Introduction to Business covers the scope and sequence of most introductory business courses. The book provides detailed explanations in the context of core themes such as customer satisfaction, ethics, entrepreneurship, global business, and managing change. Introduction to Business includes hundreds of current business examples from a range of industries and geographic locations, which feature a variety of individuals. The outcome is a balanced approach to the theory and application of business concepts, with attention to the knowledge and skills necessary for student success in this course and beyond. This is an adaptation of Introduction to Business by OpenStax. You can access the textbook as pdf for free at openstax.org. Minor editorial changes were made to ensure a better ebook reading experience. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Strategic Management (2020) is a 325-page open educational resource designed as an introduction to the key topics and themes of strategic management. The open textbook is intended for a senior capstone course in an undergraduate business program and suitable for a wide range of undergraduate business students including those majoring in marketing, management, business administration, accounting, finance, real estate, business information technology, and hospitality and tourism. The text presents examples of familiar companies and personalities to illustrate the different strategies used by today's firms and how they go about implementing those strategies. It includes case studies, end of section key takeaways, exercises, and links to external videos, and an end-of-book glossary. The text is ideal for courses which focus on how organizations operate at the strategic level to be successful. Students will learn how to conduct case analyses, measure organizational performance, and conduct external and internal analyses.
To remain viable, let alone competitive, organizations must manage risks. In this book, we explore the concept of operational risk as well as the mechanisms used to diminish the impact and occurrence of risks: the organizational control system. Since the scope and scale of operational risks are unique to each organization, our objective is to explain the theory behind why and how managers respond to the unique combination of threats that challenge their organization. We emphasize employee management and the complexities surrounding the design of management controls, incentive systems in particular, because risks related to employee actions are faced by virtually every organization. Overall, we provide empirically grounded insights into the process of diagnosing operational risks as well as designing, implementing and maintaining a control system that properly manages those risks.
Strategic management control differs from traditional management control in several important respects. First, it supports both strategy formulation and strategy implementation. Second, it is to a large extent based on non-financial information. Third, it deals with both the long and short term and supports not only tactical, but also strategic and operational decision-making. Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, strategic management control is designed for, and adapted to, each organisation’s unique strategies. In this context, the book emphasises the importance of dialogues. The authors argue that it is unwise to assume that decisions taken at the top of the organisation will automatically be executed and obeyed throughout the organisation. Instead, they highlight the importance of dialogue and collaboration, both between hierarchical levels within the organisation and between actors in the network. Such communication is essential to making management control processes both strategic and successful. The book follows a clear structure, from the design of strategies to the everyday evaluation and discussion of performance and results. Though primarily intended for professionals working in strategy and management control at organisations, it will also benefit students and academics interested in strategy and management control.
This book clarifies the theory and practice of management control for strategy changes through the study of profit organizations, non-profit organizations, manufacturing and service industries. The relationship between strategy and management control is clearly elucidated in the book, which enables readers to understand how to implement management control systems for strategic changes in their organizations. The unique topics covered in this book include the methodology for continuing existing businesses and spreading the risk in the business portfolio, the management control systems for the new platform business models such as IT hardware and SaaS (Software as a Service) needed for business structure transformation, as well as management controls that are functioning in various industries and organizations.
First published in 1998, this volume of readings provides an overview of the development of the study of Management Control theory over the past 35 years. The period encompasses the publication of a major and seminal text by Anthony and Dearden in 1965, which acted as a touchstone in defining the range and scope of management control systems. This laid management control’s foundations in accounting-based mechanisms of control, an element which has been seen as both a strength and a constraint. A good deal of work has followed, providing both a development of the tradition as well as a critique. In this volume we attempt to provide a range of readings which will illustrate the variety of possibilities that are available to researchers, scholars and practitioners in the area. The readings illustrate the view that sees control as goal directed and integrative. They go on to explore the idea of control as adaption, consider its relationship with social structure and survey the effects of the interplay between the organisation and the environment. The essays included are not intended to lead the reader through a well-ordered argument which concludes with a well reasoned view of how management control should be. Instead it seeks to illustrate the many questions which have been posed but not answered and to open up agendas for future research.
Management Control Systems 10/e builds on strengths from prior editions by offering a rich diversity of cases balanced with current material. The primary market for Management Control Systems is an MBA level elective in control systems. The text may also be appropriate for advanced managerial accounting courses and/or MBA-level cost accounting courses with an emphasis on management control. The text is organized to develop insights and analytical skills related to how managers go about designing, implementing, and using planning and control systems to implement strategies.
The operational auditing HANDBOOK Auditing Business and IT Processes Second Edition The Operational Auditing Handbook Second Edition clarifies the underlying issues, risks and objectives for a wide range of operations and activities and is a professional companion for those who design self-assessment and audit programmes of business processes in all sectors. To accompany this updated edition of The Operational Auditing Handbook please visit www.wiley.com/go/chambers for a complete selection of Standard Audit Programme Guides.
Management Control: Concept, Methods and Practices conceptualises management control concepts, methods and practices used by C-level executives and controllers in managing financial and strategic performance. The authors show how financial and strategic performance control processes can be integrated in order to create and improve internal strategic alignment. Alongside traditional controls (such as managing cost centres, profit centres, investment centres, budgeting, and variance reporting) the use of advanced costing systems (such as activity-based costing and time-driven activity-based costing) and the balanced scorecard in planning and executing improvements of financial and strategic performance is discussed. The authors illustrate how controllers can run a control process in which intended strategies, performance measures, performance targets, actions, and budgets are all aligned with each other across all organisational levels (vertical alignment) and between business units and functions (horizontal alignment), and in which financial performance is controlled in relation to strategic performance. The authors promote a holistic approach and highlight the role of human motivation in the design of management control systems. Using insights from the psychology literature on motivation in the workplace, this book argues that management control systems should not only align goals and interests of internal organisational actors, but also enhance their autonomous motivation and well-being in order to achieve sustainable performance. More specifically, the authors draw on self-determination theory to explain managerial behaviour in response to the use of control systems. Through the use of numerous examples from European companies, this book provides materials that can be used in business and management control courses at undergraduate and graduate level, as well as for use in the workplace. It will benefit managers, consultants, financial analysts, controllers, information systems designers, and executive leaders of organizations. [Subject: Business & Management]
