Strategic and Operational Perspective of the Principles of Identification of the Scopes of Responsibility for Costs

One of the key requirements of today’s management accounting is the identification of the scopes of responsibility for the costs. There is a theory that to each cost, there should an assigned person who is responsible for it (Leszczyński Z, Wnuk T Controlling, Fundacja Rozwoju Rachunkowości w Polsce, Warszawa, p 12, 1999; Sojak S Rachunkowość zarządcza. Dom Organizatora, Toruń, p. 645, 2003; Drury C Rachunek kosztów. PWN, Warszawa, pp 416–417, 1998; Nowak E Zaawansowana rachunkowość zarządcza. PWE, Warszawa, p 12, 2009). The responsibility should be borne both from the operational and from the strategic perspective (Świderska G Rachunkowość zarządcza i rachunek kosztów. Diffin, Warszawa, p 12, 2003; Szydełko Ł Rachunek odpowiedzialności w strategicznych jednostkach biznesowych, Zeszyty Naukowe politechniki Rzeszowskiej, Nr 248, Rzeszów, p 2002, 2002). In practice, however, the fulfilment of those requirements is not that easy. To satisfy them, various types of responsibility for costs need to be defined. Then, specific tasks that need to be performed by particular persons must be detailed. This article aims to determine the issues.