments in New Public Financial Management, Cappelan Akademisk Forlag As, Oslo (1998); Merchant & Van der Stede, Management Control Systems: Performance Measurement, Evaluation and Incentives, Pearson (2017).

Exam (75%, duration: 2 hours, reading time: 15 minutes) in the summer exam period.
Coursework (25%) in the MT.

The exam duration is 2 hours and 15 minutes. The first 15 minutes will be reading time.

The details of the coursework will be made available on Moodle nearer the scheduled start time of the course.