摘要:《管理會計》課程采取雙語教學方法可以培養學生用國際思維邏輯解決問題的能力。但目前在該課程的雙語教學中存在諸多問題,本文擬通過成本性態分析和應用的案例教學進行實例分析,希望提供給大家一些可借鑒的教學方法和模式。
關鍵詞:管理會計;雙語教學;案例教學;成本性態
中圖分類號:G642.0 文獻標志碼:A 文章編號:1674-9324(2013)24-0050-03
案例教學法是一種啟發學生研究實際問題,注重學生智力開發及能力培養的現代教學方法,它有著傳統教學方法所不具備的特殊功能。《管理會計》課程實踐性強,采用案例教學模式,給予學生積極思考、用英語踴躍發言的自我表現機會,加深學生對學科基礎知識在實踐中運用的理解,通過用英語討論,使得學生專業知識和英語語言均得到提高,同時使學生對實際工作中出現的問題獲得較正確和透徹的理解。本文擬以《管理會計》中成本性態的知識介紹案例教學方法如何在雙語教學中組織和開展的。
一、成本性態概述
成本性態(cost behavior)是指在業務量發生變化時成本將如何反應或變化。
1.成本性態分析的成本分類。按照成本性態,通常可以把成本區分為固定成本、變動成本和混合成本。①固定成本。固定成本是指其總額在一定時期及一定產量范圍內,不直接受業務量變動的影響而保持固定不變的成本。固定成本總額不因業務量的變動而變動,但單位固定成本(單位業務量負擔的固定成本)會與業務量的增減呈反向變動。②變動成本。變動成本是指在特定的業務量范圍內,其總額會隨業務量的變動而成正比例變動的成本。變動成本總額因業務量的變動而成正比例變動,但單位變動成本(單位業務量負擔的變動成本)不變。③混合成本。混合成本就是“混合”了固定成本和變動成本兩種不同性質的成本。一方面,它們要隨業務量的變化而變化;另一方面,它們的變化又不能與業務量的變化保持著純粹的正比例關系。混合成本兼有固定與變動兩種性質。成本性態分析是指在成本性態分類的基礎上,按一定的程序和方法,將全部成本最終區分為固定成本(Fixed Cost)和變動成本(Variable Cost)兩大類,并建立相應的成本函數模型。
2.成本性態在生產成本管理的作用。對于懂得成本性態的管理者來說,能預測出在各種情況下成本將如何變化。相反,對成本性態不完全理解而試圖決策的管理者而言,可能會產生沉痛的結果。對于成本的預測、決策和分析,特別是對于控制成本和尋求降低成本的途徑具有重要作用。也正因為如此,成本性態分析在企業生產成本管理中得到極大地應用。成本性態分析的作用:有利于控制成本,加強企業成本管理,節約資金,提高盈利。在傳統的雙語教學方法中會逐一介紹成本性態的分類,提出成本性態的重要作用,但這樣教學對于一直在大學學習,沒有管理經驗的學生而言,全英文的教材,很難透徹理解該內容。若將實際中的具有運用加以剖析,則會提高學生的學習興趣,起到事半功倍的效果。
二、案例教學實例分析
案例:Jasmine Lee owns a catering company that serves food and beverages at parties and business functions.Lee’s business is seasonal,with a heavy schedule during the summer months and holidays and a lighter schedule at other times.One of the major events requested by Lee’s customers is a cocktail party.She offers a standard cocktail party and has estimated the total cost per guest as follows:
Food and beverages $17.00
Labor(0.5 hours@$10.00 per hour) 5.00
Overhead(0.5 hours@$18.63 per hour) 9.32
Total cost per guest $31.32
The standard cocktail party lasts three hours and Lee hires one worker for every six guests,which works out to one-half hour of direct per guest. These workers are hired only as needed and paid only for the hours they actually work.
Lee ordinarily charges $45 per guest. She is confident about her estimates of the costs of foods and beverages and labor,but is not as comfortable with the estimate of overhead cost.The $18.63 overhead cost per labor-hour was determined by dividing the total overhead expense for the last 12 months by the total labor-hour for the same period.Her overhead includes cost such as the annual rent for office space,administrative salaries,the costs of hiring and writing paychecks for temporary workers,and so on
Lee has received a request to bid on a large fund-raising cocktail party to be given next month by an important local charity. (The party would last the usual three hours.) She would like to win this contract because the guest list for this charity event includes many prominent individuals that she would like to land as future clients.Other caterers have also been invited to bid on the event,and she believes that one,if not more,of those companies will bid less than $45 per guest. She is not willing to lose money on the event and needs your input before making any decisions.
Required:Assume that Ms. Lee will not incur any additional fixed costs if she wins the bid on the cocktail part. Do you think whether or not she should base cost her bid on the estimated cost of $31.32 per guest?
本案例涉及利用成本性態的關系合理為企業定價,從而實現企業價值的最大化。但對于類似這樣的問題,學生沒有實際的經驗,很難給出準確的答案。因此在雙語案例教學過程中,我們可以通過對該案例的逐步討論,引導學生對成本性態的運用加深理解。
步驟1:在弄懂題目的要求后,首先給學生提出問題:從案例中我們可以看出,酒會招待一位顧客總成本是$31.32,通常情況下酒會對每位顧客的定價是$45,但目前競爭對手出價已經低于$45。若想取得此業務,該公司價格就應該還要更低。但低到多少是企業可以接受的呢?
步驟2:問題提出后,讓學生組成學習小組,進行合作式學習,用英文共同討論,重點啟發學生換位思考,理解企業定價的原則。
步驟3:經過上一階段的討論,學生基本對以一位顧客總成本是$31.32來定價,有了質疑。接著再進一步引導學生進入下一步討論,即總成本是$31.32是如何構成的,其成本性態如何(在此授課老師對成本性態概念和分類進行介紹)。
步驟4:經過討論,請部分同學發言,根據發言情況,逐步引導出如下思路。
She must consider cost behavior when estimating future costs,such as the cost of catering a cocktail party.A variable cost is a cost whose total dollar amount varies in direct proportion to changes in the activity level (in your case,the number of guests). A fixed cost is a cost whose total dollar amount remains constant within a relevant range of activity.A mixed cost is one that contains both variable and fixed cost elements.
Food and beverage and labor are examples of variable costs. These costs increase in total as the number of guests increases. On the other hand,overhead cost is an example of a mixed cost. It has both variable and fixed cost elements. The costs of hiring and writing paychecks for temporary workers is an example of a variable cost,while the annual office rent and administrative salaries are examples of fixed costs.
Before she make a decision about what to bid on this event,she should remove the amount of fixed overhead from our total estimated cost per guest to arrive at your total estimated variable cost per guest.To do this,she need to break her overhead cost down into its variable and fixed components. There are a variety of methods that you can use to break down this mixed cost.
步驟5:經過上述逐步的討論和引導,結合前面對成本性態知識的基本了解,學生最終不難得出結論。
Therefore,Ms.Lee noted that she is not willing to lose money on the fund-raising cocktail party.Because this cocktail party will not require her to incur any additional fixed expenses,her bid just needs to cover her variable costs in order for the party to be profitable. As such,any bid amount that exceeds her total variable cost per guest will generate a profit. This will be less than the $31.32 total cost since that amount includes fixed costs.
三、結論
其他內容也可以采取類似方法進行教學,在通過幾個學期不同學生《管理會計》(雙語)的教學實踐中,筆者注意到很多理論性很強的內容,通過一些實際工作中的案例進行學習,學生很容易接受。在案例討論的過程中也在不斷鍛煉學生運用英語表達思維的能力,學生基本上能夠運用這些理論解決實際問題。但需要強調的是,在案例教學中,案例的合理性和難易程度,討論進程的掌控,都是授課教師需要重點注意的。
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基金項目:基于案例分析的《管理會計》雙語教學模式研究作者簡介:王曉秋(1975-),女,河北人,任教于四川師范大學文理學院會計學院,副教授,澳大利亞MONASH大學碩士,主要從事稅法和納稅策劃教學和研究工作。