Good Performance Measurement

Good Performance Measurement
Question
Answered

Overview:
The aim of the individual assignment is to develop your skills in communicating about how organisations can effectively measure performance. You will prepare an essay discussing one of the criteria of ‘good’ performance measurement (you have a choice of 3 listed in this guide) and its relevance to real-world practices. Also to help improve your written communication, you will engage in a meaningful drafting, analysis and reflective exercise in preparing your final submission. You will be assessed on the quality of the final essay as well as your process in producing it.

Objectives:
This task relates to the following subject objectives:
•    Critically analyse the institutional, organisational and individual influences on management accounting systems
•    Form professional judgments about the appropriateness of the design and operation of management accounting systems
•    Apply theory to design management accounting systems in real-world organisational contexts

This assessment also enables the evaluation of the following program objectives:
•    Convey information clearly and fluently in high quality written form appropriate for their audience (3.1)
How can managers design ‘good’ performance measures in organisations?

Prepare an essay addressing this question, focusing on one of the following criteria of ‘good’ performance measurement:

•    Cost efficiency
•    Access
•    Validity

Substantive content (15 marks):

1.    Describe the nature your chosen criterion, and explain its relevance to performance measurement. Your essay should provide the reader with a clear understanding of what your chosen criterion means in relation to performance measurement, (e.g. what does ‘valid’ performance measurement mean?) and why this is an important consideration. Your essay should contain references to relevant academic literature about your chosen criterion.
2.    Explain how organisations can achieve this criterion in designing performance measures. Your essay should provide clear insight into how managers can ensure performance measures meet this criterion (e.g. how can they ensure valid performance measurement). Your essay should contain at least 3 references to the relevant academic literature supporting your arguments.
3.    Illustrate using real-world examples. You should illustrate your essay with examples from the real-world. You may choose to refer to a single detailed example or several smaller examples. Your examples do not have to be limited to corporate business settings but can extend to anything relevant to performance measurement. Your ‘real-world’ example/s are not to be from peer reviewed journal articles or educational cases.

Form and structure (5 marks):

4.    Written communication. Your essay should be written so that it easy to read and understand; structured so that it is coherent, logical and well sequenced; and presented so that it is professional, polished and appropriate for its audience. It should conform to the formatting instructions (provided) and the UTS Business referencing conventions.
Essay Structure:
Your essay must be structured as such (as distinct from a report). For instructions about writing essays, please see the UTS Business Guide to Writing Assignments