Performance Management

2026/2027

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

3

ECTS credits

Delivered at:

Department of Finance

Course type:

Compulsory course

When:

4 year, 1 module

Instructor

Alekseeva, Olga

Course Syllabus

Abstract

By engaging with this programme, students acquire practical skills to interpret cost and management accounting data, prepare and assess budgets, and establish clear linkages between a company’s business model and its key performance indicators. Ultimately, the course enables students to specialise in financial management, that is a critical function in any organisation, what prepares them for diverse career paths ranging from cash management to strategic decision-making roles, while also fostering essential employability and technological competencies.

Learning Objectives

• • to evaluate organisational performance across private and public sectors from both financial and non-financial perspectives, factoring in the influence of external variables on organisational sustainability.
• • acquire practical skills to interpret cost and management accounting data, prepare and assess budgets, and establish clear linkages between a company’s business model and its key performance indicators.
• • to identify and critically discuss management information systems, including the role of big data and data analytics in performance management.
• • gain proficiency in interpreting core performance management indicators, and employing decision-making tools to ensure the efficient allocation of scarce resources while assessing and mitigating inherent business risks.
• • develops skills in utilising quantitative and qualitative budgeting techniques, planning and control methods, and standard costing systems to monitor performance and determine appropriate remedial actions.
• • identify and apply various approaches to forecasting of managerial pro-forma financial statements.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Students will be able to select and use advanced cost-management methods (e.g., activity-based costing, target costing) in realistic business scenarios; this can be checked via case-study assignments with clear numerical outputs and written justifications.
• Students should demonstrate the ability to construct fixed, flexible, and incremental budgets, as well as analyse variances; this is verifiable through graded budgeting exercises that include variance calculations and interpretation of results.
• Students must identify relevant KPIs (financial and non-financial) for given organisational contexts and explain their strategic relevance; this can be assessed through structured essays or presentations where they map KPIs to specific business models and justify their choices.
• Students will design or adapt a BSC for a hypothetical or real organisation, defining objectives, measures, targets, and initiatives across financial, customer, internal process, and learning/growth perspectives; this skill is testable via a completed BSC template plus a short explanatory note.
• Students will tackle decision-making problems involving risk (e.g., pricing under uncertainty, resource constraints) and outline risk-mitigation approaches; this is easily verifiable through problem-solving tasks that require identifying risks, quantifying their impact where possible, and suggesting concrete, evidence-based actions.

Course Contents

• Topic 1. Basic of Performance Management
• Topic 2. Strategic Organizational Performance Management. Financial Structure of Organization.
• Topic 3. Managing Organizational Performance.
• Topic 4. Implementing Performance Management System.
• Topic 5. Balanced scorecard (BSC) in Performance Management.

Assessment Elements

• Case Studies on Cost Management Techniques (20 points)
• Budget Development and Presentation (15 points)
• Balanced Scorecard (BSC) Design (15 points)
• Case-writing project on Analytics in Performance Management (30 points)
• Comprehensive Written Exam (20 points)

Interim Assessment

• 2026/2027 1st module
  0.3 * Case-writing project on Analytics in Performance Management (30 points) + 0.15 * Balanced Scorecard (BSC) Design (15 points) + 0.2 * Case Studies on Cost Management Techniques (20 points) + 0.15 * Budget Development and Presentation (15 points) + 0.2 * Comprehensive Written Exam (20 points)

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Aguinis, H. (2014). Performance Management: Pearson New International Edition (Vol. 3rd ed). [N.p.]: Pearson. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1418135
• Cardy, R. L., & Leonard, B. (2011). Performance Management: Concepts, Skills and Exercises : Concepts, Skills and Exercises (Vol. 2nd ed). Armonk, N.Y.: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=929342

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Cokins, G. (2009). Performance Management : Integrating Strategy Execution, Methodologies, Risk, and Analytics. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=317048
• Nicola Terracciano. (2017). Performance Management at the Organizational Level. Annals of Spiru Haret University Economic Series, 2, 19.

Authors

• Soloveva Ekaterina Evgenevna