GRA 8050 Management Control (2019/2020)
GRA 8050 Management Control (2019/2020)
The objective of this course is to introduce participants to approaches of both conventional management control and contemporary management control. Conventional management control refers to asset-intensive businesses in which obtaining a return on the financial resource plays a dominant role. Contemporary management control refers to knowledge-based businesses in which intangible knowledge resources are dominant. The locus of control in knowledge-based businesses is on value created in collaborative networks, which assign a similar weight to sharing as to transacting.
Main proposition is that the object of control has moved over time from the financial resource to the knowledge resource. This transition includes a changeover in control from singularly defined functional domains to networked domains in which businesses and industries operate. The traditional responsibility for resource utilization as expressed by the efficiency and effectiveness of performance thus extends with accountability for the outcome of resource utilization within connected networks. Practically speaking, this comes down how to rebalance the mix of technology-based management information and control systems with the human-based behavioural and decision-making patterns of network members.
- Understand and apply the instrumental mechanics and strategy-implementation logic of financial control systems in asset-intensive businesses;
- Understand and apply how the instruments and outcomes of financial control systems connect with other disciplinary and functional management areas;
- Understand and apply non-financial, knowledge-centred control systems for the purpose of implementing strategies focused on innovation within networked businesses and industries.
This interactive course consists of (guest) lectures and classroom discussion. Lectures introduce the indicated topics conceptually, and explore it in terms of managerial implications and the links to other areas of management as well as modes of organization. Course substance is categorized into three topical areas:
- Conventional management control and performance measurement (responsibility centres, accounting performance measurement, budgeting, results control, closed-loop financial logic)
- Non-financial performance measurement advances (Balanced Scorecard, Key Performance Indicators)
- Peer-to-peer and collaboration-based control systems to enhance innovation and learning within and by the networked knowledge-based firm (interactive control systems, Beyond Budgeting, social network analysis).
The course works consists of casework and an individual course paper. Cases are renewed for each edition of the course so as to guarantee maximum up-to-date relevance. Casework is group work; each group does all cases.
The purpose of the individual course paper is to produce immediate learning returns at individual level. The method is to match course contents (defined broadly to include also case and class discussions) against each participant’s specific work environment, writing up a short idea how and why a specific course topic might be used in one’s own work.
The individual course paper needs to follow a fixed format (topic, justification of topic selection, managerial context description, application of the topic) and style requirements (maximum/minimum pages, font size & line spacing, data representation). Grades and feedback will be emailed to each participant individually while hand-in for both the cases and the paper is via IL.
The course outline (“manual”) contains all specific details related to casework and the individual paper.
1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. The course is designed as a combination of lectures, case hand-ins, presentations and discussions. Before course start, a course outline containing all the detailed specifics of the course will be made available on IL. That outline constitutes the “manual” of the course and should be read carefully.
Attendance to all sessions in the course is compulsory. If you have to miss part(s) of the course you must ask in advance for leave of absence. More than 25% absence in a course will require retaking the entire course. It's the student's own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class that is not included on the course homepage/ It's learning or other course materials.
It is allowed to use laptop/tablet in the classroom. All readings, cases, slides and any other materials will be provided via It’s Learning (IL) and as PDF-files only. All PDF files are enabled to make comments directly into the file, using Adobe Acrobat Reader.
This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam components) and one final exam code. Each exam component will be graded using points on a scale 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 course. Students who fail to participate in one/some/all exam components will get a lower grade or may fail the course. Candidates may be called in for an oral hearing as a verification/control of written assignments.
Specific information regarding the points system and the mapping scale beyond the information given in the course description will be provided in class. This information may be relevant for requirements for term papers or other hand-ins, and/or where class participation can be one of several elements of the overall evaluation.
Cases are graded on their submitted content per group; the case presentation and subsequent discussions in class are graded as individual classroom participation. The evaluation criteria for the individual course paper are identical to the ones used for casework grading, and fully specified in the course outline (“manual”).
The course is a part of a full Executive MBA programme and examination in all courses must be passed in order to obtain a certificate.
Granted admission to the EMBA programme. Please consult our student regulations.
| Assessments |
|---|
Exam category: Activity Form of assessment: Class participation Weight: 30 Grouping: Individual Comment: - Individual classroom participation, counts 30 % of the grade Exam code: GRA 80501 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 40 Grouping: Individual Duration: 1 Semester(s) Comment: - Individual course paper, counts 40 % of the grade. Exam code: GRA 80501 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 30 Grouping: Group (2 - 8) Duration: 1 Semester(s) Comment: - Group-based casework, counts 30 % of the grade Exam code: GRA 80501 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 2 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of at least 54 hours.