Tools for Business Decision Management Makers_7 pot

l The participation of managers in setting their targets tends to improve motivation and performance. This is probably because those managers feel a sense of commit- ment to the targets and a moral obligation to achieve them. It has been suggested that allowing managers to set their own targets will lead to slack (that is, easily achievable targets) being introduced. This would make achieve- ment of the target that much easier. On the other hand, in an effort to impress, a man- ager may select a target that is not really achievable. These points imply that care must be taken in the extent to which managers have unfettered choice of their own targets. Conflict can occur in the budget-setting process, as different groups may well have different agendas. For example, junior managers may be keen to build slack into their budgets while their senior managers may seek to impose unrealistically demanding budget targets. Sometimes, such conflict can be constructive and can result in better decisions being made. To resolve the conflict over budget targets, negotiations may have to take place and other options may have to be explored. This may lead to a bet- ter understanding by all parties of the issues involved and final agreement may result in demanding, yet achievable, targets. l Demanding, yet achievable, budget targets tend to motivate better than less demand- ing targets. It seems that setting the most demanding targets that are acceptable to managers is a very effective way to motivate them. l Unrealistically demanding targets tend to have an adverse effect on managers’ per- formance. Once managers begin to view the budget targets as being too difficult to achieve, their level of motivation and performance declines. The relationship between the level of performance and the perceived degree of budget difficulty is shown in Figure 7.9. CHAPTER 7 ACCOUNTING FOR CONTROL 240 Relationship between the level of performance and the perceived degree of budget difficulty Figure 7.9 At a low level of budget difficulty, performance also tends to be low, as managers do not find the targets sufficiently motivating. However, as the degree of difficulty starts to increase, man- agers rise to the challenge and improve their performance. Beyond a certain point, however, budgets are seen by managers as being too difficult to achieve, and so motivation and per- formance decline. M07_ATRI3622_06_SE_C07.QXD 5/29/09 10:38 AM Page 240 The impact of management style There has been a great deal of discussion among experts on the way in which managers use information generated by the budgeting system and the impact of its use on the attitudes and behaviour of subordinates (that is, the staff). A pioneering study by Hopwood (see reference 1 at the end of the chapter) examined the way that managers working within a manufacturing environment used budget information to evaluate the performance of subordinates. He argued that three distinct styles of management could be observed. These are: l Budget-constrained style. This management style focuses rigidly on the ability of sub- ordinates to meet the budget. Other factors relating to the performance of subordinates are not given serious consideration even though they might include improving the long-term effectiveness of the area for which the subordinate has responsibility. l Profit-conscious style. This management style uses budget information in a more flex- ible way and often in conjunction with other data. The main focus is on the ability of each subordinate to improve long-term effectiveness. l Non-accounting style. In this case, budget information plays no significant role in the evaluation of a subordinate’s performance. Hopwood found that subordinates working for a manager who adopts a budget- constrained style had unfortunate experiences. They suffered higher levels of job- related stress and had poorer working relationships, with both their colleagues and their manager, than those subordinates whose manager adopted one of the other two styles. Hopwood also found that the subordinates of a budget-constrained style of manager were more likely to manipulate the budget figures, or to take other undesirable actions, to ensure the budgets were met. Reservations about the Hopwood study Though Hopwood’s findings are interesting, subsequent studies have cast doubt on their universal applicability. Later studies confirm that human attitudes and behaviour BEHAVIOURAL ISSUES 241 How might a manager respond to budget information indicating that a subordinate has not met the budget targets for the period, assuming the manager adopts (a) a budget-constrained style? (b) a profit-conscious style? (c) a non-accounting style? (a) A manager adopting a budget-constrained style is likely to take the budget informa- tion very seriously. This may result in criticism of the subordinate and, perhaps, some form of sanction. (b) A manager adopting a profit-conscious style is likely to take a broader view when examining the budget information and so will take other factors into consideration (for example, factors that could not have been anticipated at the time of preparing the budgets), before deciding whether criticism or punishment is justified. (c) A manager adopting a non-accounting style will regard the failure to meet the budget as being relatively unimportant and so no action may be taken. Activity 7.17 M07_ATRI3622_06_SE_C07.QXD 5/29/09 10:38 AM Page 241 are complex and can vary according to the particular situation. For example, it has been found that the impact of different management styles on such factors as job- related stress and the manipulation of budget figures seems to vary. The impact is likely to depend on such factors as the level of independence enjoyed by the subordinates and the level of uncertainty associated with the tasks to be undertaken. It seems that where there is a high level of interdependence between business divi- sions, subordinate managers are more likely to feel that they have less control over their performance, because the performance of staff in other divisions could be an important influence on the final outcome. In such a situation, rigid application of the budget could be viewed as being unfair and may lead to undesirable behaviour. However, where managers have a high degree of independence, the application of budgets as a measure of performance is likely to be more acceptable. In this case, the managers are likely to feel that the final outcome is much less dependent on the per- formance of others. Later studies have also shown that where a subordinate is undertaking a task that has a high degree of uncertainty concerning the outcome (for example, developing a new product), budget targets are unlikely to be an adequate measure of performance. In such a situation, other factors and measures should be taken into account in order to derive a more complete assessment of performance. However, where a task has a low degree of uncertainty concerning the outcome (for example, producing a standard product using standard equipment and an experienced workforce), budget measures may be regarded as more reliable indicators of performance. Thus, it appears that a budget-constrained style is more likely to work where subordinates enjoy a fair amount of independence and where the tasks set have a low level of uncertainty concerning their outcomes. Failing to meet the budget The existence of budgets gives senior managers a ready means to assess the perform- ance of their subordinates (that is, junior managers). If a junior manager fails to meet a budget, this must be dealt with carefully by the relevant senior manager. Adverse variances may imply that the manager needs help. If this is the case, a harsh, critical approach would have a demotivating effect and would be counterproductive. Real World 7.5 gives some indication of the effects of the behavioural aspects of budgetary control in practice. CHAPTER 7 ACCOUNTING FOR CONTROL 242 ‘ REAL WORLD 7.5 Behavioural issues explored The survey by Drury and others referred to earlier indicates that there is a large degree of participation in setting budgets by those who will be expected to perform to the budget (the budget holders). It also indicates that senior managers have greater influence in set- ting the targets than their junior manager budget holders. Where there is a conflict between the cost estimates submitted by the budget holders and their senior managers, in 40 per cent of respondent businesses the senior manager’s view would prevail without negotiation, but in nearly 60 per cent of cases there would be M07_ATRI3622_06_SE_C07.QXD 5/29/09 10:38 AM Page 242 BEHAVIOURAL ISSUES 243 a reduction that would be negotiated between the budget holder and the senior manager. The general philosophy of the businesses that responded to the survey, regarding budget holders influencing the setting of their own budgets, is: l 23 per cent of respondents believe that budget holders should not have too much influ- ence since they will seek to obtain easy budgets (build in slack) if they do; l 69 per cent of respondents take an opposite view. The general view on how senior managers should judge their subordinates is: l 46 per cent of respondent businesses think that senior managers should judge junior managers mainly on their ability to achieve the budget; l 40 per cent think otherwise. Though this research is not very recent (1993), in the absence of more recent evidence it provides some feel for budget setting in practice. Source: Drury, C., Braund, S., Osborne, P. and Tayles, M., A Survey of Management Accounting Practices in UK Manufacturing Companies, Chartered Association of Certified Accountants, 1993. Toscanini Ltd makes a standard product, which is budgeted to sell at £4.00 a unit, in a competitive market. It is made by taking a budgeted 0.4 kg of material, budgeted to cost £2.40/kg, which is worked on by hand by an employee, paid a budgeted £8.00/hour, for a budgeted 6 minutes. Monthly fixed overheads are budgeted at £4,800. The output for May was budgeted at 4,000 units. The actual results for May were as follows: £ Sales revenue (3,500 units) 13,820 Materials (1,425 kg) (3,420) Labour (345 hours) (2,690) Fixed overheads (4,900) Actual operating profit 2,810 No inventories of any description existed at the beginning and end of the month. Required: (a) Deduce the budgeted profit for May and reconcile it, through variances, with the actual profit in as much detail as the information provided will allow. (b) State which manager should be held accountable, in the first instance, for each vari- ance calculated. (c) Assuming that the budget was well set and achievable, suggest at least one feasible reason for each of the variances that you identified in (a), given what you know about the business’s performance for May. (d) If it were discovered that the actual total world market demand for the business’s product was 10 per cent lower than estimated when the May budget was set, explain how and why the variances that you identified in (a) could be revised to provide infor- mation that would be potentially more useful. The answer to this question appears in Appendix B at the back of the book. Self-assessment question 7.1 M07_ATRI3622_06_SE_C07.QXD 5/29/09 10:38 AM Page 243 We have already seen that a budget is a business plan for the short term – typically one year – that is expressed mainly in financial terms. A budget is often constructed from standards. Standard quantities and costs (or revenues) are those planned for an indi- vidual unit of input or output and provide the building blocks for budgets. We can say about Baxter Ltd’s operations (see Example 7.1 on page 221) that: l The standard selling price is £100 for one unit of output. l The standard marginal cost for one manufactured unit is £60. l The standard raw materials cost is £40 for one unit of output. l The standard raw materials usage is 40 metres for one unit of output. l The standard raw materials price is £1 a metre (that is, for one unit of input). l The standard labour cost is £20 for one unit of output. l The standard labour time is 2.5 hours for one unit of output. l The standard labour rate is £8 an hour (that is, for one unit of input). Standards, like the budgets to which they are linked, represent targets against which actual performance is measured. To maintain their usefulness for planning and control purposes, they should be subject to frequent review and, where necessary, revision. Standards provide the basis for variance analysis, which, as we have seen, helps man- agers to identify where deviations from planned, or standard, performance have occurred and the extent of those deviations. Standard costs may be helpful to derive the planned cost for units of output (prod- ucts or services) that are much larger than those produced by Baxter Ltd. For example, a firm of accountants may find standard costing useful. It may set standard costs for each grade of staff (audit manager, audit senior, trainee and so on). When planning a particular audit of a client business, it can assess how many hours each grade of staff should spend on the audit and, using the standard cost per hour for each grade of staff, it can derive a standard cost or ‘budget’ for the job as a whole. These standards can sub- sequently be compared with the actual hours and hourly rates. When setting standards various points have to be considered. We shall now explore some of the more important of these. Who sets the standards? Standards often result from the collective effort of various individuals including man- agement accountants, industrial engineers, human resource managers, production managers and employees. The manager responsible for meeting a particular standard will usually be involved and may be relied on to provide specialised knowledge. The manager may, therefore, have some influence over the final decision, which brings with it the risk that ‘slack’ may be built into the standard in order to make it easier to achieve. The same problem was mentioned earlier in relation to budgets. Setting standards Standard quantities and costs CHAPTER 7 ACCOUNTING FOR CONTROL 244 ‘ M07_ATRI3622_06_SE_C07.QXD 5/29/09 10:38 AM Page 244 How is information gathered? Setting standards involves gathering information concerning how much material should be used, how much machine time should be required, how much direct labour time should be spent and so on. Two possible ways of collecting information for stand- ard setting are available. Where the product or service is entirely new or involves entirely new processes, the first approach will probably have to be used, even though it is usually more costly. What kind of standards should be used? There are basically two types of standards that may be used: ideal standards and prac- tical standards. Ideal standards, as the name suggests, assume perfect operating con- ditions where there is no inefficiency due to lost production time, defects and so on. The objective of setting ideal standards, which are attainable in theory at least, is to encourage employees to strive towards excellence. Practical standards, also as the name suggests, do not assume ideal operating conditions. Although they demand a high level of efficiency, account is taken of possible lost production time, defects and so on. They are designed to be challenging yet achievable. There are two major difficulties with using ideal standards. 1 They do not provide a useful basis for exercising control. Unless the standards set are realistic, any variances computed are extremely difficult to interpret. 2 They may not achieve their intended purpose of motivating managers: indeed, the opposite may occur. We saw earlier that the evidence suggests that where managers regard a target as beyond their grasp, it is likely to have a demotivating effect. Given these problems, it is not surprising that practical standards seem to enjoy more widespread support than ideal standards. Real World 7.6 provides some evidence on the use of ideal standards in practice. SETTING STANDARDS 245 ‘ Can you think what these might be? The first is to examine the particular processes and tasks involved in producing the prod- uct or service and to develop suitable estimates. Standards concerning material usage, machine time and direct labour hours may be established by carrying out dummy pro- duction runs, time-and-motion studies and so on. This will require close collaboration between the management accountant, industrial engineers and those involved in the pro- duction process. The second approach is to collect information relating to past costs, times and usage for the same, or similar, products and to use this information as a basis for predicting the future. This information may have to be adjusted to reflect changes in price, changes in the production process and so on. Activity 7.18 M07_ATRI3622_06_SE_C07.QXD 5/29/09 10:38 AM Page 245 Where an activity undertaken by direct workers has been unchanged for some time, and the workers are experienced at performing it, the standard labour time will norm- ally stay unchanged. However, where a new activity is introduced, or new workers are involved with performing an existing activity, a learning-curve effect will normally occur. This is shown in Figure 7.10. The learning-curve effect The first unit of output takes a long time to produce. As experience is gained, the worker takes less time to produce each unit of output. The rate of reduction in the time taken will, however, decrease as experience is gained. Thus, for example, the reduction in time taken between the first and second unit produced will be much bigger than the reduction between, say, the ninth and the tenth. Eventually, the rate of reduction in time taken will reduce to zero so that each unit will take as long as the preceding one. CHAPTER 7 ACCOUNTING FOR CONTROL 246 ‘ REAL WORLD 7.6 Setting the standard The study of UK manufacturers by Drury and others showed that only 5 per cent of respondents to the survey set standards at a level that could be achieved if everything went perfectly all of the time. Although the study is a little dated now (1993), it represents the most recent survey and is worth noting. Source: Drury, C., Braund, S., Osborne, P. and Tayles, M., A Survey of Management Accounting Practices in UK Manufacturing Companies, Chartered Association of Certified Accountants, 1993. The learning-curve effect Figure 7.10 Each time a particular task is performed, people become quicker at it. This learning-curve effect becomes less and less significant until, after the task has been performed a number of times, no further learning occurs. M07_ATRI3622_06_SE_C07.QXD 5/29/09 10:38 AM Page 246 At this point, the point where the curve in Figure 7.10 becomes horizontal (the bottom right of the graph), the learning-curve effect will have been eliminated and a steady, long-term standard time for the activity will have been established. The learning-curve effect seems to have little to do with whether workers are skilled or unskilled; if they are unfamiliar with the task, the learning-curve effect will arise. Practical experience shows that learning curves show remarkable regularity and, there- fore, predictability from one activity to another. The learning curve effect applies equally well to activities involved with providing a service (such as dealing with an insurance claim, in an insurance business) as to manufacturing-type activities (for example, upholstering an armchair by hand, in a furniture-making business). Clearly, the learning-curve effect must be taken into account when setting stand- ards, and when interpreting any adverse labour efficiency variances, where a new pro- cess and/or new staff are involved. We have seen that standards can play a valuable role in performance evaluation and control. However, standards that relate to costs, usages, selling prices and so on can also be used for other purposes. In particular, they can be used to determine the cost of inventories and work in progress for income-measurement purposes, and the cost of items for use in pricing decisions. Real World 7.7 provides some information on the use of standards in practice. Other uses for standard costing SOME PROBLEMS . . . 247 Although standards and variances may be useful for decision-making purposes, they have limited application. Many business and commercial activities do not have direct relationships between inputs and outputs as is the case with, say, the number of direct labour hours worked and the number of products manufactured. Many expenses of Some problems . . . REAL WORLD 7.7 Standards in practice The survey by Drury and others showed that respondent businesses found standards to be useful for the following purposes: Percentage of respondents Cost control and performance evaluation 72 Valuing inventories and work in progress 80 Deducing costs for decision-making purposes 62 To help in constructing budgets 69 Source: Drury, C., Braund, S., Osborne, P. and Tayles, M., A Survey of Management Accounting Practices in UK Manufacturing Companies, Chartered Association of Certified Accountants, 1993. M07_ATRI3622_06_SE_C07.QXD 5/29/09 10:38 AM Page 247 modern business are in areas such as human resource development and advertising, where the expense is discretionary and there is no direct link to the level of output. There are also potential problems when applying standard costing techniques. These include the following: 1 Standards can quickly become out of date as a result of both changes in the pro- duction process and price changes. Standards should, therefore, be frequently mon- itored and updated where necessary. Although this can be costly, it is essential if standards are to be effective for control purposes. When standards become outdated, performance can be adversely affected. For example, a human resources manager who recognises that it is impossible to meet targets on rates of pay for labour, because of general labour cost rises, may have less incentive to minimise costs. 2 Factors over which a particular manager has no control may affect a variance for which that manager is held accountable. When assessing the manager’s perform- ance, these uncontrollable factors should be taken into account but there is always a risk that they will not. 3 In practice, creating clear lines of demarcation between the areas of responsibility of various managers may be difficult. In this case, one of the prerequisites of effective standard costing is lost. 4 Once a standard has been met, there is no incentive for employees to improve the quality or quantity of output further. There are usually no additional rewards for doing so; only additional work. Indeed, employees may have a disincentive for exceeding a standard as it may then be viewed by managers as too loose and there- fore in need of tightening. However, simply achieving a standard, and no more, may not be enough in highly competitive and fast-changing markets. To compete effec- tively, a business may need to strive for continuous improvement, and standard costing techniques may impede this process. 5 Standard costing may create incentives for managers and employees to act in unde- sirable ways. It may, for example, encourage the build up of excess inventories, lead- ing to significant storage and financing costs. This problem can arise where there are opportunities for discounts on bulk purchases of materials, which the purchasing manager then exploits to achieve a favourable direct materials price variance. One way to avoid this problem might be to impose limits on the level of inventories held. A final example of the perverse incentives created by standard costing relates to labour efficiency variances. Where these variances are calculated for individual employees, and form the basis for their rewards, there is little incentive for them to CHAPTER 7 ACCOUNTING FOR CONTROL 248 Can you think of another example of how a manager may achieve a favourable direct materials price variance but in doing so would create problems for a business? A manager may buy cheaper, but lower quality, materials. Although this may lead to a favourable price variance, it may also lead to additional inspection and reworking costs, and perhaps lost sales. To avoid this problem, the manager may be required to buy material of a particular qual- ity or from particular sources. Activity 7.19 M07_ATRI3622_06_SE_C07.QXD 5/29/09 10:38 AM Page 248 work co-operatively. However, co-operative working may be in the best interests of the business. To avoid this problem, some businesses calculate labour efficiency variances for groups of employees rather than individual employees. This, however, creates the risk that some individuals will become ‘free riders’ and will rely on the more consci- entious employees to carry the load. The traditional standard costing approach was developed during an era when business operations were characterised by few product lines, long production runs and heavy reliance on direct labour. More recently, the increasingly competitive environment and the onward march of technology have changed the business landscape. Now, many business operations are characterised by a wide range of different products, shorter product life cycles (leading to shorter production runs) and automated pro- duction processes. The effect of these changes has resulted in l More frequent development of standards to deal with frequent changes to the pro- duct range. l A change in the focus for control. Where manufacturing systems are automated, for example, direct labour becomes less important than direct materials. l A decline in the importance of monitoring from cost and usage variances. Where manufacturing systems are automated, deviations from standards relating to costs and usage become less frequent and less significant. Thus, where a business has highly automated production systems, traditional stand- ard costing, with its emphasis on costs and usage, is likely to take on less importance. Other elements of the production process such as quality, production levels, product cycle times, delivery times and the need for continuous improvement become the focus of attention. This does not mean, however, that a standards-based approach is not useful for the new manufacturing environment. It can still provide valuable con- trol information and there is no reason why standard costing systems cannot be redesigned to reflect a concern for some of the elements mentioned earlier. Never- theless, other measures, including non-financial ones, may help to augment the infor- mation provided by the standard costing system. We shall consider this issue in more detail in Chapter 10. Real World 7.8 indicates that, despite the problems mentioned above, standard cost- ing is used by businesses. However, the extent to which particular standard costing variances are calculated and considered appears to vary. The new business environment THE NEW BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT 249 How might the business try to eliminate the ‘free-rider’ problem just mentioned? One way would be to carry out an evaluation, perhaps by the group members themselves, of individual contributions to group output, as well as evaluating group output as a whole. Activity 7.20 M07_ATRI3622_06_SE_C07.QXD 5/29/09 10:38 AM Page 249 [...]... profit before depreciation Operating profit before depreciation Operating profit before depreciation Operating profit before depreciation Operating profit before depreciation Disposal proceeds from the machine (100) 20 40 60 60 20 20 Note that, broadly speaking, the operating profit before deducting depreciation (that is, before non-cash items) equals the net amount of cash flowing into the business. .. same approach to performance measurement, in that they both relate accounting profit to the cost of the assets invested to generate that profit ROCE is a popular means of assessing the performance of a business, as a whole, after it has performed ARR is an approach that assesses the potential performance of a particular investment, taking the same approach as ROCE, but before it has performed As we have... seems to be a widely used measure of business performance Shareholders seem to use this ratio to evaluate management performance, and sometimes the financial objective of a business will be expressed in terms of a target ROCE It therefore seems sensible to use a method of investment appraisal that is consistent with this overall approach to measuring business performance It also gives the result expressed... businesses believe that investment outcomes turn out as expected REAL WORLD 8.5 Size matters Ninety-nine manufacturing businesses in the Cambridge area of the UK were asked the extent to which past investments performed in line with earlier expectations The results, broken down according to business size, are set out below Underperformed Performed as expected Overperformed Large % 8 82 10 Size of business. .. in practice Standards for materials were used by all businesses in the survey, and standards for labour were used by nearly all businesses Despite the universal use of materials standards, the study found that four businesses calculated the total direct materials variance only and that only two-thirds of businesses calculated both the direct materials price and usage variances For labour standards,... managers are making decisions involving capital investments, what should the decisions seek to achieve? Investment decisions must be consistent with the objectives of the particular business For a private sector business, maximising the wealth of the owners (shareholders) is usually assumed to be the key financial objective Investment appraisal methods Given the importance of investment decisions, it is... save the business £30,000 a year (that is, £230,000 − (£20,000 × 10)), before depreciation, in total Thus, the inflows and outflows will be: Time £000 Immediately 1 year’s time 2 years’ time 3 years’ time 4 years’ time 5 years’ time 6 years’ time 6 years’ time Cost of vans (10 × £15,000) Net saving before depreciation Net saving before depreciation Net saving before depreciation Net saving before depreciation... subject of this chapter Real World 8.2 indicates the level of annual net investment for a number of randomly selected, well-known UK businesses It can be seen that the scale of investment varies from one business to another (It also tends to vary from one year to the next for a particular business. ) In nearly all of these businesses the scale of investment is very significant M08_ATRI3622_06_SE_C08.QXD... 7 5/29/09 10:38 AM Page 250 ACCOUNTING FOR CONTROL REAL WORLD 7.8 Standard practice A study was carried out involving interviews with senior financial managers of businesses Standard costing was used by 30 of the businesses in the study, which represented most of the businesses that might be expected to do so The popularity among these businesses of standards for each of the main cost items is set... reporting achievement on a periodic basis It is a useful measure of productive effort for a relatively short period, such as a year or half year It is really a question of ‘horses for courses’ Accounting profit is fine for measuring performance over short periods, but cash is the appropriate measure when considering the performance over the life of a project The ARR method can also create problems when . £8/hour 7. 5 7. 4 7. 3 CHAPTER 7 ACCOUNTING FOR CONTROL 254 M 07_ ATRI3622_06_SE_C 07. QXD 5/29/09 10:38 AM Page 254 During May, the following occurred: (1) 950 units were sold for a total of 73 ,000. (2). variances be investigated to find their cause? Explain your answer. 7. 4 7. 3 7. 2 7. 1 Exercises 7. 4 to 7. 8 are more advanced than 7. 1 to 7. 3. Those with coloured numbers have answers in Appendix D at. profits of the business for the month, going into as much detail with your analysis as the information given will allow. 7. 8 CHAPTER 7 ACCOUNTING FOR CONTROL 256 M 07_ ATRI3622_06_SE_C 07. QXD 5/29/09