7. Breathing Life
into the Required M.B.A. Management Accounting Course Using the Textbook Novel,
Code Blue
Presenters: Luann J. Lynch, University of Virginia
E. Richard Brownlee II, University of Virginia
Description: Frequently,
management accounting courses are so dominated by accounting considerations
that the usefulness of accounting information in making management decisions
escapes students. Rather than viewing the course as providing them with a rich
array of concepts and tools with significant managerial relevance, students
generally view it in a narrow, procedural context. To stimulate significant
innovation in management accounting education, curriculum changes must broaden
and strengthen the management dimensions without sacrificing fundamental
accounting content.
We present a detailed teaching plan
to supplement the use of the healthcare textbook novel, Code Blue, as
introductory material for the required first-year M.B.A. management accounting
course. Code Blue, written by Richard McDermott and Kevin Stocks,
profiles the strategic and financial challenges a hospital administrator faces
in response to a changing healthcare environment, including designing and
implementing a cost accounting system to facilitate decision making, strategic
thinking, performance assessment, and financial management during this period
of critical change. The novel offers an innovative learning approach without
sacrificing substantive content, and our teaching plan provides a road map for
using it to frame the entire management accounting course as one that deals
with the role cost accounting systems play in strategic thinking and strategy
implementation.
