SLM 6012 Management Control
SLM 6012 Management Control
The objective of this course is to introduce participants to approaches of both conventional management control and contemporary management control. The latter is conceived as the management control of the knowledge-based firm.
Main proposition is that the object of control has moved over time from the financial denominator to the knowledge denominator, extending control and steering efforts towards knowledge-sharing and peer-to-peer collaboration and learning, and incorporating concepts from Organisational Behaviour and Design, and Knowledge Management.
The course is entirely taught online within Insendi and uses primarily digital means for course delivery.
- To understand the difference between financial and non-financial management control systems.
- To develop novel approaches for existing management control problems.
– To classify and assess their existing management control system in terms of strategy implementation, possibility for improvement, and integration with other functional domains notably outside Finance & Accounting
The course consists of (guest) lectures, group-based casework, and an individual course paper. Lectures introduce the indicated topics conceptually and explore it in terms of managerial implications and the links to other areas of management. Lectures are categorized into three topical areas:
• Introduction: purpose of management control systems (strategy implementation), causality & coherence and the role of technology (ERP, Cloud, Visual Analytics), behavioural patterns (team dynamics, collaboration and peer-to-peer learning, performance visualization & identification).
• Conventional management control and performance measurement: responsibility centers, accounting performance measurement, budgeting, closed-loop financial logic.
• Contemporary management control: Beyond Budgeting, non-financial performance measurement advances such as Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), interactive control systems and the performance measurement of networked, collaborative knowledge organisations.
Key elements of the introduction to MCS (technology, behavioural patterns) and of contemporary management control (OKRs, non-financial performance measurement) are part of the course design and course delivery, thus “practising what it preaches”.
This course is the last course of a triplet called “Money Matters”. Nevertheless, each course can also be taken separately as a standalone course.
The relationship with the first course - Financial Management - and the second course in the triplet - Treasury Management - is primarily located within the Conventional Management Control and Performance Measurement topical category. One of the cases used, will also act as a link with the preceding two courses, thus achieving further topical consistency.
Casework - Case work is group work, with groups having a size of 5-7 participants. Each group does two cases: one case for the topical category of convention al management control, and one case for the topical category of the contemporary management control. The preparation phase of each case takes place on Insendi and includes the teacher for a-synchronous consultation and continuous feedback. To achieve maximum cross-learning effect among participants, all casework will be fed back to the class before the actual casework session. It is this consolidated file that forms the basis for casework grading. Case presentations and discussions feed into the participation grading category.
Individual Course Paper - The purpose of the individual course paper is to produce immediate learning returns at individual level. The method is to match course contents against each participant’s specific work environment. Course content is defined broadly and includes intragroup case and class discussions, not just reading and lecture materials. The individual course paper consists of writing up a short idea how and why a specific Management Control course topic might be used in one’s own work. A template for the individual course paper is provided in the course syllabus.
The online nature of the course implies both asynchronous (“in your own time”) collaboration within the groups, and synchronous collaboration during the plenary sessions with all groups. The teacher is member of all groups on Insendi and acts as coach & consultant in the asynchronous group activity. The course groups are autonomous in setting their online collaboration timeframe, calendar, and meetings, which will be followed by the teacher.
The list of literature for the course BIK 3124 Money Matters can be found here. See also the curriculum in the learning portal and additional information
In all BI Executive courses and programs, there is a mutual requirement for the student and the course responsible regarding the involvement of the student's experience in the planning and implementation of courses, modules and programmes. This means that the student has the right and duty to get involved with their own knowledge and practice relevance, through the active sharing of their relevant experience and knowledge.
In accordance with the collaborative, peer-to-peer learning nature of the course, it uses Insendi as its technology platform with an emphasis on its functionality of Materials (for passive purposes, such as obtaining and delivering/submitting materials) and of Team (for active purposes, such as collaboration and development of casework). In case of technological issues with Insendi (e.g., use restrictions due to company-specific cybersecurity), the course falls back on ItsLearning.
The course is part of the SLM course series, BIK 3124 Money Matters, which consists of the SLM courses SLM 6010 Financial Management, SLM 6011 Treasury Management and SLM 6012 Management Control. The courses are based on the course BIK 3124 Money Matters, 7.5 ECTS. If you have completed three courses from the same SLM course series, and meet the admission requirements to take the BI exam, you can take an exam within that course series, which gives a total of 7.5 credits.
| Activity | Duration | Comment |
|---|---|---|
Teaching | 9 Hour(s) | 3 sessions of 3 hours each |
Case teaching | 6 Hour(s) | Groupwork |
Submission(s) | 2 Hour(s) | Individual work |
Student's own work with learning resources | 9 Hour(s) | |
Prepare for teaching | 1 Hour(s) |
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