Performance Measurement & Control Systems (2235.YR.007360.3)

General information

Type:	OPT	Curs:	2	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	3 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Year 2	Josep Bisbe Viñas	Economía, Finanzas y Contabilidad	ENG

The course is meant to be of interest to any manager involved in an environment where decentralization, accountability and reporting between managers are present. The only prerequisite for the course is completion of the first year core courses. Participants will be invited to critically apply and integrate their knowledge from several functional areas, including strategy, finance, accounting and HR. The approach of the course is not primarily "technical", but it entails some numerical work in reporting settings.

The distribution of your workload is (roughly) as follows:

- Sessions (except group work) 1/3 of your work load
- Group work (incl. during sessions) 1/3 of your work load
- Autonomous and asynchronous work 1/3 of your work load

This course brings together the skills of strategic analysis, organizational design and behavior, financial and management accounting, as well as functional skills in order to provide an overview of the concepts, frameworks and tools used by managers to plan and control the firm's performance. In this respect, the course is appropriate not only for those who expect to be directly in charge of the design of performance measurement and management control systems, but also for any prospective manager who will be responsible for strategy implementation and, as a result, will have to manage others (or be managed) within a certain performance measurement and control system.

Performance measurement and control systems are widely used management tools by which decentralized firms assure that their business goals are effectively implemented. Elements of formal performance measurement and control systems include, for example, resource allocation, allocation of decision rights, budgeting, KPI and OKR systems, strategic performance measurement systems, transfer pricing, and evaluation and rewards. Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be able to:

-assess in which circumstances the different forms of performance measurement and control systems are (or are not) suitable tools to align and implement strategy
-be aware of the existence of different sets of control systems, ponder the effects of the different alternatives, and assess the compatibility between these sets.
-understand decentralization and its advantages and disadvantages
-determine the most appropriate control structure of a company given its strategy and organization design.
-compute and interpret financial measures to assess performance of sub-units
-understand the iterative and interrelated nature of budgeting and assess its usefulness and limitations in dynamic environments
-calculate, interpret, and investigate variances in the analysis of financial reports and understand how upper management uses variance analysis
-communicate the role of non-financial measures and strategic performance measurement systems
- examine the choice of financial and non-financial performance measures, as well as objective and subjective measures, for performance evaluation
- identify issues associated with performance measurement and incentives

1. Unit 1. The Nature and Purposes of Performance Measurement and Control Systems. Results controls and beyond

2. Unit 2. Financial responsibility centers and accounting-based financial performance targets

3. Unit 3. Performance measurement and control in divisionalized companies. Value-based approaches to performance measurement and control

4. Unit 4. Budgeting in uncertain times

5. Unit 5. Management Control Systems based on non-financial results and value drivers: Multidimensional Performance Measurement Systems

The course is based on lectures and case study discussions. In order to prepare for the sessions, participants will receive assigned reading material and case studies (available in the web learning area of the course). Participants are expected to go over the pre-assigned reading material and cases before each class, so that case preparation and discussion in class is effective. This course has been designed as a seminar and, as such, it is fundamental that participants actively engage in class discussions.

ATKINSON, A.; KAPLAN, R.; MATSUMURA, E.; YOUNG, S. (2012). Management Accounting: Information for Decision-Making and Strategy Execution. Pearson.
DOERR, J. (2018). Measure what matters. Portolio / Penguin.
HARTMANN, F.G.H., KRAUS, K., NILSSON, G.; ANTHONY, R.N.; GOVINDARAJAN, V. (2020); Management Control Systems. McGraw Hill.
KAPLAN, R.S.; NORTON, D.P. (2004). Strategy Maps. Converting intangible assets into tangible outcomes. Harvard Business Press.
MERCHANT. K.A.; VAN DER STEDE, W.A. (2017). Management Control Systems: Performance Measurement, Evaluation and Incentives (3rd ed.). Prentice-Hall / Financial Times.
NIVEN, P.; LAMORTE, B. (2016). Objectives and Key Results: Driving Focus, Alignment, and Engagement with OKRs. Wiley Corporate F&A.
SIMONS, R. (2013). Performance Measurement and Control Systems for Implementing Strategy. Pearson.
WOUTERS, M., SELTO, F., HILTON, R. and MAHER, M. (2012). Cost Management: Strategies for Business Decisions. McGraw Hill.
ZIMMERMAN, J. (2019). Accounting for Decision-Making and Control. Mc-Graw Hill.

Group	Teacher	Department
Year 2	Josep Bisbe Viñas	Economía, Finanzas y Contabilidad