Responsibility Centers

Responsibility accounting focuses attention on responsibility centers. A responsibility center is a sub-unit of an organization under the supervision of a manager who has the responsibility for the activities of that responsibility center. Each sub-unit has certain activities to perform and its manager is assigned the responsibility and / or authority to carry out those activities. Responsibility center is the segment of business with reference to which information will be communicated to pin point responsibilities. In the words of Anthony and Races, “A responsibility center is like an engine in that it has inputs, which are physical quantities of material, hours of various types of labor, and a variety of services; it works with these resources usually; working capital and fixed assets are also required. As a result of this work, it produces output, which are classified either as goods, it they are tangible or as services, if they areContinue reading

Human Resource Cost Reduction

Cost reduction is defined as the achievement of real and permanent reduction in the unit cost of goods manufactured or services rendered without impairing their suitability for use intended. Cost reduction must be real and increase productivity. It must be permanent and should not impair the suitability of products or services for the intended use. The scope of cost reduction is wide and it could be applied to wherever cost is incurred. In many organizations the cost of human resources is very high. The top management should find ways by which the cost of human resources is reasonably reduced. Any abnormal reduction of cost in this regard may lead to unfavorable organizational climate. In autocratic type of organizational climate the human resources cost will be reduced since the employer is not so particular about keeping the morale of the employees high and to motivate them for higher productivity. Since betterContinue reading

Human Resource Cost Analysis

Human resource cost analysis is the study of behavior of cost in relation to one or more HR criteria. Controlling manpower costs has now become important for organizations, particularly when we are required to look within for cost savings to sustain organizational growth and profitability. To enforce control on HR costs, it is essential to develop a check-list at the outset. This requires grouping of activities under different cost heads and then Identifying the individual cost elements under each head. By developing an HR costs spreadsheet, we can understand the magnitude of HR costs in an organization. Element-wise cost trend over the years facilitates regular monitoring and operational control. At the macro-level, net value added per employee is an indicator of cost efficiency. Developing an HR Costs Checklist HR costs checklist varies from organization to organization due to obvious differences in their practices. Here we have mentioned about those costContinue reading

Cost Based Approaches to Human Resource Accounting

Human Resource Accounting is an attempt to identify and report investments made in the human resources of an organisation that are not presently accounted for under conventional accounting practice. Basically, it is an information system that tells the management what changes overtime are occurring to the human resources of the business, and of the cost and value of the human factor to the organisation. The system may serve both the internal and external users, providing management (internal users) with relevant data on which to base recruiting, training and other development decisions and supplying investors, lenders and other external users of financial statement with information concerning the investment in and utilization of human resources in the organization. Accounting is a man-made art and its principles and procedures have been evolved over a long period to aid business in reporting for the management and public. Of the four factors of production, viz.,Continue reading

Relationship between Organization Climate and Organizational Behavior Models

Autocratic Model: The autocratic model of organizational behavior creates a climate in which the feelings of the workers are suppressed and they have to just be obedient and tolerative with the autocratic behavior of the employer. The personal relationship between the employer and the employee is not up to the mark. The labor turnover will be considerable when there is high dissatisfaction of the employees with their boss since they have no other alternative except to leave the job. In case of bottleneck in production or marketing, the employees simply keep mum and they never come out with suggestions for solving the problem. When the worker leaves his Job, he will burst out with his boss with thick words coming from his soul and he will never have an idea to re-enter the service. As far as autocratic model is concerned the workers sustain a tight organizational climate and theyContinue reading

Concept of Organizational Climate

Organizations are social systems. Organizations combine science and people, technology and humanity. It is not possible for every organization to have the same type of technology and people and so the organizations differ in their characteristics and internal environment. The internal environment of an organization may be called the organizational climate. Organizational climate, a guide for dealing with people serves as a major influence on motivation and productivity of individuals and total work force. Organizational climate may be noted as the ‘personality’ of an organization as conceived by its employees. The organizational climate usually has a major influence on motivation, productivity and job satisfaction. The organizational climate is the major motivating factor responsible for satisfaction and dissatisfaction of employees in an organization and affects the quantum of employees’ turnover and satisfaction. It refers to the entire social system of a working group. Campbell defines organizational climate as a “set ofContinue reading