Essay About Class Meeting Times And Mix Of Case Studies

Managerial Accounting
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DFW MBA
Managerial Accounting
Segment of ACC 381N
Syllabus
Spring 2010
Professor: Robert G. May
Office: CBA 4M.244
Phone: (512) 471-5155
FAX: (512) 471-3904
E-Mail: [email protected]
Class Meeting Times: Per the Class Schedule below
Managerial Accounting Segment Syllabus 2
Course Information
Overview Any organizations long-term competitive success is critically dependent on
(1) its ability to appropriately organize and analyze high-quality information
about its products, services, processes, organizational units, suppliers, and
customers that fits its decision needs, (2) its ability to act [rationally] on that
information, and (3) its ability to control its performance consistent with that
information. The term managerial accounting refers to the set of
information concepts, models and systems that provide this information and
control for managers. This course will introduce you to the modern concepts
of managerial accounting. The main objectives are to:
* Understand how to analyze cost information to support decisions
that are essential for long-term success in a companys
competitive environment.
* Comprehend the conceptual bases for long-run and short-run
managerial decisions and determine what information is relevant
to those decisions.
* Consider the traditional tools and modern methods of
management control and the use and analysis of managerial
accounting information to support control.
Topics The following key topics will be emphasized:
* Budgeting and cash management.
* The limitations of traditional costing systems.
* Activity-based costing.
* Long-run and short-run decision structures.
* Relevant costs and relevant revenues in business decisions.
* Performance evaluation and incentives.
* Decentralization and transfer pricing.
* Management control and control systems.
Teaching
Materials
Teaching materials include a mix of case studies and a textbook.
The textbook is Managerial Accounting, by Ronald W. Hilton, Eighth
Edition, McGraw Hill, 2009.
The staff will distribute a course notebook with cases and slide sets.
Additional teaching materials, homework cases and solutions will be
distributed primarily via Blackboard prior to the relevant class session.
Class
Organization
In this class, we will follow a modified case-method style, which I have
found to be most effective for managers who must learn technical content
and apply it in a managerial context. The modified case method relies
heavily on class participation, but with more guidance through specific
questions than the pure case method.
Managerial Accounting Segment Syllabus 3
Students will be active participants in case discussions, providing summaries
of issues, analyses, and recommendations. To prepare for class, you must
read the assigned readings carefully and understand the techniques described
in them. You also need to carefully read cases assigned for class discussion.
To ensure that everyone is at least familiar with each case, you will submit
before class answers to one or more questions as indicated in the Course
Schedule and Assignments. However, you should also think about all of the
case questions in advance and consider how you would approach them so
that you will be prepared for class discussion and will “learn by doing.”
Homework Two sets of cases will be assigned in the class:
1. The first set of cases will be assigned for reading prior to class.
They will be used as part of the teaching process on a particular
topic. In general, we will do such cases with class participation.
You will submit by Midnight Thursday (12:05 AM on Friday) of
each class weekend answers to questions assigned from these cases.
These homework assignments will be graded on a good-faith-effort
basis. Because we will cover them in class that weekend, the
assigned solutions will not be accepted late (barring extenuating
circumstances).
2. The second set of cases will be turned in after the topics are covered
in class. They will typically be due at midnight on Sunday before
each class weekend (12:05 AM Monday). These cases will be
graded on completeness and overall quality of answers. If you miss