Management control (2013/2014)

Learning outcomes

The course would supply the conceptual and methodological basis of management control within the context of the development of tools for corporate governance decisions.
The course aims at giving students the knowledge about the purposes and the functioning of the main tools used for planning and controlling companies’ activities, in the light of effectiveness and efficiency in management.
In particular the course focuses on the issues related to costs analysis, budgeting, cost accounting, variance analysis, information supporting short term decision making and key tools used to translate the business strategy into performance measures to improve managerial behaviours and companies’ results.
The course consists in frontal lessons concerning the theoretical notions on which management control is based, and also exercises on the functioning of different management control tools.

1. Origins and evolution of administrative control in the Italian and foreign literature
2. The administrative activity and the costs measurement system
3. Measuring the full cost per unit of product: the resources orientation and the cost centers system
4. The measurement system of full cost-based activities
5. The measurement of products cost in order productions and in continuous flow processes
6. The costs measurement system based on estimates values
7. The analytical detection of costs and revenues: methods and flows
8. The measurements systems based on direct variable costs and operative risk conditions
9. Economic information supporting short-term decision making
10. Investment decisions and capital budget
11. The economic control and the role of budget
12. Reporting for business performance measurement

The content of the books, and of the frontal lessons, fits with the program. Further materials will be available at the McGraw-Hill Atenonline platform (http://www.ateneonline.it/arcari/areastudenti.asp) to complete the printed parts of the book, and on the e-learning platform, to which students can access with the password supplied by the professor.

Books
Anna Maria Arcari, Programmazione e Controllo, McGraw-Hill, Seconda Edizione, Milano 2014

The final exam is a written test, composed of both excercises and theoretical questions, and is aimed at checking the knowledge of the topics in the course program and the ability to apply the management control tools to the different cases included in the excercises.
There are no intermediate test.