EXC 3561 Performance Management

EXC 3561 Performance Management

Course code: 
EXC 3561
Department: 
Accounting and Operations Management
Credits: 
7.5
Course coordinator: 
Tor Olav Nordtømme
Course name in Norwegian: 
Performance Management
Product category: 
Bachelor
Portfolio: 
Bachelor - Common Courses
Semester: 
2025 Spring
Active status: 
Active
Level of study: 
Bachelor
Teaching language: 
English
Course type: 
One semester
Introduction

Performance management involves the development, facilitation, and use of control mechanisms to support the value creation process. In business operations, goal and indicator management is the prevailing form of control. This form of control fundamentally revolves around three things:

  1. identifying factors that positively and negatively impact value creation,
  2.  making resources available and coordinating them to move in the same direction towards a designated course
  3. and signaling deviations from a designated course, correcting the course, and learning from experiences.

In performance management, control tools are used to close negative gaps on a designated course or to stimulate debate and strategic renewal.

    Learning outcomes - Knowledge

    Students are expected to acquire knowledge about:

    • The relationship between performance management and strategy content and strategy process
    • Perspectives on value creation, including various business models
    • Stakeholder-oriented management
    • Various forms of performance management
    • Frameworks for performance management in business operations
    • Levers of Control, The Balanced Scorecard, and Management by Objectives
    • Dynamic management of business resources
    • Management-relevant costs and revenues
    • Concepts for operational efficiency
    • Models and tools for goal and indicator management, including strategy maps, KPls, and forecasts
    • The budget as an integrated set of financial forecasts
    • Profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow budgeting
    • Internal performance reports
    Learning outcomes - Skills

    Students are expected to acquire skills in:

    • Developing and using management packages, where tools are tailored to specific management situations
    • Developing goal management models and being able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the models
    • Developing and using Excel-based budget models and conducting budget analyses to uncover discrepancies between plans and forecasts
    • Conducting process analyses to streamline resource usage.
    General Competence

    Students are expected to develop an awareness of business management as a contextual discipline, where business-specific and external factors influence management. They should be able to develop business-specific management models and critically engage with them.

    Course content

    Part 1 - Perspectives on Performance Management

    • Value creation: what, why, how, and for whom
    • Various forms of performance management
    • Performance management in business operations
    • Key management concepts
    • Dynamic management

    Part 2 - Costs and Operational Efficiency

    • Cost concepts
    • Relevance of costs and revenues
    • Operational efficiency

    Part 3 - Goal and Indicator Management

    • The balanced scorecard
    • Sustainability reporting
    • Case-based development of goal management models
    • Forecast-based management

    Part 4 - Budgeting

    • Budget's relationship with financial accounting
    • Budget's place in goal management
    • Profit budgeting
    • Cash flow budgeting
    • Balance sheet budgeting
    • Budget simulation
    • Internal reporting
    Teaching and learning activities

    The course is taught/guided over 14 weeks. Lectures are used to provide structure and framing for the academic content in line with the course's learning outcomes. These sessions are supported by videos that address selected issues. In addition to lectures, tutorial seminars are conducted related to parts 3 (goal and indicator management) and 4 (budgeting) of the course.
    Students are responsible for participating in the teaching and tutorial seminars with questions, comments, and discussions. Solving tasks in the course's case and exercise program is crucial for understanding the subject. Exercise solving takes place in lectures, seminars, and through independent work.

    Parts of the task solving require students to use Excel.

    Software tools
    Software defined under the section "Teaching and learning activities".
    Qualifications

    Higher Education Entrance Qualification.

    Disclaimer

    Deviations in teaching and exams may occur if external conditions or unforeseen events call for this.

    Required prerequisite knowledge

    EXC 3430 Fundamentals in Accounting and Finance, or similar.

    Assessments
    Assessments
    Exam category: 
    School Exam
    Form of assessment: 
    Structured Test
    Exam/hand-in semester: 
    First Semester
    Weight: 
    40
    Grouping: 
    Individual
    Support materials: 
    • All printed and handwritten support materials
    • BI-approved exam calculator
    • Simple calculator
    • Bilingual dictionary
    Duration: 
    3 Hour(s)
    Exam code: 
    EXC 35611
    Grading scale: 
    ECTS
    Resit: 
    Examination every semester
    Exam category: 
    Submission
    Form of assessment: 
    Submission PDF
    Exam/hand-in semester: 
    First Semester
    Weight: 
    60
    Grouping: 
    Group (1 - 3)
    Duration: 
    2 Week(s)
    Exam code: 
    EXC 35612
    Grading scale: 
    ECTS
    Resit: 
    Examination every semester
    Type of Assessment: 
    Ordinary examination
    All exams must be passed to get a grade in this course.
    Total weight: 
    100
    Student workload
    ActivityDurationComment
    Teaching
    26 Hour(s)
    Teaching and review of assignments in the classroom
    Seminar groups
    24 Hour(s)
    Assignment seminar in smaller classes - max. 150 students. The students will work with case-based problems and use Excel to develop models for solving budget and calculation tasks. In the task seminars, skills related to the development and use of central management tools are also practiced.
    Prepare for teaching
    14 Hour(s)
    Student's own work with learning resources
    38 Hour(s)
    Digital resources
    10 Hour(s)
    Videos that summarize topics and introduce skills
    Individual problem solving
    88 Hour(s)
    Individual work / group work with tasks and cases from the task programme
    Sum workload: 
    200

    A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 7,5 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of at least 200 hours.

    Semesters

    Translations