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Chapter learning objectives Upon completion of this chapter you will be able to:
1 Exam focus Student Accountant article: visit the ACCA website, www.accaglobal.com, to review the following article on the topics in thischapter: Management control - a pre-requisite for survival - October 2004 2 Introduction This chapter focuses on a number of important topics with regards to performance measurement systems. These include:
The chapter also reviews the behavioural aspects of performance management. 3 Performance management information systems 3.1 Accounting information requirements at different business levels As discussed in chapter 1, there are three levels of planning and control within an organisation: Accounting information requirementsAt the operational level, sales ledger staff will be posting thesales ledger accounts, sending out statements and dealing with accountsqueries. Credit approval for new orders will be given at this levelalso. At the managerial level, credit control managers will be concernedto follow up slow paying customers to ensure that bad debts areminimised and that cash flow is kept healthy. At the strategic level, the board might decide that more capital isneeded and that factoring debts or invoice discounting might offeruseful ways of raising cash balances. 3.2 Information systems at different business levels Good decision making is at the heart of good management. A hierarchy of decision-based systems may be used: Two additional systems that can be used at all levels of management are:
Question focus: Now complete or review questions 9 and 10from chapter 13. These are not past exam questions but should help togive you a broader understanding of some of the areas covered above andin the previous chapter. 3.3 The influence of structure on information requirements Responsibility centresResponsibility accounting is a system of accounting basedupon the identification of individual parts of a business which are theresponsibility of a single manager. Budgetary control and responsibility accounting are inseparable.
Management accounting systems should be designed to reflect theresponsibility structure in place and ensure that costs and revenues canbe traced to those responsible. Controllability The principal of controllability is very important inresponsibility accounting. Whilst controllability refers mainly tocosts, it is important to remember that its principles can also apply torevenues and investments.
Explain why, as businesses become larger and morediverse, strict financial controls are more likely to be used by topmanagement. Test your understanding 2A production manager will have control over the usage of rawmaterials but not over price, as buying is done by a separatedepartment. Responsibility accounting would suggest that the price and usagevariances are separated and, under the first approach, the productionmanager would be told only about the usage variance, a separate reportbeing made to the purchasing manager about the price variance. Give an alternative argument as to why the production manager should also be told about the price variance. Complex business structures Complex business structures include:
The high level of interaction and inter-dependence between partners makes performance management difficult. Problems associated with complex structues3.4 Closed and open systems An open system interacts with its environment. Illustration 1 - Open systemsA supermarket may operate an inventory system which:
Internal and external (contingent) factors will be taken intoaccount when designing the management accounting system. For example:
The contingency approach to management accounting proposes thatthere are no universally appropriate accounting system applicable to allorganisations in all circumstances. David Otley has identified five sets of contingent variables thatimpact on the character of management accounting in an organisation. (1)The external environment The external environment of a business can range from beingcertain, static and calm to being uncertain, dynamic and turbulent. Itis widely considered that those businesses in the certain/static end ofthe range are most amenable to a formula based approach to performanceevaluation. Where market conditions are well known in advance then it ispossible to produce budgets and standards that provide meaningfultargets. Compliance with such targets provides a reliable measure ofperformance. Conversely, at the uncertain/dynamic end of the range, marketconditions are very difficult to predict and pre-determined budgets andstandards may be meaningless. An attempt to rely on budgetary control inthis sort of environment is likely to produce dysfunctional behaviourof various kinds. In an uncertain environment a more sophisticatedapproach to performance evaluation is needed, relying on a range offinancial and non-financial indicators. (2)Competitive strategy This issue has already been touched on in an earlier consideration of Porter'sfive competitive forces (chapter 1). Where a business follows a lowcost strategy, that is producing an undifferentiated product andcompeting mainly on unit cost, then it may be appropriate to adoptmanagement control systems that seek to standardise operating proceduresin order to maximise production efficiency. Reliance on a traditionalstandard costing and variance analysis may work well in such a case. Conversely, where a business produces a differentiated productand constantly seeks to introduce new products or constantly seeks toenter new markets – then a more comprehensive managementinformation/performance evaluation system may be required. Success insuch an environment depends on initiative and innovation. Sole relianceon a simple standard costing system is entirely inadequate in such acase. (3)Technology Business units can range from being independent through to havingpooled, sequential or reciprocal interdependencies with other businessunits. To the extent that a business unit is interdependent with others,it shares pooled resources and is constantly confronted with the needto share pooled costs on an appropriate basis with the other units. The treatment of pooled resources can involve the design ofsophisticated accounting systems for the treatment of overheads. To theextent that sequential or reciprocal interdependencies exist thenbusiness units inside the same business supply one another with goodsand services. Appropriate transfer pricing systems have to be devised toaccount for such supplies. (4) Business unit Discussed above. (5) Knowledge and observability In a factory that produces widgets on a continuous basis, it isnot difficult to know what the production process involves and observewhat inputs it uses and what outputs it achieves. The managementaccounting system will be built around this high degree of knowledge andobservability. However, the situation may be much more opaque in a researchlaboratory or in a sales office. In such cases, there may be limitedknowledge of what actually happens in the production process and it maybe very difficult to observe what the outputs of the process are. Onewriter advocates the use of clan controls in the context of a drugcompany's research laboratory. Performance is monitored and evaluated byreporting number of seminars attended by researchers, number ofarticles published and number of breakthroughs that will lead to newmarketable products. A closed system has no contact with its environment. Information is not received from or provided to the environment.Closed systems are rare because interaction with the environment isnecessary for business survival. These systems will not provideadequate information for performance management. System diagram
Management accounting systems should be open for the following reasons.
3.5 Lean management information systems The need for new ideas in management accounting is particularlyevident in lean manufacturing organisations. In order to appreciate leanaccounting systems, it is helpful to understand the concepts of leanmanufacturing. Lean manufacturingis a philosophy of management based on cutting out waste and unecessaryactivities. Organisations can become 'lean and mean' if they get rid oftheir unecessary fat. Two elements in lean manufacturing are:
These will be reviewed in detail in chapter 11. Illustration 2 - JIT and management accounting control systemsManagement accounting systems within a JIT environment must becapable of producing performance and control information consistent witha JIT philosophy. Information must therefore be produced that directsmanagement attention to the following issues:
Lean accounting Lean accounting is the application of the idea that accountingsystems should be simplified, to remove waste. Management should beprovided with statements that are:
4 Sources of management information 4.1 Internal and external sources Internal sources Internal sources of information may be taken from a variety ofareas such as the sales ledger (e.g. volume of sales), payroll system(e.g. number of employees) or the fixed asset system (e.g. depreciationmethod and rate). Examples of internal sources of informationExamples of internal data: External sources In addition to internal information sources, there is muchinformation to be obtained from external sources such as suppliers (e.g.product prices), customers (e.g. price sensitivity) and the government(e.g. inflation rate). Examples of external sources of information Test your understanding 3What are the limitations of using externally generated information? The internal and external information may be used in planning and controlling activities. For example:
Briefly explain the use of customer data for control purposes. 4.2 The costs of information The benefit of management information must exceed the cost (benefit > cost) of obtaining the information. Benefits and costs of informationThe design of management information systems should involve acost/benefit analysis. A very refined system offers many benefits, butat a cost. The advent of modern IT systems has reduced that costsignificantly. However, skilled staff have to be involved in theoperation of information systems, and they can be very expensive tohire. Let us illustrate this with a simple example. Production costs in afactory can be reported with varying levels of frequency ranging fromdaily (365 times per year) to annually (1 time per year). Costs ofbenefits of reporting tend to move as follows in response to increasingfrequency of reporting.
The position may be represented graphically as follows: An information system is just like any part of a businessoperation. It incurs costs and it offers benefits. In designing aninformation system, the accountant has to find some means of comparingthe two for different options and determining which option is optimal.In this sense, system design follows the same practices for investmentappraisal and decision making which are explored later in this text. In the above case it can be seen that net benefits (benefits lesscosts) are maximised at around 120 reports per year – suggesting anoptimal information cycle of about 3 days. The system should be designedto gather, collate and report information at three-day intervals. Thisis an over-simplified example but it serves to illustrate a generallogic which can be applied to all aspects of information system design. Test your understanding 5Discuss the factors that need to be considered when determining the capacity and development potential of a system. The costs of information can be classified as follows: 5 Dealing with qualitative data Qualitative information is information that cannot normally be expressed in numerical terms. Issues with qualitative dataIn both decision making and control, managers should be aware thatan information system may provide a limited or distorted picture of whatis actually happening. In many situations, sensitivity has to be usedin interpreting the output of an information system. It is worth noting that as many economies move from beingmanufacturing based to service based there may be fewer opportunities touse quantitative measures and that qualitative measures become moreimportant. Qualitative information is often in the form of opinions, for example:
It is difficult to record and process data of a qualitative naturebut qualitative factors still need to be considered when making adecision. These include:
Each of these factors must be considered before making a finaldecision. Each of these factors is likely to be measured by opinion.Such opinions must be collected and co-ordinated into meaningfulinformation. Illustration 3 – Dealing with qualitative dataHere are some examples of qualitative effects.
Information and Investment Moffat ltd commenced trading on 01/12/X2, it supplies and fitstyres and exhaust pipes and service motor vehicles at thirty locations.The directors and middle management are based at the Head Office ofMoffat Ltd. Each location has a manager who is responsible for day-to-dayoperations and is supported by an administrative assistant. All otherstaff at each location are involved in the fitting and servicingoperations. The directors of Moffat Ltd are currently preparing a financialevaluation of an investment of $2 Million in a new IT system forsubmission to its bank. They are concerned that sub-optimal decisionsare being made because the current system does not provide appropriateinformation throughout the organisation. They are also aware that notall of the benefits from the proposed investment will be qualitative innature. Required: (a)Explain the characteristics of THREE typesof information required to assist in decision-making at different levelsof management and on differing timescales within Moffat Ltd, providingtwo examples of information that would be appropriate to each level. (b)Identify and explain THREE approaches thatthe directors of Moffat Ltd might apply in assessing the QUALITATIVEbenefits of the proposed investment in a new IT system. (c)Identify TWO QUALITATIVE benefits that mightarise as a consequence of the investment in a new IT system and explainhow you would attempt to assess them. 6 Management reports 6.1 Controlling access to data Business data will often consist of information that is confidential and/or commercially sensitive. Controls will be required when generating and distributing this information. Examples of controlsControls over input Controls over processing
Controls over output
Tel Insure is a major insurance company, specialising in insuringoffice and business premises. Last year they implemented a workflowsoftware package for handling claims. Unfortunately the workflow packagehas not been well received by users in the insurance company who feelthat it is a poor fit to their requirements. As a result, the processingof insurance claims is taking longer than before and is causing a largenumber of complaints from customers. The senior management team of the insurance company is veryconcerned about this and so commissioned a management consultant toinvestigate the suitability of the workflow software and to investigate apossible upgrade and link to an extranet. Required: How could Tel Insure control the access to data (input, processing and output)? Modern information systems illustrationOne feature of modern information system design is that databasematerial can be readily accessed from remote locations connected to theoffice network. This ease and immediacy of access offers many advantagesto a business operation. For example, a salesman may be able todetermine product costs, job resource requirements, resourceavailability and delivery times using his laptop computer from thepremises of a potential customer. A salesman in this position can offerimmediate firm quotes and delivery times to his customer. Such asalesman will always have an advantage over a competitor using inferiorinformation systems who takes seven days to offer quotes and deliverytimes. However, ease and flexibility of information access carry risks.Cost and price information are usually commercially sensitive. If acompetitor is able to access this information then the competitor may beable to use this information to marginally undercut prices quoted onthe most attractive jobs. In some sectors (e.g. banking and financialservices), customer account information may also be very sensitive. It is therefore normal to incorporate security features in thedesign of systems. Certain parts of a database or a website may haveaccess restricted to certain users with passwords. However, one should be aware that any information system, howeversophisticated, is just as secure as the people who operate it. In mostorganisations there are mildly corrupt people who will provideinformation to outsiders in exchange for some consideration. Theconsideration offered may not always be monetary. An individual who hasbeen passed over for promotion may derive some satisfaction from harminghis employer. Many people do not perceive the theft of information tobe as immoral as the theft of property – and indeed the law tends tofollow this perception. It is believed that there are firms of investigation agents who canreadily access almost any information from police records, bank recordsand company records. Such agents maintain a list of contacts inrelevant organisations. These contacts have authorised access toinformation and will pass on that information upon request from theagent. In the era of the cellphone, it is very easy to communicate with acontact in an organisation. It is often surprising how much accesscertain junior employees may have to sensitive information. The management of a business should not therefore rely solely onelectronic means of restricting access to information. Traditionalmethods of security (including locked doors, monitoring telephone callsand the use of open-plan offices) should not be overlooked. A randomaudit of information requests from staff may also be productive. Traditional methods of securing information against the possibilityof fire or equipment failure should also not be overlooked. An externalback-up copy of each database might be made at intervals or after eachupdate. This back-up copy should be retained at a different physicallocation from the main computer. 6.2 Output reports The output reports produced for management should contain good information. Test your understanding 8Discuss the weaknesses in an information system that could result in poor output reports. 7 Behavioural aspects of performance management 7.1 Introduction The design of a management accounting system must take into account human behaviour. 7.2 The relationship between people management and organisational success An organisation uses human resource management (HRM) to ensure thatit has the correct people in place to fulfil its strategic andoperational objectives. HRMis the 'strategic and coherent approach to the management of anorganisation's most valued assets: the people working there whoindividually and collectively contribute to the achievement of itsobjectives for sustainable competitive advantage' (Armstrong).The following aspects of HRM are of particular importance:
Vroom believed that people will be motivated to do things to reach a goal if they believe in the worth of that goal and if they can see that what they do will help them in achieving it. Vroom's expectancy model is stated as: Retention may be achieved using:
Some examples of the link between HRM and strategy are as follows: If competitive advantage is sought through differentiation then HRMneeds to ensure that high quality, skilled staff are recruited, thatthese staff are given the freedom to be creative and innovate, that aculture of service and quality is prevalent, and that rewards are gearedtowards long-term success and beyond short-term financial measures. On the other hand, if a strategy of cost leadership was pursued,then HRM needs to focus on recruiting low skilled workers, providingrepetitive, simple tasks, minimising staff numbers, providing strictcontrols, and focusing appraisals and rewards on short-term costmeasures. Test your understanding 9If an organisation planned to grow through acquisition, how might HRM contribute to the achievement of this strategy? 7.3 Using appraisal to improve business performance Performance appraisalis the process of evaluating employee performance against predeterminedobjectives and providing feedback to the employee so that any necessaryadjustments to performance can be made. Test your understanding 10The most usual rationalisation and justification forappraisal is to improve individual performance. However, there are anumber of other reasons. Identify four of these reasons. The reasons for appraisal were discussed in the TYU above. These can be grouped into two broad categories:
This can lead to a conflict in the process between on the one handassessing value (judgement purpose), and on the other hand offeringsupport (development purpose). Illustration 5 - Conflicts in the appraisal processA judgmental analysis may lead to an assessment that the employeehas failed to achieve goals or objectives that had been agreed upon inadvance. This judgement might result in the employee not receiving a payrise or promotion or a bonus. The employee will therefore feel thathe/she has been criticised as this part of the assessment and build upresistance to the appraiser and the appraisal process. But at the same time the appraiser will want to make adevelopmental appraisal. They will want to determine why the employeehas failed and offer support in avoiding these failures in the future bydeveloping the employee's skills (e.g. via training). It is therefore important that the employee understands that theappraisal is as much for their benefit as for the employers. This is whyfeedback is important. Barriers to the appraisal processLockett suggests that appraisal barriers can be identified as follows: Test your understanding 11Critically evaluate the statement that appraisal will lead to improvements in business performance. The importance of target selection Appraisal (performance management) will only be beneficial andachieve its aims if appropriate targets (performance measures) are set.Targets should be:
The reward system of an organisation comprises the monetary and non-monetary payments given to employees in return for work performed. The purpose of reward systems
Methods of reward Employee rewards fall into three categories:
Evaluate the three different reward methods. Benefits and problems of linking reward schemes to performance The benefits and problems were touched on in the TYU but a more detailed list is included below: Illustration 6 – Reward schemes and risk appetiteAs mentioned above, one of the problems associated with linkingreward schemes to performance is that employees will prioritise theachievement of their reward which may impact their risk appetite. UK banking executive's pay has received widespread political andmedia coverage since the 2008 financial crisis. It is argued thatperformance related bonuses have incentivised excessive risk taking andshort-termism and there are widespread concerns that remunerationpolicies may have been a contributory factor to the financial crisis. Reward management in the modern business environment We have already discussed the need for individual staff targets andhence rewards to be aligned with strategic goals. There have been somecommon changes to strategic goals in the modern business environment:
Question focus: Now attempt question 8 from chapter 13. 7.5 Other behavioural aspects of performance measurement Wrong signals and inappropriate action A control system which is badly designed or which is applied in an insensitive manner may end up doing more harm than good. Illustration 7 – Behavioural aspects of performance measurementFor example, the manager of a production line may get his costswithin budget by cutting back on inspection costs – with adverseconsequences for the business as a whole when customers reportconsequent higher numbers of defective units. There are many ways in which poorly designed performancemeasurement can result in wrong signals and dysfunctional behaviour.Berry, Broadbent and Otley identified the following problem areas:
A number of actions might be taken in order to minimise the impactof imperfections that may exist within the performance measurementsystem. These methods will be explored in later chapters. Management Styles Hopwood identified three distinct management styles ofperformance appraisal. The style needs to be considered when designingan effective performance measurement system. Hopwood stylesBudget constrained style The manager's performance is primarily evaluated upon the basis ofhis ability to continually meet the budget on a short-term basis. Themanager will receive unfavourable feedback from his superior if, forinstance, his actual costs exceed the budgeted costs, regardless ofother considerations. Profit-conscious style The manager's performance is evaluated on the basis of his abilityto increase the general effectiveness of his unit's operations inrelation to the long-term purposes of the organisation. Non-accounting style The budgetary information plays a relatively unimportant part in the superior's evaluation of the manager's performance. Accountability and performance measurement Agency theory considers the relationship between a principal and an agent. Illustration 8 – Agent and principalIn companies, the identification of the principal (shareholders)and agent (managers and employees) is relatively straightforward. In the public sector and not-for-profit organisations therelationship is more complex and there may be several principals. Forexample, in a government funded hospital the principals may include thegovernment (who provide the funds) and the patients (as recipients ofthe treatment). The agent will be the doctors, managers and otherhospital staff. The achievement of accountability, i.e. holding the agent toaccount is an important aspect of the relationship between the principaland the agent. Illustration 9 – Agency theory applied to a performanceIn the case of performance measurement:
The problem is how the agent can be motivated and monitored so thatthey do what the principal wants. In reality this may be achieved byaligning the principal's goals with the agent's goals and the rewardsystem (as previously discussed). Chapter summary Test your understanding answers Test your understanding 1As businesses become larger and more diverse, it becomes moredifficult for top management to control them in any way other than bystrict financial targets. The diversity of information and complexity issimply too great. Targets on profitability, return on investment,residual income are easy to set and monitor without knowing much aboutthe details of business activities. If there is high diversity, then sub-units are largely independentof one another so that each can be judged fairly in isolation, i.e. poorperformance in one division should have no effect on another. Test your understanding 2With additional information the production manager may attempt topersuade the purchasing manager to try alternative sources of supply. Test your understanding 3
Historical customer data will give information about:
For a business that prioritises customer satisfaction this willgive important control information. Actual customer data can be comparedwith plans and control action can be taken as necessary, e.g. pricesmay be changed or the product mix may be changed. Test your understanding 5An information system can be developed to varying levels of refinement. Specifically:
Broadly, the more refined the system is, then the more expensive itis to establish and operate. The organisation has to decide if theincreased benefits outweigh the increased costs. Test your understanding 6Information and Investment – Moffat Ltd (a) The management of an organisation need toexercise control at different levels within an organisation. Theselevels are often categorised as being strategic, tactical andoperational. The information required by management at these levelsvaries in nature and content. Strategic information Strategic information is required by the management of anorganisation in order to enable management to take a longer term view ofthe
business and assess how the business may perform during the period.The length of this long term view will vary from one organisation toanother, being very much dependent upon the nature of the business andthe ability of those responsible for strategic decision to be able toscan the planning horizon. In Moffat Ltd strategic information might relate to the developmentof new services such as the provision of a home-based vehicle recoveryservice or the provision of 24hr servicing. Other examples would relateto the threats posed by Moffat Ltd's competitors or assessing thepotential acquisition of a tyre manufacturer in order to enhancecustomer value via improved efficiency and lower costs. Tactical information Tactical Information is required in order to facilitatemanagement planning and control for shorter time periods than strategicinformation. Such information relates to the tactics that managementadopt in order to achieve a specific course of action. In Moffat Ltdthis might involve the consideration of whether to open an additionaloutlet in another part of the country or whether to employ additionalsupervisors at each outlet in order to improve the quality of serviceprovision to its customers. Operational information Operational information relates to a very short time scale and isoften used to determine immediate actions by those responsible forday-to-day management. In Moffat Ltd, the manager at each location within Moffat Ltdwould require information to relating to the level of customer sales,the number of vehicles serviced and the number of complaints receivedduring a week. Operational information might be used within Moffat Ltdin order to determine whether staff are required to work overtime due toan unanticipated increase in demand, or whether operatives requirefurther training due to excessive time being spent on servicing certaintypes of vehicle. (b) One approach that the directors of MoffatLtd could adopt would be to ignore the qualitative benefits that mayarise on the basis that there is too much subjectivity involved in theirassessment. The problem that this causes is that the investment will probablylook unattractive since all the costs will be included in the valuationwhereas significant benefits and savings will have been ignored. Thisapproach lacks substance and would not be recommended. An alternative approach would involve attempting to attributevalues to each of the identified benefits that are qualitative innature. Such an approach will necessitate the use of managementestimates in order to derive the cash flows to be incorporated in a costbenefit analysis. The problems inherent in this approach includegaining consensus amongst interested parties regarding the footing ofthe assumptions from which estimated cash flows have been derived.Furthermore, if the proposed investment does take place then it may wellprove impossible to prove that the claimed benefits of the new systemhave actually been realised. Perhaps the preferred approach is to acknowledge the existence ofqualitative benefits and attempt to assess them in a reasonable manneracceptable to all parties including the company's bank. The financialevaluation would then not only incorporate 'hard' facts relating tocosts and benefits that are qualitative in nature, but also wouldinclude details of qualitative benefits which management consider existbut have not attempted to assess in financial terms. Such benefits mightinclude, for example, the average time saved by location managers inanalysing information during each operating period. Alternatively the management of Moffat Ltd could attempt toexpress qualitative benefits in specific terms linked to a hierarchy oforganisational requirements. For example, qualitative benefits could be catergorised as being: (1) Essential to the business (2) Very useful attributes (3) Desirable, but not essential (4) Possible, if funding is available (5) Doubtful and difficult to justify (c) One of the main qualitative benefits thatmay arise from an investment in a new IT system by Moffat Ltd is theimproved level of service to its customers in the form of reducedwaiting times which may arise as a consequence of better scheduling ofappointments and inventory management. This could be assessed via theintroduction of a questionnaire requiring customers to rate the servicethat they have received from their recent visit to a location withinMoffat Ltd according to specific criteria such as adherence to appointedtimes, time taken to service a vehicle, cleanliness of the vehicle andattitude of staff. Alternatively a follow-up telephone call from a centralisedcustomer services department may be made by Moffat Ltd personnel inorder to gather such information. Another qualitative benefit may arise in the form of competitiveadvantage. Improvement in customer specific information and servicelevels may give Moffat a competitive advantage. Likewise improved inventory management may enable costs to bereduced thereby enabling a 'win-win' relationship to be enjoyed withcustomers. Test your understanding 7Software audit trail A software audit trail records selected transactions so that theycan be subsequently verified. Typically, financial information isaudited so that possible fraud can be detected. The claims informationwill be audited to ensure that claims are not paid without going throughthe normal procedure. The software audit trail usually records the typeof transaction made (for example, make payment), the value of thetransaction, who made the payment (the user identifier), where they madethe payment from (terminal identifier) and the date and time of thetransaction. The audit trail is usually inspected by internal auditors.Without this information they are unlikely to quickly identifypotentially fraudulent activity and to monitor and eventually apprehendthe culprit. Archiving facility An archiving facility is needed so that infrequently accessed dataheld on the system can be transferred to off-line storage, typically adisk, CD or DVD. This frees up space on the operational system. This notonly means that there is more room for storing current data but alsothat infrequently accessed data that potentially slows the system downis also removed. This results in the system being quicker afterarchiving and indeed this is one of the reasons often given forproviding an archiving facility in the first place. Archived data may beaccessed if required, so a facility is required to effectively restorethe archived data. Without the archiving facility the claims system islikely to store a large amount of rarely accessed data, which may mean(at best) that the system is low and (at worst) that there is no roomleft on the disk to store information about current claims. Anotherpossible scenario is that incorrect decisions may be made, from usingold inaccurate data. Encryption facility An encryption facility allows data to be encoded when it istransmitted from one location to another. The sending software uses akey to translate the data into an undecipherable set of characters.These characters are then transmitted. The only receivers who can understand the transmitted charactersare those with access to the key to turn the data back into its originalstate. Without encryption the insurance company is restricted in itsuse of the data. Unscrambled data transmitted across networks is open tounauthorized interception and to users who receive the data by mistake.In the example, this data will include both financial and customerinformation, valuable to both thieves and competitors. Hence encryptionis necessary for multi-site use. Password maintenance facility Most software requires a password (or series of passwords) torestrict user access to certain defined areas of the computer system. Apassword maintenance facility is required to establish and maintainpasswords which allow either read only or read and write access tocertain specified parts of the system. Such a facility should alsodetect the currency of passwords, so that passwords which have not beenchanged for a defined period are detected and the user is prompted tochange the password. Without a password facility the system (or morerealistically parts of the system) cannot be protected from unauthorizedaccess. Similarly, without checks on the currency of passwords, apassword may be used for too long and hence make the software prone tounauthorized access by people who essentially 'steal' a user's identity. Test your understanding 8
HRM may have to:
This is just one further example of the link between HRM andstrategy, but it should illustrate how HRM plays a role in contributingto the achievement of an organisation's objectives. Test your understanding 10The main purpose of appraisal is to improve individual performance. Other purposes include:
Appraisal may lead to business improvements because:
However, the judgemental purpose of appraisal has the ability to demotivate (and hence to reduce productivity) because:
What is the first step of the feedback control model a take appropriate action b measure actual performance C evaluate performance D establish standards of performance?The first step of process of control is to establish the standards of performance against which the actual performance are to be evaluated.
Which theory of motivation proposes five types of needs that must be satisfied in sequence?Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory of motivation which states that five categories of human needs dictate an individual's behavior. Those needs are physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs.
What is the first step in the feedback control system?Design of feedback controls
However, there are some general steps that would normally be followed. The first step is defining the design goals.
Which of the following are characteristics of a decentralized control system?Decentralized control is characterized by local interactions between neighbors. In comparison with centralized control, decentralized control avoids a single point of failure, which in turn increases robustness of MASs, allows use of inexpensive and simple agents, and lowers the implementation cost.
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