ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

Articles by S K BhattacharyyaSubscribe to S K Bhattacharyya

Considerations in Designing Management Control Systems

Management involves both planning and control, because, without the benchmark developed out of the planning process, no effective control can take place. The management control process may be use* fully viewed, therefore, in terms of two substreams

A Lot of Thin Air

S K Bhattacharyya Measures for Improving the Performance of Public Enterprises in Developing Countries, Volume I: Report of a Working Group, Herceg-Novi, Yugoslavia, October 13-24, 1969; United Nations Publication No E-70-III; $ 1.

A Cost-of-Capital Framework for Management Control

for Management Control S K Bhattacharyya The focus of most if not all mangement control system in use is only on the performance, of operating managers. The top managers are, by and large, left out of the control and evaluation pro- cesses.

Cost Effectiveness and All That

S K Bhattacharyya Performance Budgeting by A Premchand; Academic Books, Bombay; 1969; pp 150; Rs 18.50.
ONE of the most heartening developments in recent years has been the introduction of the cost effectiveness concept in Government budgeting. It is true that some form of cost effectiveness was introduced in the US Government accounting system even prior to the induction of Robert McNamara by Kennedy from Detroit to Washington. It is, however, valid to hold that McNamara is perhaps the person who gave this new system a conceptual basis and provided a sense of direction and thrust which were in line with his earlier reputation as a whiz kid, who made the transition from a professor of Harvard Business School to President of Ford Motors to Secretary of Defence, with equal ease. In introducing performance budgeting, which is built around the concept of cost effectiveness, McNamara stepped on quite a few corns, particularly those of his Chiefs of Staff who were somewhat unaccustomed to being told by a mere civilian what was good for them. Added to these injuries were insults by way of questions which McNamara constantly raised at the Pentagon

Management Reporting System in Public Undertakings

in Public Undertakings parting system for public undertakings, we would have to clearly identify the managerial hierarchy and the objectives of public undertakings. Admittedly, a great deal has been written on both these subjects, much of which appears to be coloured by political and economic biases. If we accept the definition that management involves -essentially the process of relating resources to objectives for producing the desired result, clearly, all persons who have decision-making authority in terms of all the three variables, i c, resources, objectives and the operations carried on for achieving the desired goals, would be 'managers' for purposes of the proposed system.

Profit Reporting by Diversified Companies

S K Bhattacharyya The recent emergence of a large number of conglomerate companies with diversified product lines is largely due to acquisitions of other companies and the setting up of new activities as divisions within existing companies, Initial official opposition to such diversification has been overcome by court rulings and the attractions of higher profitability.

Performance of Public Undertakings-A Framework for Appraisal

Analysis of the performance of public undertakings has often been related to the working of private sector companies. This is a meaningless exercise because the latter have primarily commercial or profit objectives, while the former have been set up for a variety of considerations, of which the commercial objective is only one.

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