Enhancing the ABC Cross

The purpose of the ABC Cross was to portray both a cost and process view of an organization as simply as possible. Unfortunately, the model’s simplified form does not capture the real value of activity-based costing (ABC) for cost accounting that emerged in the mid-1980s. Here we present several ABC models that can help functional and process managers make better decisions

Cost Efficiency of Defense Procurement: What We Can and Can't Learn from French Lessons

During the late 1980s, in the wake of the end of cold war and shrinking defense budget, the Delegation General for Armaments (DGA), the French government agency that is responsible for the contracting and management of all weapon programs, implemented a wide range of restructuring efforts to reform French defense industry. For instance, one notable change was to migrate from cost-plus contracts to fixed-price contracts to control the then prevalent cost overruns. Today, nearly all French weapon procurement contracts are fixed-price based. Research has found that while in France as elsewhere cost overruns still occur, such problem tends to be relatively modest in scope. Specifically, Kapstein and Oudot (2009) document that French cost overrun is normally within the 5-10 percent range as opposed to an average 26 percent overrun in the U.S. Given the French experience has in general been perceived to be successful (OTA Background Paper 1992, Kapstein 2009), what can the U.S. learn from French lessons? Today the U.S. confronts a very similar and difficult cost overrun problem that led DGA in the late 1980s to the reform of the system. We argue that while U.S. can certainly learn useful lessons from the French experience, significant differences nevertheless exist between the two countries in the context of the political and economical environment. These institutional differences indicate that a “copy and paste” approach will not work in U.S. Rather, an individual based assessment of the French experience would make more sense. We aim to address this issue

Accounting for military human resource costs

The article of record as published may be found at https://doi.org/10.1080/0743017870840531

The Role of Management Control Systems in Planned Organizational Change: An Analysis of Two Organizations

Accounting, Organizations and Society, 32 (7-8), 2007, 601-637.In the management control literature there is growing interest in the role of management control systems (MCS) in planned organizational change. The existing literature is concerned with either rational, technical change principles or more social and political interpretations of MCS facilitated change. This paper aims to extend the literature by combining technical approaches to MCS facilitated change with a behavioral approach in the study of two similar organizations. Moreover, the paper employs a holistic approach to change to develop a comprehensive understanding of the role of MCS in planned organizational change. A framework by Huy [Huy, Q.N. (2001). Time temporal capacity, and planned change. Academy of Management Review 26(4), 601-623] is used to provide an integrative approach that focuses on both rational, systematic practices and the behavioral processes involved in their implementation. This is achieved by identifying four idealized intervention types: commanding, engineering, teaching and socializing. Understanding the application of these four intervention types requires analysis of the way they interact through times

The Motive for Indirect Cost Control in Higher Education

Sciences de Gestion, n (65), 2008, 73-78.Colleges and universities throughout the world rely on different funding models to cover costs. Regardless of the model used, these institutions are experiencing intense pressure to control costs. However, controlling indirect costs in traditional not-for-profit institutions of higher learning is in direct conflict with a more powerful survival motive. We propose that actions required to attract and retain students lead to product proliferation in the form of increased programmatic offerings and to other forms of student support, which leads to higher costs. Cost containment is not a realistic priority given the prevailing institutional structures

A proposal for a microcomputer-based physical qualifications monitoring system for the Branch Clinic, Bancroft Hall, Annapolis, Maryland.

http://archive.org/details/proposalformicro00setzN

Estimating relationships in simulation models using regression: An application to military retirement costing

This article demonstrates a procedure for using regression analysis to develop estimating equations that simply and quickly predict the effects on system performance of changes in parametric values of complex interrelation- ships imbedded in a full mathematical simulation model. Though a analytic solution to the relationships may be possible, the time and other resources necessary to generate such a solution may exceed those available. The resulting estimating equations facilitate understanding of the system being simulated, enable users to more easily conduct sensitivity analysis and answer what-if questions, and assist the selling of the simulation results to potential users. The procedure includes criteria for selection of: variables to be analyzed, the sensitivity range, the value increments, and the functional form. The example utilized is a simulation model developed for estimating future military retirement costs. (Author)Prepared for: The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (MRA&L), Washington DChttp://archive.org/details/estimatingrelati00euskFunding for this research was provided by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Manpower, Installations, and Logistics).N

Has management accounting research been critical?

This paper examines the contributions Management Accounting Research (MAR) has (and has not) made to social and critical analyses of management accounting in the twenty-five years since its launch. It commences with a personalised account of the first named author’s experiences of behavioural, social and critical accounting in the twenty-five years before MAR appeared. This covers events in the UK, especially the Management Control Workshop, Management Accounting Research conferences at Aston, the Inter-disciplinary Perspectives on Accounting Conferences; key departments and professors; and elsewhere the formation of pan-European networks, and reflections on a years’ visit to the USA. Papers published by MAR are analysed according to year of publication, country of author and research site, research method, research subject (type of organization or subject studied), data analysis method, topic, and theory. This revealed, after initial domination by UK academics, increasing Continental European influence; increasing use of qualitative methods over a wide range of topics, especially new costing methods, control system design, change and implementation, public sector transformation, and more recently risk management and creativity. Theoretical approaches have been diverse, often multi-disciplinary, and have employed surprisingly few economic theories relative to behavioural and social theories. The research spans mainly large public and private sector organisations especially in Europe. Seven themes perceived as of interest to a social and critical theory analysis are evaluated, namely: the search for ‘Relevance Lost’ and new costing; management control, the environment and the search for ‘fits’; reconstituting the public sector; change and institutional theory; post-structural, constructivist and critical contributions; social and environmental accounting; and the changing geography of time and space between European and American research. The paper concludes by assessing the contributions of MAR against the aspirations of groups identified in the opening personal historiography, which have been largely met. MAR has made substantial contributions to social and critical accounting (broadly defined) but not in critical areas endeavouring to give greater voice and influence to marginalised sectors of society worldwide. Third Sector organisations, politics, civil society involvement, development and developing countries, labour, the public interest, political economy, and until recently social and environmental accounting have been neglected