Kenneth A. Merchant ,
University of Southern California
Published September 1997
by Prentice Hall Business Publishing
Copyright 1998, 848 pp.
Cloth ISBN 0-13-554155-7
Uses the case study method to teach management control systems. Anyone interested in
business management can benefit from the decision-making models and case analyses in this
text.
Includes 60 cases that
students must analyze, then determine the problem as well as a possible resolution. This
text simulates actual events that managers face.
Most cases are real-and use
the company's real name and describe actual situations. A majority of cases are of recent
vintage and have coverage of the latest MCS topics and issues - i.e. minimizing management
myopia, motivating employees to maximize shareholder value, whether or not to use the
EVA^ or Balanced Scorecard approaches.
Case selection includes many
Harvard cases..
Organized along an
intuitive framework that makes the material easier to apply in practice.
The first module discusses
controls based on the object-of-control framework: actions, results, or personnel/culture.
This inclusive framework clearly distinguishes how managers must make choices among these
categories of control.
Focuses on the use and
effects of "financial results controls" which dominate managerial levels at all but
the smallest organizations, it also provides a broad treatment of controls that put the
financially- oriented controls into proper perspective. For example, it describes
situations where financial controls are not effective and discusses alternatives that
managers can use in those situations.
Significant concepts,
theories, issues are not discussed in abstract terms but are illustrated with a number of
real world examples.
Presents a complete
chapter on ethical issues.
I. THE CONTROL FUNCTION OF
MANAGEMENT.
1. Management and Control.
II. CONTROL ALTERNATIVES
AND THEIR EFFECTS.
2. Action Controls.
3. Results Controls.
4. Personnel and Cultural Controls.
5. Control Tightness (or Looseness).
6. Direct and Indirect Control System Costs.
7. Designing and Evaluating Control Systems.
8. Financial Responsibility
Centers.
9. Planning and Budgeting Systems.
10. Financial Performance Targets.
11. Performance-Dependent Rewards (and Punishments).
IV. COMMON PROBLEM AREAS
IN FINANCIAL-RESULTS-CONTROL.
12. Accounting Performance
Measures and the Myopia Problem.
13. Limitations of ROI-Type Performance Measures.
14. Using Financial Results Controls on the Presence of Uncontrollable Factors.
15. The Transfer Pricing Problem.
V. IMPORTANT CONTROL ROLES
AND ETHICAL ISSUES.
16. Controllers, Auditors,
and Boards of Directors.
17. Management Control-Related Ethical Issues and Analyses.
VI. SIGNIFICANT
SITUATIONAL INFLUENCES ON MANAGEMENT CONTROL SYSTEMS.
18. Influences of
Uncertainty/Programmability, Diversification Strategy, and Business Strategy on MCSs.
19. Control in International and Multinational Corporations.
20. Control in Not-for-Profit Organizations.
