700820 Accounting, Organizations and Control Assignment

Coursework Template

Module Title	Accounting, Organizations and Control
Module Code	700820
Coursework Element	Course Work
Module Leader	Dr Hadiza Sa’id
Word Count	5,000 individual
First Sit or Resit?	First Sit
Reassessment by resubmission or new assessment?	Resubmission
Submission Date Please ensure that the submission date for the main/final module assessment is set during the assessment period. The 2021/22 assessment period is: Trimester 1 – 10th January and 21st January 2022.Trimester 2 – 9th May and 27th May 2022. Only interim module assessments can have submission dates outside of this period.	20th May, 2022

Attempt all questions (four questions in total)700820 Accounting, Organizations and Control

Question 1

“Multinational organizations (MNOs) must understand how they must adapt their management practices, including management control practices, to make them work in each of their international locations. MNOs have similarities with large domestic organizations in that they are usually characterized by high degree of decentralized decision-making and by management control through financial results controls. That said, controlling MNOs is often more difficult than is controlling domestic organizations because MNOs face a multidimensional organizational problem: Accounting, Organizations and Control they are organized not only by function and or/product line, but also by geography. Geographic spread requires managers to be sensitive to each of the national cultures in which they operate and to appreciate different institutional settings and local business environments (Merchant and Van der Steed, 2017, p182).”

.                          

Required:

Evaluate critically the impact of national culture, different Accounting, Organizations and Control institutional settings, and the local business environment on the design and implementation of management control systems in multinational organizations (MNOs).

You should include the following in your evaluation:

• an analysis of the role of management control systems
• critically discuss how national culture has been measured and classified in previous studies.
• understanding of the various institutional settings and business environments in which MNOs operate
• your arguments should be supported by appropriate literature and theory 

Total 25 marks

Question 2

The retail division of Tales Co. is analyzing the predicted performance of each of its retail stores, A, B and C.  This involves all central costs of warehousing and a head office being allocated across the three stores in order to arrive at a total cost and net profit of each store operation.  This exercise is being carried out against a background of developments in the company, including automated warehousing, development of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and greater technological integration with suppliers.

The predicted results involving directly identifiable costs and revenues but before any allocation of central costs are:

Store	A	B	C
	£000	£000	£000
Sales	10,000	8,000	6,000
Cost of sales	5,600	4,600	3,800
Gross margin	4,400	3,400	2,200
Store operating expenses:
Variable	1,320	1,460	620
Fixed	1,450	1,150	1,000
Operating profit	1,630	790	580

The central costs to be allocated are:

	£000
Head office costs:
Salaries	500
Advertising	192
Facility	208
Warehouse costs:
Storage	160
Operating and despatch	240
Delivery	500
Depreciation	200
Total	2,000

In previous years the central costs were allocated in total based on the total sales value of each store. But, as a result of dissatisfaction expressed by some store managers, alternative methods such as activity-based costing (ABC) are being evaluated.   A management team has carried out discussions with staff at all locations in order to identify more suitable activities or ‘cost drivers’ for some of the central costs. As a result of a diary analysis it has emerged that 10% of senior management time is focused on warehouse issues and the remainder of the time is devoted equally to the three stores.  The facility costs were related almost entirely to occupancy costs of senior management.  There was no way of directly identifying the advertising costs to each store so it was agreed to allocate these based on sales value. 

The ERP information system has revealed other statistics which could be applied to the allocation of costs and the analysis of the stores as follows:

Store	A	B	C
Number of despatches	550	450	520
Total delivery distances (thousand miles)	80	60	70
Storage space occupied (%)	40	30	30

Required:

• (i) Compute the budgeted net profit of each store based on the sales value allocation base originally adopted and comment on the dissatisfaction expressed by the store managers.

(ii) Compute the budgeted net profit of Accounting, Organizations and Control each store based on the ABC allocation bases using the additional information provided.

(iii) Discuss the extent to which an improvement has been achieved in the information provided on the costs and profitability of the stores and comment on the results and implications of this information. 

(13 marks)

• Consider the extent to which Strategic Management Accounting (SMA) is a useful concept to employ in the retail business above and in businesses more generally.  Support your answer with examples (from retail) and selected references of the more general application and use of SMA.  

(12 marks)

Total 25 marks

Question 3

Hull plc is a UK company specializing in the production of bottled water.700820Accounting, Organizations and Control The company operates through three divisions that all process and bottle their ‘own-source’ drinking water, which is then sold through a network of retailers.

The following is summarised data, for the past financial year, in respect of the 3 autonomous water-processing and bottling divisions:

Division	X	Y	Z	Total
Revenue:	£,000	£,000	£,000	£,000
Fees received	3600	4200	9000	16800
Less variable costs	936	1134	2790	4860
Contribution	2664	3066	6210	11940
Less fixed costs	1872	2184	4804	8860
Operating profit	792	882	1406	3080
Less interest costs on long-term debt at 10%				360
Profit before tax				2720
Less income tax expense Profit for the year				816
Profit for the year				1904
Assets
Non-current assets	2000	5000	6600	13600
Current assets	1600	1800	2000	5400
Total assets	3600	6800	8600	19000
Equity and liabilities:
Share capital				5000
Retained earnings				8800
Total equity				13800
Non-current liabilities				3600
Long-term borrowings				3600
Total non-current liabilities				0
Current liabilities	160	480	960	1600
Total current liabilities	160	480	960	1600
Total liabilities				5200
Total equity and liabilities				19000

Hull plc operates with a target return on capital of 12% per annum. At present the performance of each division and its management is assessed against this target using return on investment (ROI) based on total assets and residual income (RI).

Hull plc does not allocate its long-term borrowings to the three divisions, and it pays 30 percent corporation tax. Furthermore, the market value of the company’s equity capital is £18 million, and the company’s cost of equity is 15%. The market value of Hull plc’s long-term borrowings is the same as its book value.

Required

(a)  From the above data calculate the Return on Investment (ROI), residual   income (RI) and economic value added (EVA) for:

(13 marks)

 (b) Multinational companies often operate complex international transfer pricing practices.c

Required:

      Critically discuss the key principles relating to transfer pricing and critically evaluate why corporations use complex methods of transfer pricing.

(10 marks)

• Critically assess the contribution of the Balanced Scorecard approach to the management and control of an organisation.

  (7 marks)

Total 30 marks

Question 4

Discuss critically the importance of social values and ethics in the design and implementation of management control systems.

(20 marks)

Word limit: 5,000 words

Assessment Guidelines

1.         Indicative weighting of marks for this assignment

               As a guide, the available marks will be split (approximately):

               Content 40%

               Critique 30%

               Academic support 30% 

2.         Academic writing

Your views/arguments should be based on relevant theoretical issues and be supported / justified by relevant academic references.

You are expected to provide a critical assessment of the topic area given, and to support your assessment/critique and/or recommendations with reference to pertinent academic references.

3.         Originality

Your work must of course be original and must make appropriate reference to all sources upon which it draws.

4.         Information Technology

Your assignment must be word processed.

5.         Relationship to learning outcomes

This assignment relates to the following learning outcomes:

1. explain the role of management accounting in organisations and their complex management processes;

2. understand the diffusion processes of new management accounting practices (such as ABC, BSC and Beyond Budgeting) across the globe

3. critically assess and discuss major issues of implementation of new practices of management accounting.

6.         Grading criteria

For a mark of 70% and above:

• The discussion provides an exceptional critical evaluation of all of the main issues involved and provides a balanced and well presented discussion incorporating consideration of all the views expressed in the articles and other sources. 

• The evaluation and critical analysis demonstrate both competence and understanding together with creativity and originality. The discussion also arrives at a considered and balanced conclusion.

• There is evidence of solid research using a variety of sources, and the debate is topical and considers the issues in depth. Evidence of wider reading is apparent.

• Appropriate referencing and presentation skills are illustrated

For a mark of 60% – 69%:

• The discussion provided a thorough and competent evaluation of the issues and provides a balanced and well-presented discussion incorporating consideration of all the views expressed in the articles and other sources.

• A competent analytical approach is taken within the context of a balanced and well-presented discussion. There is also relevant referencing, with the discussion containing no significant errors and/or omissions.

• Appropriate referencing and presentation skills are illustrated

For a mark of 50% – 59%:

• The discussion lacks any critical insight.   

• No attempt is made to provide a critique of the views stated. Only limited consideration of all the views expressed is provided in the report, and analysis is lacking.

• Reading and research whilst balanced appears nonetheless limited.

• Appropriate presentation skills are illustrated

For a mark of 40% – 49%:

• The discussion provides an adequate analysis of the issues. However the overall discussion is mainly descriptive and lacks any depth of analysis.

• In addition, the assignment is somewhat unstructured with no critical comment provided.

• There is little evidence of reading/research, and concluding comments are somewhat limited and inconclusive.

• Limited presentation skills are illustrated

For a mark of 30% – 39%:

• The discussion fails to provide any adequate evaluation.

• The assignment is limited and unstructured and the analysis poor.

• There is little evidence of understanding with little or no evidence of reading/research.

• Poor presentation skills are illustrated