Responsibility Considerations – Enabling and motivating employees to work at peak performance is an
important managerial role. For this to occur, employees must perceive that their productive efficiency and
quality of output are fairly measured. A good manager will understand and be able to explain to others
how such measures are determined. Your study of managerial accounting will lead you through various
related measurement topics. For instance, direct productive processes must be supported by many “service
departments” (maintenance, engineering, accounting, cafeterias, etc.). These service departments have
nothing to sell to outsiders, but are essential components of operation. The costs of service departments
must be recovered for a business to survive. It is easy for a production manager to focus solely on the
area under direct control, and ignore the costs of support tasks. Yet, good management decisions require
full consideration of the costs of support services. You will learn alternative techniques that managerial
accountants use to allocate responsibility for organizational costs. A good manager will understand the
need for such allocations, and be able to explain and justify them to employees who may not be fully
cognizant of why profitability is more difficult to achieve than it would seem.