Behavioural management control, 6 credits

A bachelor's degree or a professional degree equivalent to a Swedish Bachelor's degree of at least 180 credits in health care, biomedicine, biology, cellular and molecular biology, pharmaceutics, chemistry, medicine or biotechnology. And proficiency in English equivalent to English B/English 6.

Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to

• Independently calculate, analyze, compare, critically evaluate and justify important financial and non-financial key indicators as performance measures
• With the support of scientific studies and its proven experience, and based on concepts from the subject of financial control, describe the various aspects of strategic financial control.
• With a holistic view, critically, independently and creatively formulate and manage complex issues, analyze, quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate an industrial company's financial position and, based on scientific research, identify improvement measures.
• Compile, interpret and analyze the financial development of different types of companies based on the company's financial situation. 
• With in-depth knowledge of strategic financial management, evaluate qualitatively, discuss and contrast similarities and differences between different types of units of responsibility in a company.
• Describe and justify when different methods of internal pricing are appropriate.
• Quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate and combine different financial and non-financial performance measures, standards, rewards and investment proposals. 
• Based on concepts from the subject of financial control and with the support of scientific studies, explain behavioral aspects on and the need to situate financial control, the knowlede that forms the basis for this, and present and discuss their conclusions, and give suggestions on how financial control can be improved.

The course gives a broad overview of financial control in industrial enterprises and its relation to the environment in
which the company acts. To plan and control the performance of the organisation at different levels, efficient control is
required, based on the organisation's value creation strategy and the individual co-worker ́s behaviour. A central field
in the course therefore deals with how to implement a general strategy and use it to control the activities. The course
consists of two parts.

During the first part of the course, students will learn to analyse and interpret financial reports. The students will
acquire knowledge on analysing and understanding financial consequences of strategic and operational decisions. A
distinction is made between use of financial reports for planning and for measuring and following up results. The
students will carry out financial analyses of real companies on the basis of accounting information found in the
financial reports (the profit and loss account, the balance sheet and the cash flow analysis). Different categories of key
indicators are introduced and used to compare companies, e.g. profitability measures.

The second part of the course focuses on management control. In this part, the students will work based on the analyses
that were done during the first part of the course and design control systems to create sustainable profitability. In order
for this to happen, the management must ensure that the activities are carried out according to established plans and that
strategic aims are achieved. An important control mechanism to achieve this is the organisational structure that consists
of different responsibility units in different parts of, and at different levels in the company. Another central field in the
second part of the course is the control process. Which measures are used in the company and how well do these
measures catch central aspects of the activities? How does one know when performance is "good", i.e. what is the
performance compared with? Which reward systems are used by the company to create a desirable behaviour, and to
which indicators are rewards connected? Finally, in what way does one ensure that the correct investments are made to
satisfy the company's strategic goals?

The course consists of lectures.

The examination consists of

• a project assignment (Pass/Fail)
• presentation of the project assignment as well as the critical review of another groups project assignment (Pass/Fail)
• a written examination (Pass with distinction/Pass/Fail)

The grade on the entire course is based on the grade of the written examination.

Limitation of number of occasions to write the exam:
A student who does not pass the examination on the first occasion is offered a maximum of five additional opportunities to sit the examination. A student who fails the examination on six occasions is not permitted to sit the examination again or to retake the course.

Participation in an examination is defined as an occasion on which a student attends an examination, even if the student submits a blank examination paper. If a student has registered to sit an examination, but does not attend the examination, this is not defined as participation in the examination.

If there are special grounds, or a need for adaptation for a student with a disability, the examiner may decide to deviate from the syllabus's regulations on the examination form, the number of examination opportunities,  the possibility of supplementation or exemptions from the compulsory section/s of the course etc. Content and learning outcomes as well as the level of expected skills, knowledge and abilities may not be changed, removed or reduced.

The course has been cancelled and was offered for the last time in the fall semester of 2019. The course has been replaced with another, and examination will be provided according to the guidelines in the syllabus for 4BP043. 

The course language is English.

A course evaluation will be conducted according to guidelines decided by the Board of Higher Education.