| Apogee Health Care
|
| A complex case dealing with an incentive compensation system for physicians in a partially capitated model. A simplified version of Massachusetts General Physicians Organization. |
| |
12
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
ADV
|
Add
|
| Axeon, N.V.
|
| Illustrates the effects of a management control system and the supporting management processes on one specific, major decision in a decentralized, multinational corporation. The situation, illustrates the real world application of many management accounting concepts, including incremental cost analysis, capital budgeting, sensitivity analysis, and transfer pricing. But perhaps more importantly, the case is about managing the cost/benefit tradeoffs that are inherent in a decentralized firm, especially the conflict between a parent and its foreign subsidiary. Dealing with these behaviors forces students to consider issues about organization design and control system administration. The case is a good vehicle for discussing the advantages and disadvantages of decentralization and the problems faced in administering a control system in a decentralized environment. |
|
| Merchant, Kenneth A. |
| Van der Stede, Wim A. |
|
8
|
Yes
| |
| General Management |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
|
| |
4
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
|
| |
6
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Barça Products, S.A.
|
| A new management control system is floundering because the CEO does not see its value. Part of the problem is that the reports either tell him what he already knows or contradict what he knows. |
| |
3
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Barrington High School
|
| Introduces students to the balanced scorecard in a nonprofit organizations and illustrates some of the behavioral issues associated with its implementation. |
| |
7
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Barrington Products, Inc
|
| A multi-product company with a dysfunctional management control system. Lots of interesting issues to be resolved. |
| |
4
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Beifang Chuang Ye Vehicle Group
|
| Describes a simple, but real, example of an uncontrollable factor affecting a company's results. The effects of the uncontrollable event—a change in laws—are huge. Thus the case makes it easy to motivate a discussion of whether managers and salesmen should be protected from the effects of this event, and if so, how. Also provides an opportunity for some useful secondary learning. Students can get an inkling about what managing in China is like. They will see, for example, that Beifang, like most Chinese companies, uses performance-dependent incentive compensation, even though Chinese is an avowedly communist country with a socialist market economy. |
|
| Lin , Thomas W. |
| Merchant, Kenneth A. |
| Van der Stede, Wim A. |
|
3
|
Yes
|
| Developing Country |
| For Profit |
|
| General Management |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Berkshire Industries, PLC
|
| Illustrates the use of “economic profit” in a performance measurement system. Consulting firms have developed various measures of economic profit; EVA™, developed by Stern Stewart & Co. is probably the best known. All of these economic profit measures are modified versions of the concept that accountants have traditionally called “residual income.” In this case, students are asked to evaluate an economic profit measure that involves two common measurement adjustments, capitalization and amortization of advertising expenses and the elimination of goodwill amortization.
The case also raises some related results control system issues. The system proposed in the case includes automatic ratcheting of performance targets, a results/reward function without thresholds and caps, and a “bonus bank” that smoothes out the bonus awards. Each of these system elements can be evaluated. Students must also consider some implementation issues. |
|
| Merchant, Kenneth A. |
| Van der Stede, Wim A. |
|
6
|
Yes
| |
| Finance/Financial Management |
| Management Accounting |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, Inc.
|
| BHCHP is at a pivotal point. A new CEO must deal with an organization in which internal measurement and accountability hasn't been a high priority, but where external forces place a premium on delivering cost-effective services through managed care arrangements.
|
| |
11
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Boulder Public Schools
|
| Provides students with an opportunity to look at both structure and process issues in a highly bureaucratic context, and to consider the appropriate balance between centralization and decentralization in a management control system. |
| |
9
|
No
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
|
| |
15
|
Yes
|
| Developing Country |
| Healthcare Management |
|
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Centro Italiano Sviluppo
|
| Zero-based budgeting in the Italian healthcare system. Goes beyond ZBB to many interesting control issues. |
| |
10
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Cittá di Forenna
|
| Two towns in Italy use quite different approaches to managing the vendors to whom they have outsourced waste collection. The manager of one town is being criticized for not using the techniques of his counterpart, and is responding that his town is different and therefore requires different techniques. Students must decide who is right and why. |
|
| Padovani, Emanuele |
| Young, David W. |
|
5
|
Yes
| |
| Management Accounting |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Clinique Nosral
|
| A combination budgeting and variance analysis case set in a central African country. The variance is tricky since no salary information is available. |
| |
4
|
No
|
| Developing Country |
| Healthcare Management |
|
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Commonwealth Business School
|
| A proposal for a new management control system to account for faculty time is met with some resistance. Students must assess the reports. |
| |
11
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Commonwealth University
|
| A relative simple transfer pricing case that helps students master the very basic computations. It serves as a practice case with a solution in some of the notes. |
| |
2
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
|
| |
2
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Conejo (El) Auto Clinic (B)
|
| The case shows a large budget overrun, and students must use the same cost drivers to do a variance analysis. |
| |
5
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Conejo (El) Family Planning Clinic
|
| A family planning clinic has overspent its budget. A staff analyst must do a variance analysis. Among other things, students need to interpret the flexible budget that he has prepared. They then must compute variances, some of which are a little tricky. |
| |
6
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Controls at the Bellagio Casino Resort
|
| This case was designed to (a) illustrate a control system that is dominated by action and personnel controls, rather than results controls, (b) lead to a discussion of what is meant by the term “tight control,” and (c) lead to a discussion of the meaning of what auditors refer to as “internal control,” which is a subset of the broader area of management control. The case describes an excellent system of controls over cash and cash-equivalent stocks and movements thereof. These controls, which fall in the category of internal controls, are necessary but not sufficient to guarantee good management control. |
|
| Merchant, Kenneth A. |
| Porter, Leslie R. |
| Van der Stede, Wim A. |
|
26
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Converse Health System
|
| Addresses two major issues facing an integrated delivery system ( IDS) in promoting goal congruence: the design of financial responsibility centers and the selection of an appropriate transfer pricing methodology. It helps students to see that, in a truly integrated IDS, treating hospitals (and other providers) as standard expense centers and using two-part transfer prices can help to improve goal congruence. |
| |
9
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Diagnostic Products Corporation
|
| This case illustrates the control system used in a field service engineer (FSE) setting. The case is particularly interesting because the company, Diagnostic Products Corporation (DPC), is in the midst of a significant change. Formerly, company managers controlled FSE inputs-they paid FSEs for hours worked. Now they are attempting to measure FSE outputs, or results, and to provide performance-dependent compensation.
DPC managers have determined that total customer satisfaction is the primary result of the FSEs' work. But it is not the only important result. They are facing a number of challenges in understanding all of the important result areas, how to measure each of them, and how to weight them in importance. Thus, the case illustrates most of the difficulties companies face in developing a combination-of-measures results control system, one complex form of which is a Balanced Scorecard. |
|
| Merchant, Kenneth A. |
| Van der Stede, Wim A. |
|
9
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
Easter Seal Foundation of New Hampshire and Vermont (A)
|
| The (A) case presents an organization in financial difficulties, and a new CEO has just taken over. Students must propose changes to the management control system and other organizational features. The (B) case (short enough for an in-class handout) describes what he did, and students are asked to assess his actions. |
| |
15
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Easter Seal Foundation of New Hampshire and Vermont (B)
|
| The (A) case presents an organization in financial difficulties, and a new CEO has just taken over. Students must propose changes to the management control system and other organizational features. The (B) case (short enough for an in-class handout) describes what he did, and students are asked to assess his actions. |
| |
4
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Enager Industries, Inc.
|
| A classic case on investment centers and their pitfalls. Updated to eliminate all references to dates. |
| |
5
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Erie Hospital
|
| A pretty basic capital budgeting case involving a physician who has a lot of power. Requires the students to think about the interest rate for donated funds in computing the weighted cost of capital, and also to think about sunk costs. Essentially the same as Erie Chemical Company) |
| |
2
|
Yes
| |
| Finance/Financial Management |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Fletcher Allen Health Care
|
| A lengthy case describing a failed attempt to implement a new strategy and a new management control system. Students must assess where the control system could have been better designed as well as why the implementation effort failed. |
| |
22
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Franklin Health Associates (A)
|
| A case that allows students to assess the linkages among strategy, structure, and the management control system. Lots of problems to find and solve. (An extension of Franklin Group Practice) |
| |
10
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
|
| |
4
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Global Investors, Inc.
|
| This case was written to illustrate a transfer pricing problem in a service setting, here an investment management company. The issues and solutions are not as obvious as in a manufacturing setting where one division produces parts that are transferred to another division for further processing.
The case is a disguised version of a real conflict in which emotions were running high. The case exposes students to a broad range of issues that can be raised when negotiating transfer pricing. These include cost allocation methods, managers' interests and perceptions, organizational roles and conflicts, taxes, ownership structure and manager compensation, and ethics. The case also illustrates that there are often no obvious, clean solutions to transfer pricing problems. |
|
| Merchant, Kenneth A. |
| Sandino, Tatiana |
|
11
|
Yes
| |
| General Management |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Haas School of Business
|
| An ethics case in which students must debate the wisdom of a dean’s decision to supplement university-capped faculty salaries with some executive education programs. Boils down to means versus ends. |
|
| Anthony, Robert N. |
| Young, David W. |
|
7
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Hamilton Hospital
|
| The saga of a chief of surgery attempting to implement a group practice in a teaching hospital in order to abide by university salary caps. The implementation process is complicated by a new billing system that provides inaccurate information. |
| |
9
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Hillside Hospital
|
| The saga of a chief of medicine attempting to implement a group practice in a teaching hospital in order to abide by university salary caps. The implementation process is complicated by a new billing system that provides inaccurate information. Identical to Hamilton Hospital, but set in a department of medicine instead of surgery. |
| |
9
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Hospital San Pedro
|
| A letter from an upset citizen describes how a health system works in reality. Students must prepare a flow chart based on the letter, and then recommend changes. |
|
| Garcia-Prat |
| Young, David W. |
|
3
|
Yes
|
| Health Policy |
| Healthcare Management |
|
| Management Control Systems |
| Operations Management |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Housing Finance Agency
|
| The head of the housing agency is evaluating the program to encourage more rental construction. At issue is whether a project selection system is working appropriately. |
| |
7
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Industrial Electronics, Inc.
|
| This case, which is really a short vignette, was written primarily for exam purposes in situations where the examination time is short. But the case can also be used as the basis for a class discussion. It raises a number of issues, including performance measurement, performance standards, functions linking performance with incentive awards, and the behavioral responses by managers and employees to incentives. |
| |
2
|
Yes
| |
| Management Accounting |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Job Enrichment Division (A)
|
| The (A) case requires students to use some budget drivers to build a budget for the training division of a large company and compute a transfer price per trainee. The (B) case shows actual results, and requires students to compute a flexible budget and the relevant variances. |
| |
2
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Job Enrichment Division (B)
|
| The (A) case requires students to use some budget drivers to build a budget for the training division of a large company and compute a transfer price per trainee. The (B) case shows actual results, and requires students to compute a flexible budget and the relevant variances. |
| |
1
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Kooistra Autogroep
|
| Describes a company that has expanded significantly from a small owner-run automobile retailer to a top-20 player in the Dutch car dealership market. To handle the growth, management is making an important transition from a primarily centralized organization to a decentralized one. This transition allows the case to be used to motivate discussions of a number of substantive issues, including the effects of an organization's growth and competitive environment on its organization structure and management control system design, advantages and disadvantages of decentralization, and design of control systems in decentralized organizations. Can be used in conjunction with the Puente Hills Toyota case study to discuss whether incentives are effective in driving performance. |
|
| Jansen, Pieter |
| Merchant, Kenneth A. |
| Van der Stede, Wim A. |
|
8
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Kranworth Chair Corporation
|
| Describes a company that is making an important transition-from a functional organization structure a divisionalized one. The case to be used to motivate discussion of a number of substantive issues, including the effects of an organization's strategy, growth, and competitive environment on its management control system design; advantages and disadvantages of decentralization; design of control systems in a divisionalized company, and design and implementation of performance evaluation and incentive systems associated with changes in organizational design and the allocation of organizational decision rights, in particular.
The case also provides some details about KCC's early experiences with the new organizational structure and management control system design, thereby providing opportunities for students to suggest possible improvements.
|
|
| Merchant, Kenneth A. |
| Van der Stede, Wim A. |
|
9
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Landale PLC
|
| This case was written to illustrate some “personnel” controls used in the finance and accounting organization of a consumer products company. It focuses on a thoughtful job rotation program designed to build the career skills of younger employees and the issues the company faced in setting up and administering such a program. |
|
| Merchant, Kenneth A. |
| Van der Stede, Wim A. |
|
11
|
Yes
| |
| Finance/Financial Management |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Las Ferreterías de México, S.A. de C.V.
|
| Illustrates some of the basic problems with the return on investment (ROI) measure of performance. The problems arise in both the numerator (profit) and denominator (investment) of the ROI measures. The case provides sufficient detail to allow students to discuss both how to measure the basic elements of profits and investments and the behavioral implications of the use of these measures. Students should also consider alternatives to the use of ROI measures.
The case also allows for discussion of some other issues that managers face in the design and implementation of incentive systems. These include decisions about which employees to include in the plan, what target bonus to set for each type of employee included, whether to use a bonus pool feature, how to design the function linking performance measures and incentive awards, and how to set fair performance standards for all employees |
|
| Merchant, Kenneth A. |
| Van der Stede, Wim A. |
|
4
|
Yes
| |
| Management Accounting |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Leo's Four-Plex Theater
|
| This case is intended as an in-class, “warm-up” case. It is particularly useful on the first day of class where students cannot be made to prepare a longer case prior to class. The case motivates the students (1) to think about the meaning of good control; (2) to consider a number of different forms of controls; (3) to think about the design vs. the implementation of the various forms of controls; and (4) to consider costs in their recommendations. |
| |
2
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Lomita Hospital (A)
|
| The chief of pathology must prepare a budget under conditions of uncertainty, and with some question about whether he has been appropriately structured as a discretionary expense center. |
| |
8
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Los Reyes Hospital (A)
|
| The A case provides students with some basic cost drivers that they can use to build a budget, which they are required to do, and also to consider ways to cut it. The (B) case shows that the (A) case budget has been exceeded, and the students must compute the appropriate variances, and recommend a course of action. |
| |
2
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Los Reyes Hospital (B)
|
| The A case provides students with some basic cost drivers that they can use to build a budget, which they are required to do, and also to consider ways to cut it. The (B) case shows that the (A) case budget has been exceeded, and the students must compute the appropriate variances, and recommend a course of action. |
| |
4
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Management Accounting for Managers
|
| This primer is written for students studying management accounting for the first time, and for senior and mid-level managers who use management accounting in their day-to-day activities but who do not aspire to become management accountants. It assumes no prior formal exposure to management accounting concepts or techniques, and, while it demonstrates several techniques in some detail, its primary emphasis is on the use of management accounting information, not its preparation. As such, the primer's goal is to help managers be more effective in a business environment where an understanding of management accounting is important to success. Moreover, the primer aims to give readers an improved ability to communicate with their organizations’ accountants to help assure that the management accounting information provided to line managers and others is as useful as possible for decision making.
|
| |
180
|
No
| |
| Management Accounting |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
|
|
| Young, David W. |
| Anthony, Robert N. |
|
308
|
No
|
| Healthcare Management |
| Nonprofit |
|
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Massachusetts General Physicians Organization
|
| The MGPO is attempting to institute a new compensation that deals with a mixed payment model in which some of a physician’s revenue comes from fee for service and some from capitation. Also at work are several non-financial measures of performance that complicate the compensation model. Each of several group practices is a profit center, and must decide if it wishes to decentralize this responsibility down to individual physicians within the group. |
| |
19
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Milan Sanitation Department
|
| The creation of profit centers in a municipal repair garage has changed worker incentives, and greatly improved productivity. The manager must decide what to do now that the initial luster has worn off. |
| |
3
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Moray Junior High School
|
| A junior high school principal in a school-based system is faced with some difficult budget cuts. Students can put the budget on a spreadsheet and play with the possibilities. Given the constraints the principal faces, nothing appears to work. |
| |
6
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
|
| |
2
|
No
| |
| Management Accounting |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| New Wave Hair Salon
|
| A management control system case in which poorly designed responsibility centers and bonus arrangements have led to goal incongruent behavior. There also is a fairness issue. The presenting issue is that the bonuses have been earned even though the hair salon ran a deficit. |
| |
6
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| North Lincoln
|
| A description of the building of a budget in a small state government. Illustrates various types of game playing, and machinations that people use to obtain resources. Includes a director of fiscal affairs trying unsuccessfully to introduce “rationality” into a system where stakeholders get their needs met because of the system’s irrationality. |
| |
17
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Note on Budget Formulation in Nonprofit Organizations
|
| Discusses the technical aspects of preparing a budget, and the fit of the budgetary process with a variety of other aspects of the organization. Begins by looking at the organizational and strategic context in which budgeting takes place, and distinguishes the mechanical aspects of budgeting from the behavioral ones. It then look at the mechanical aspects of building a budget, and concludes with a discussion of budgeting misfits—areas where the budgetary process does not work as well as it might because it does not fit well with other organizational systems or processes. Has a practice case with a solution at the end. |
| |
13
|
No
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
|
|
| Anthony, Robert N. |
| Young, David W. |
|
8
|
No
| |
| General Management |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Note on Capital Budgeting
|
| Discusses, payback period, net present value, and internal rate of return; the effect of taxes and how accelerated depreciation can turn a potentially unfavorable project into a favorable one; issues related to the choice of a discount rate, including the weighted cost of capital, and the weighted return on assets; techniques for incorporating risk into the analysis; the evaluation of non-quantitative considerations; and the link of the capital budgeting process to an organization’s authority and influence process. Has an appendix on the concept of present value, and a short practice case to help students solidify their understanding. |
| |
16
|
No
| |
| Finance/Financial Management |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Note on Flexible Budgeting and Variance Analysis
|
| Discusses some important aspects of the measurement phase of the management control process: (1) the importance of aligning responsibility with control, (2) flexible budgeting, and (3) variance analysis. Has a simple, and easily understandable graphical explanation of variances, as well as the computation formulas. Also discusses the managerial uses and limitations of variances. Has a short practice case to help students solidify their understanding. |
| |
11
|
No
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
|
| |
8
|
No
| |
| General Management |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
|
| |
13
|
No
| |
| General Management |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Note on Leadership
|
| Discusses the 7 levers that leaders can use to guide their organizations toward high performance. Links leadership to Chester Barnard’s Functions of the Executive, and contrasts the 7 levers with the McKenzie Ss in the 7S-model.
|
| |
11
|
No
| |
| General Management |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Note on Management Accounting in Context
|
| Discusses management control system design, and its link to activities such as strategy formulation, culture, customer management, conflict management, and motivation. Contains a managerial checklist and a practice case study. |
| |
15
|
No
| |
| General Management |
| Management Accounting |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Note on Management Control Systems
|
| Discuses the structure and process of a management control system and the considerations involved in designing an appropriate one. Is highly interactive—students are asked to respond to questions and solve problems throughout the chapter, and also to prepare a short case study on transfer prices at the end of the chapter. |
| |
27
|
No
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Note on Management Control Systems in Health Care
|
| Discusses MCS mainly with a focus on hospitals and attending physicians. Topics include responsibility center design, the use of cost drivers to build budgets and calculate variances, an assessment of who controls which resources, and how to involve attending physicians in the cost control effort. |
| |
15
|
No
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Note on Management Control Systems in the Public Sector
|
| Contrasts “bureaucratic” control with “management control” and discusses ways that public sector organizations could achieve greater management control. Concludes that, although there are several barriers that inhibit a public sector organization from developing improved managerial control, there also are ways to overcome the barriers.
|
| |
11
|
No
| |
| General Management |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
|
|
| Padovani, Emanuele |
| Young, David W. |
|
5
|
No
| |
| General Management |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Note on Motivation
|
| Discusses the many issues involved in motivating employees, including the role of contingent compensation. Links the motivation process to several other organizational processes, such as culture and management control. |
| |
10
|
No
| |
| General Management |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Note on Operational Budgeting in Health Care
|
| Covers (a) the organizational and strategic contexts in which operational budgeting takes place. (b) the mechanical aspects of operational budgeting, (c) the key elements in the budgetary process, (d) the relationship between budgeting and responsibility centers, and (e) the definition of a budgeting misfit, and seven common budgeting misfits. Has a practice case at the end with a very detailed solution. |
| |
23
|
No
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Note on Performance Measurement in Nonprofit Organizations
|
| Discusses the need for output measurement in nonprofit organization to (1) measure efficiency, which is the ratio of outputs to inputs (i.e., expenses) and (2) measure effectiveness, which is the extent to which actual output corresponds to the organization's goals and objectives. Looks at alternative ways of measuring output in nonprofit organizations. Discusses why, despite the importance of devising such alternatives, current nonprofit management control systems tend to be deficient in measuring their effectiveness, and suggests some remedies. |
| |
16
|
No
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Note on Pricing in Nonprofit Organizations
|
| Discusses the tricky proposition of setting prices in many nonprofit organizations. Full costs, differential costs, or a variety of other configurations can be used to determine prices. The choice depends in large measure on the scenario under consideration. Unfortunately, many nonprofit managers give little thought to pricing policies. The note discusses why this is a mistake, and includes several matters that affect pricing decisions in nonprofit organizations, including prices for subsidized services and services that are provided free of charge. |
| |
9
|
No
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
ADV
|
Add
|
| Note on Responsibility Accounting
|
| Discusses the relationship between cost accounting and responsibility accounting, and then looks at several factors that must be considered in designing a responsibility accounting system. Examines the responsibility accounting structure, which consists of the organization’s network of responsibility centers, the management control process, and some of the issues that senior managers must consider if they are to make either profit or investment centers work as effectively as possible. Concludes with the topic of motivation, and presents some recent thinking on various ways to reward managers and others for good performance, as well as a brief discussion of some of the informal aspects that can influence the success of a given responsibility center design, in particular ways individuals in organizations gain power and influence outside the formal responsibility center network. |
| |
19
|
No
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Note on the Financial Control Structure in Nonprofit Organizations
|
| Discusses the design of responsibility centers. Expands the discussion to include criteria for profit centers, the program structure, matrix organizations, the information structure, the account structure, and behavioral factors (including motivation systems, goal congruence, cooperation and conflict, and culture). |
| |
16
|
No
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Note on the Fundamentals of Responsibility Accounting
|
| Analyzes the relationship between cost accounting and responsibility accounting, and then looks at the various factors that must be considered in the design and use of a good responsibility accounting system. Discusses the responsibility accounting structure, and the management control process. |
| |
28
|
No
| |
| General Management |
| Management Accounting |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Note on Transfer Pricing
|
| Discusses the various issues that must be considered in setting transfer pricing, and how they can be resolved. |
| |
9
|
No
| |
| General Management |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
|
| |
3
|
No
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Office of Community Development
|
| A case about where to place the budget branch: with the accountants or with the planners and programmers? It’s location will have a big impact on how budgeting takes place. |
|
| Young, David W. |
| Taylor, Graeme M. |
|
5
|
Yes
| |
| General Management |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Olympic Car Wash
|
| This is a case that links a flexible budget to a bonus system. The question is “how large should the bonus pool be based on what the manager can and cannot control?” The case is not as simple as it might first seem. |
|
| Merchant, Kenneth A. |
| Van der Stede, Wim A. |
|
2
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Penn State-Geisinger Health System
|
| A variety of decisions faces the senior management team of the newly merged entity (which became unmerged several years later). Responsibility center design is complicated by a combination of programs and regions. Capital investment is also complicated, as is attaining the "right" balance between centralization and decentralization. |
| |
4
|
No
| |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Philip Anderson
|
| This case illustrates a common control system dysfunctional side-effect-incentives-caused conflicts of interest faced by brokers in the retail brokerage industry. Sometimes brokers are torn between serving their clients' and their firms' best interests. This case can be taught from the perspective of Philip Anderson, the branch manager, which makes it an ethics case. Does Philip have an ethical obligation to serve his clients' interests to the best of his ability, even at some cost to his firm and, presumably, himself? The ethics discussion can also be continued at both the firm and industry levels of analysis. What should financial service firms' stance be in situations like this? Do they want brokers to maximize long-term profits even if that does not serve their client base optimally? Are brokers more like professional advisors or salespeople? |
|
| Merchant, Kenneth A. |
| Van der Stede, Wim A. |
|
2
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Preferred Health Network, Inc.
|
| A managed care plan has instituted a reporting system that compares physicians’ practice patterns to some national standards in an effort to control utilization. Physicians’ reactions are mixed. Management now must decide the next steps to take. |
|
| Barrett, Diana |
| Young, David W. |
|
9
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Private Fitness, LLC
|
| This case describes a real control problem faced by a small fitness-training business. A trusted employee was both stealing cash and, by not recording all sales, diverting some revenues to herself. Students find the setting interesting and easily understandable, but discussion of this simple setting helps students understand the range of control alternatives that firms can use. This is an important first step in designing a control system.
The case illustrates a common problem faced in many small businesses-lack of overlapping controls, or in this case what auditors call “separation of duties.” In addressing the problem described here, students can consider a broad range of control alternatives and their advantages and disadvantages.
|
| |
2
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Puente Hills Toyota
|
| This case can be used to motivate discussions of a number of topics, including financial responsibility centers, performance measurement, transfer pricing, and incentives. The setting is an automobile dealership, a business about which all students have some interest and understanding. And the setting is real, so students can benefit from secondary learning about the industry and business. |
|
| Merchant, Kenneth A. |
| Van der Stede, Wim A. |
| Jansen, Pieter |
|
13
|
Yes
| |
| Management Accounting |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
|
| The chair of anesthesiology is fighting many battles on many fronts. Students must first define his strategy in comparison to that of the hospital and the medical school. They then must assess a new incentive compensation system he has designed in light of how the department’s responsibility centers are structured. |
| |
18
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
ADV
|
Add
|
| Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center
|
| A quite complicated case concerning a Women’s and Children’s “hospital” (within Rush) that is attempting (not very successfully) to implement a new management control system. Part of the problem lies in not understanding the concept of a flexible budget, but there are many other problems. |
| |
15
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
ADV
|
Add
|
| Santaló, S.A.
|
| A geographically diversified European conglomerate is attempting to determine how much autonomy to give to its sales offices. At issue is a major transfer pricing problem in that products cost differently depending on the country from which they are sourced. There are also questions about overhead allocations and the extent to which a sales office manager can really control the elements for which he/she is being held responsible. |
| |
7
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| South Brookfield Hospital
|
| A complex case in which a data base has been assembled and managers and planners are attempting to determine how to use it. The hospital's managers hope that the data will give them the capability to: (1) define product mix and associated costs, (2) maximize reimbursement, (3) improve competitive position, and (4) plan and market new services and equipment. Students are asked to assess how well the new data base assists with these objectives. |
|
| Kane, Nancy M. |
| Young, David W. |
|
7
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| South Central Mental Health Association
|
| An almost failed attempt to implement a new management control/management information system in a mental health agency. Providers are mixed in their views, but some are openly opposing it. Students must diagnose the various reasons for the difficulties and propose some next steps. |
|
| Charns, Martin P. |
| Young, David W. |
|
9
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| South Street Health Center
|
| Like Southern State University Health System but set in a health center instead of a teaching hospital. |
| |
8
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Southern California Edison
|
| The Southern California Edison (SCE) case motivates a discussion of whether companies should make adjustments for uncontrollable factors that affect the measures on which managers are being evaluated, and if so, how.
SCE faced a “tsunami-like” event-the California Energy Crisis of 2000 and 2001 caused, in part, by Enron managers' manipulation of the power markets. Interestingly, though, not all students will agree that the event was completely uncontrollable by management. Therefore, the case allows a discussion of which circumstances should be considered partially or completely uncontrollable by management, and commensurate with these judgments, which adjustments should be made to measured performance for which purposes.
|
|
| Merchant, Kenneth A. |
| Van der Stede, Wim A. |
|
10
|
Yes
| |
| General Management |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Southern Seattle University Health System (A)
|
| Similar to Southern State UHS, but in two parts. In the A case, students must consider the responsibility center structure in the department of medicine, and assess how the budget has been constructed. In the B case, they are given enough data to build a budget themselves on a spreadsheet, using cost drivers. |
| |
9
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Southern Seattle University Health System (B)
|
| Similar to Southern State UHS, but in two parts. In the A case, students must consider the responsibility center structure in the department of medicine, and assess how the budget has been constructed. In the B case, they are given enough data to build a budget themselves on a spreadsheet, using cost drivers. |
| |
4
|
Yes
|
| Healthcare Management |
| Nonprofit |
|
| General Management |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Southern State University Health System
|
| This case allows students to (a) work with the concept of responsibility centers in a department of medicine, (b) define lines of business, and (c) assess the feasibility of a business plan by a division within the department. At issue is the balance among teaching, research, and clinical care. |
| |
10
|
No
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Spruce Street Shelter
|
| A relatively simple case on the subject of flexible budgeting, but it raises enough issues concerning the use of the reports that it can easily be used for an entire class session. It provides a nice lead-in to somewhat more complex variance analysis cases. |
| |
3
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Superconductor Technologies, Inc.
|
| This case describes the compensation and incentive plans used by a high-technology company for its top-30 managers. The company is unusual in that it has been in business for 17 years yet has never earned a profit. As such, it can still be viewed as a start-up company, but a mature one. The compensation packages consist of base salary, cash bonuses, and stock options. The case provides opportunities to discuss issues, such as measurements, style of evaluations, and payout leverage, related to, particularly, the bonus and stock option components of these packages, as well as the entire compensation system. |
|
| Merchant, Kenneth A. |
| Van der Stede, Wim A. |
|
9
|
Yes
| |
| General Management |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| The Expiring Software License
|
| This case was written to motivate a control-related ethical discussion of a relatively common type of circumstance, where a manager knowingly violates company policy for a noble purpose. In this situation, the manager evades a limit placed on his purchasing card. If he did not violate the policy, an important software package whose license had expired would be shut down, causing a significant disruption. Such situations, which occur in many different forms, are caused by poor, often obsolete, behavioral restrictions. |
|
| Merchant, Kenneth A. |
| Porter, Leslie R. |
|
1
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Timilty Middle School
|
| A new program called Project Promise has been introduced to an inner-city middle school. From all indications it is a great success. Then, the school system’s budget director raises some complicating issues. Students must decide how successful the program has been, and whether it is worth its cost. |
| |
13
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| To Charge or Not to Charge . . .
|
| A case that contains a debate on the subject of when and where to use “user fees” instead of general property taxes to pay for public services. |
| |
8
|
No
| |
| General Management |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Town of Levinton
|
| A case on pricing water services where there are two prices needed: (1) to hook into the system and (2) for ongoing use. Many issues around cross-subsidization among various user groups. |
| |
5
|
Yes
| |
| General Management |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Town of Rovereto
|
| A question of whether to purchase new snow plows for a city or to let the existing ones go and use private contractors for the snowplowing service |
| |
4
|
Yes
| |
| General Management |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Tru-Fit Parts, Inc.
|
| Enables students to gain insights in two areas of control system design. First, it illustrates (in the transfer pricing area) that some problems are not completely soluble, and that a system with only a few problems may be better than an evident alternative. Second, the case illustrates how a myopic view of control systems can create problems; in two instances the company considered a specific behavioral aspect of a measurement scheme, but neglected to recognize the possibility of undesirable side effects of its approach. |
| |
3
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Tsinghua Tongfang Co., Ltd.
|
| This case was written to illustrate the control systems used at upper management levels by a Chinese high-technology company. The case describes a number of bureaucratic controls that limit the autonomy of the company's managers. It also describes the company's performance evaluation and incentive systems and the company's desire to add a stock option plan when and if doing so becomes legal in China. U.S. students, in particular, might be surprised that a Chinese corporation has such lucrative incentive plans. Historically such plans were rare in China, but they are becoming more popular as China builds its “socialist market economy.”
Use of the case is best if students have either studied other control and performance evaluation and incentive systems so that they have a point of reference, or if they are at least somewhat familiar with the business situation in China. |
|
| Lin , Thomas W. |
| Merchant, Kenneth A. |
|
7
|
Yes
|
| Developing Country |
| For Profit |
|
| General Management |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Union Medical Center
|
| Set in the context of a hospital that is attempting to develop a management control system in response to the constraints imposed upon it by Medicare's diagnosis-related group (DRG) form of reimbursement. The control system contains a set of reports that meets many of the criteria for good reports: they are hierarchical, they distinguish between controllable and non-controllable costs, and they focus on personal responsibility. There nevertheless are some important unanswered questions about the way the control system works, and some improvements that could be made to the reports. In addition, physicians are resisting the system. |
|
| Kane, Nancy M. |
| Young, David W. |
|
6
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
| Organizational Behavior |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| University Day Care Center
|
| Requires students to identify several reasons for a variance between budget and actual, and to make the appropriate calculations. There are several related issues that they also must deal with, such as pricing, staffing, and supply costs, all of which serve to complicate the analysis. |
| |
7
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| University of Miami Department of Medicine
|
| The chair of the department of medicine is attempting to compute the true cost of graduate medical education. There are many complicating factors that students need to sort out, including some bogus computations. |
| |
18
|
Yes
|
| Health Policy |
| Healthcare Management |
|
| Management Control Systems |
|
ADV
|
Add
|
| Urban Arts Institute (A)
|
| This case concerns a budgeting system that is unresponsive to senior management's needs. Several changes are needed to align the system with the organization's new strategy. The case can be taught on either a technical or a conceptual level (or both), depending on the instructor's interests and his or her goals for the course. |
| |
15
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Urban Arts Institute (B)
|
| A follow-up to the (A) case. The CFO has developed a new financial reporting format, and students need to assess who the readers of the statement are, and what sorts of decisions they might make as a result of the information. They also need to consider how the CEO should determine an appropriate contribution percentage for each department and what other indicators might be used to measure the performance of a department or program. Finally, they need to determine what steps might be taken to more fully involve the department chairs in the institute’s financial affairs. |
| |
4
|
No
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Valley Hospital
|
| A fairly basic case on transfer pricing, but one that illustrates the problem of goal congruence rather neatly. Students should have little or no trouble making the computations, such that most of the discussion can focus on the issues and how to resolve them. |
| |
2
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Vershire Company
|
| An updated and slightly modified version of the classic Empire Glass Company case. Has all of the fun of Empire, but the company makes cans instead of bottles. |
|
| Govindarajan, V.J. |
| Anthony, Robert N. |
|
7
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| White Hills Architects, Inc.
|
| Introduces some real-world complexities into a transfer pricing decision. Market price works when there is an unambiguous market price, but in this instance, it is not clear that the two jobs are the same, which means that the prices might legitimately differ. The case also includes some important behavioral issues. It is a bit like the classic Birch Paper, and is a for-profit version of White Hills Children's Museum. |
| |
3
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| White Hills Children's Museum
|
| Introduces some real-world complexities into a transfer pricing decision. Market price works when there is an unambiguous market price, but in this instance, it is not clear that the two jobs are the same, which means that the prices might legitimately differ. The case also includes some important behavioral issues. It is a bit like the classic Birch Paper. |
| |
3
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| White Hills Medical Center
|
| Introduces some real-world complexities into a transfer pricing decision. Market price works when there is an unambiguous market price, but in this instance, it is not clear that the two jobs are the same, which means that the prices might legitimately differ. The case also includes some important behavioral issues. It is a bit like the classic Birch Paper, and is similar to While Hills Children's Museum. |
| |
3
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| WIC Program
|
| A quite complex case with many issues. To analyze it, students must prepare a managerially-oriented flow chart, which presumably will be more useful than the flowchart contained in the body of the case. The important distinction is that the managerially-oriented flowchart will show key decision points, which the students can then analyze, using data in the case, in order to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the voucher processing activities of the WIC Program. However, further analysis will show that voucher processing is a red herring; there is much more going on. |
| |
9
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|
| Wolfboro Engineering, Inc.
|
| Allows students to experiment with the idea of residual income. On the surface, the computations are simple, but each question can stimulate considerable discussion about the most desirable approach to take. |
| |
3
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
BEG
|
Add
|
| Woodside Products, Inc.
|
| Provides a good summary—or good examination—of income variance analysis. Weaker students are thrown off balance at first, because none of the costs given are labeled as being “standard.” The case also asks the student to prepare a fairly intuitive summary analysis for a board meeting. It can be used as part of an assignment to emphasize the importance of communicating the results of quite complicated calculations to non accountants in a straightforward, easy-to-grasp way. |
| |
2
|
Yes
| |
| Management Control Systems |
|
INT
|
Add
|