Summary of content

Management accounting as a discipline has a key role to play in the governance and control of an entity. The prominent pillars of management accounting namely decision making, planning and control provide robust frameworks within which internal management of entities can direct the company towards efficacy and efficiency in meeting stakeholder goals.

This module aims to examine contemporary issues in management accounting with an emphasis on control of an entity towards meeting long term stakeholder objectives. It aims to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to enable the learner to use information to make effective decisions, to plan forward aiding control of the entity using both feedforward and feedback perspectives. This will emphasise the identification and critical analysis of relevant issues as well as utilising management accounting frameworks to aid in such analysis and reporting. Recent developments and current theories in the field will be reviewed and discussed with practical implications critically analysed and evaluated.

Specific topics covered will include: historical perspectives of management accounting and research, management accounting control theory, planning and control, decision making, risk and uncertainty, cost control, agency theory, contingency theory, strategic management accounting and environmental management accounting.

The aim of this module is to equip students with a set of concepts, analytical and practical tools to enable them to engage with the internal control aspects of financial management within contemporary contexts. The module will therefore incorporate both a theoretical and practical understanding of real world issues, from a UK and international perspective and also profit and non-profit making perspectives. PRME related principles and the Common Good attributes are foundational to this module.

Module structure

Assessment methods