Cost Information for Decision Making成本信息决策

Semester 1, 2013 

Assignment Tasks 

Due Date: 10 May 2013 (5 pm) 

Word Limit: 2,500 including references 

Mode of submission:  a hard copy in the assignment box by the due date 

Introduction 

Responsibility centre managers must understand how costs behave and management accountants can provide relevant information such as cost and driver analysis for managers’ internal decision making. Given the importance of cost information for internal decision making, it is imperative that both managers and management accountants have a good knowledge of the different ways costs can be classified, analysed and reported (Langfield-Smith, et al. 2012: 45).鉴于成本信息的内部决策的重要性，当务之急是管理人员和管理会计人员的不同方式的成本可以进行分类，分析和报告一个良好的知识

Assignment Task 

The hospitality industry is a broad category of fields that includes hotels and restaurants, among others. The hospitality industry is a several billion dollar industry that mostly depends on the availability of leisure time and disposable income. A hospitality unit such as a restaurant, hotel, or even an amusement park consists of multiple responsibility centres such as facility maintenance, direct operations (servers, housekeepers, porters, kitchen workers, bartenders, etc.), management, finance, marketing, and human resources (Wikipedia). 

Read carefully the real life: classifying costs in Australia’s hotel industry, page 50 of your main text book. Read other relevant chapters of your main text and obtain other readings relevant to the questions below, particularly on cost management in hospitality sector. Some readings are provided below. Attempt tasks 1 – 5. Acknowledge all sources used and provide a list of all references. 酒店业是字段的范围很广，包括酒店和餐厅，等等。酒店业是一个数十亿美元的产业，主要取决于闲暇时间和可支配收入的可用性。好客单元，如餐厅，酒店，甚至是一个游乐园由多个责任中心等设施的维护，直接操作（服务器，管家，搬运工，厨工，调酒师等），管理，财务，营销，和人力资源（维基百科）。

请仔细阅读在现实生活中：在澳大利亚的酒店行业，你的主要课本第50页分类成本。读你的正文等有关章节，并获得相关的以下问题，特别是对成本管理的酒店行业其他读物。下面提供了一些读数。尝试任务1 - 5。确认所使用的所有资源，并提供所有引用的列表。

1. Select an international organisation from the hospitality sector. Provide brief background details of your chosen organisation and submit the most recent organisational chart. #p#分页标题#e#

2. Identify all the responsibility centres and classify them into a cost centre, revenue centre, profit centre or an investment centre. Provide clear reasons for your classifications. 

3. Different cost concepts and classifications are used for different purposes (Langfield-Smith, et al. 2012: 45). Using publically available data for your chosen organisation, discuss each cost classification separately in detail.   

4. Select one responsibility centre within your chosen organisation, and explain in some detail which costs should be included in evaluating the performance of that responsibility centre manager.  

5. Explain how management accounting system motivates responsibility centre managers towards achieving organisational goals. (2+ 8 + 18 + 6 + 6 = 40 marks) 

Readings: 

Ahrens T., Chapman C. S., (2004) Accounting for flexibility and efficiency: A field study of management control systems in a restaurant chain, Contemporary Accounting Research,  Vol: 21, Pages: 271-301. 

Ahrens T., Chapman C. S., (2002) The structuration of legitimate performance measures and management: Day-to-day contests of accountability in a U.K. restaurant chain, Management Accounting Research, Vol: 13, Pages: 151 – 171. 

Potter, G., Schmidgall, R. S., (1999) Hospitality management accounting: current problems and future opportunities, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol: 18, No: 4, Pages 387 – 400.