GRA 6280 Performance Management - RESIT EXAMINATION
GRA 6280 Performance Management - RESIT EXAMINATION
Last run autumn 2018.
First resit exam spring 2019.
Last resit exam autumn 2019.
We begin by studying a comprehensive summary of cost definitions and classification. We look at how the usual fixed vs. variable costs classification can be enriched by showing the distinction between the cost of resource supplied and the cost of resources used. We then shift attention toward responsibility centres including: revenue, cost, profit and investment centres. Finally, we focus on the Balanced Score Card. We summarize a set of financial and non-financial performance measures tied to customers, innovation and operational processes, and enhanced employee and system capabilities.
After completing this course, students will be able to understand the basics of performance evaluation systems and the key performance indicators within corporations.
The students will have an overview of:
- the design and use of internal control mechanisms and
- how to understand and interpret financial and non-financial measures used for managing companies including product and customer profitability as well as return indicators.
Students will strengthen their ability to reason through complex arguments and defend an argument or thesis on the basis of theory and evidence. They will also improve their ability to evaluate real-world management problems through specific instruments and financial variables and to critically evaluate the performance strategies employed by real companies in real situations.
After completing the course, students will have built and reinforced the following general competences: decision making, critical thinking, judgment, team work and communication.
The student should critically reflect on performance management’s role in society as a whole by evaluating the sustainability of a company’s management actions.
Topic I: Responsibility centers and budgeting.
- Introduction.
- Revenue and expense centers.
- Profit and investment centers and measuring profitability.
- Budget preparation process and quantitative techniques.
Topic II: Measuring and analyzing performance. Financial and non-financial indicators.
- Measurement of assets employed.
- Economic value-added (EVA) vs. Return on Investment (ROI).
- Variance analysis and its limitations.
- Balance score card
Students will be asked to prepare some theoretical and/or practical material before the lecture every week. This material will be specified @BI in the first day of class (Weekly Plan), so that students will know what they are supposed to prepare at home before coming to the lectures every week. Attending the lectures without preparing the material makes no sense. Then, during the lectures, students are expected to actively participate and to generate discussion in the different teaching activities (case/paper discussion, role-play, presentations, etc) and should be prepared to work in teams as part of the learning process. When cases are discussed during the lectures, students can expect to get a partial solution to the case when the discussion is over.
Please note that while attendance is not compulsory in all courses, it is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class that is not included on It's learning or in the text book.
This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam components) and one final exam code. Each exam component is graded by using points on a scale from 0-100. The components will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the examination code (course). Students who fail to participate in one/some/all exam elements will get a lower grade or may fail the course. You will find detailed information about the point system and the cut off points with reference to the letter grades when the course start.
At resit, all exam components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course.
This course belongs to the major in Business Law, Tax and Accounting as a 7th major course. Final class for this major is 2017-2019, and resit examinations will be planned.
The course is also offered as a 3rd semester elective for Master in Accounting and Auditing.
All courses in the Masters programme will assume that students have fulfilled the admission requirements for the programme. In addition, courses in second, third and/or fourth semester can have specific prerequisites and will assume that students have followed normal study progression. For double degree and exchange students, please note that equivalent courses are accepted.
| Assessments |
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Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 100 Grouping: Individual Duration: 24 Hour(s) Comment: Home examination Exam code: GRA62801 Grading scale: ECTS Resit: Examination every semester |
A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of at least 160 hours.