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APM

Business Structure, Management Accounting and Change - ACCA Advanced Performance Management (APM)

VIVA Subject Guide

This chapter looks at the different types of business structure, and the effect the structure has on the information needed. It also looks at the types of changes that business might implement to improve their performance.

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The information needs of different business structures

Functional structure
One of the common structures found in medium-sized organisations is the functional structure. This means that people within an organisation are organised by function. So, for example, there is a finance department, a manufacturing department, a sales department, and so on.

Divisional structure
As organisations grow they will often develop a divisional structure, where each division has its own functional departments and where the divisional manager has a degree of autonomy.

Network (or matrix) structure
An example of this may be found in firms of accountants, where there may be managers responsible for each individual office within a country, but at the same time there may be managers responsible for different activities in all offices throughout the country.

18 Comments

  1. sandra
    Hi,
    Thanks a lot for providing the lectures and other materials.
    Just a little clarification.
    I am experiencing some difficulties to link some pictures and examples in notes to pictures and examples in lectures. For example, in the Chapter 4 or 5.
    And if that is the case, which source I should focus more - notes or lectures please?
    Greatly appreciate your efforts and time spend on this web site.
  2. kengarrettTutor
    Hi. Neither is really dominant. Sometimes an example is given in lectures to amplify the notes; sometimes there is detail (dull?) in the notes that is omitted from the lecture. A good approach is to read the notes then listen to the lecture, notes in hand. They usually stick very close together but if there is something in a lecture not in the notes, make a note of it on the notes.
  3. sandra
    Hi
    Thank you so much. That's very helpful advice. I did the notes for examples, which were not in the notes, but in the notes themselves is a lot of useful information/explanations/definitions which I felt I might miss so I will read them before the lecture.
    Very much appreciated your prompt answer.
    Best wishes
  4. khalis
    Hi

    The practice questions they seemed to be very old and not available in ACCA exam portals. Is there a place where I can obtain those old questions from open tuition??

    Thanks
  5. kengarrettTutor
    They can almost always be found by Googling something like ACCA P5 June 2010 'question name'. (P5 was the old name for apm.)
  6. SpiroSupporter
    Hi, very useful materials. Thanks a lot.
    Just a note, in McKinsey’s 7S model in Chapter 5, the links between Shared values and Structure and Staff elements are missing.
    Most probably I'm too pedantic :).
  7. SpiroSupporter
    Just to clarify that my remark concerns APM notes. In the chapter 5 lecture, the 7S model is OK.
  8. nm11
    Course APM :
    This course is it still up to date as of 20.03.2019 pls advise
    Thank You
    NM 11
  9. kengarrettTutor
    They simply pay for the value of goods bought 30 days after receipt of the goods.
  10. jenm22
    A lot of this information is missing out of the Sept17-Jun18 notes? Have some of these business structures been removed from the syllabus? e.g Network/Virtual structures, Centralisation and Decentralisation.

    Thanks
  11. kengarrettTutor
    I can see nothing in the syllabus or study guide about virtual, decentralisation etc. You can check for yourself here:

    https://www.accaglobal.com/uk/en/student/exam-support-resources/professional-exams-study-resources/p5/syllabus-study-guide.html#
  12. evlin
    Would a business combination (parent & different subsidiaries) which has shared units such as Treasury, financial control, risk management etc be seen as a typical network structure?
  13. huzzug
    Could a structure said to be a Matrix structure between a Finance Manager of a Parent company and an CFO of its subsidiary being essentially the same person with same tasks, but report to different heads ?
  14. kengarrettTutor
    I'm not sure it would be a matrix structure - not a classic one anyhow. There are all types of potential structure and it is not uncommon, particularly in small companies, for a single person to fulfill more than one function.
  15. yousuf
    very helpful
  16. Q
    thank u for your brilliant lecture~i am wondering what the style of management is if the organization operates in an environment full of changes in IT and competition? i don't actually catch the word~~thank u very much
  17. Maryam
    your lectures are unforgettable...i am able to answer questions under pressure once I remember your explanations. Thank you for making learning convenient.
  18. Kay
    thank you for the explanation, easy to understand

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