Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur République de Cote d’Ivoire

et de la Recherche Scientifique Union-

Discipline-Travail

DALOA

ANNEE ACADEMIQUE 2017-2018

UFR SCIENCES ECONOMIQUES

ET GESTION

ENGLISH COURSE FOR ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT

STUDENTS

Dr ANGAMAN EliameNiamké
LICENCE 1 SCIENCES ECONOMIQUES ET GESTION
TRONC COMMUN
CM
 INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT

I- ECONOMICS 

1- DEFINITION
Economics can be defined in a few different ways. It is the study of
decision-making. It often involves topics like wealth and finance,
but it’s not all about money. Economics is a broad discipline that
helps us understand historical trends, interpret today’s headlines,
and make predictions aboutthe coming years.
Economics, often called the science of choice, is about making
choices. We make all kinds of choices every day. How much should
I spend on gas? What's the best route to work? Where should we
go for dinner? What are the pros and cons of finishing college
versus taking a job or inventing the next, best Internet startup?
Which roommate should take care of washing the dishes? Can I get
that dog as a pet? Should I get married, have children, and if so,
when? Which politician should I vote for when they all claim they
can improve the economy? What is "the economy," anyway? What
if my personal or religious principles conflicts with what
peopletellme is in my best economic interest? 
Many people hear the word "economics" and think it is all about
money. Economics is not just about money. It is about weighing
different choices or alternatives. Some of those important choices
involve money, but most do not. Most of your daily, monthly, or
life choices have nothing to do with money, yet they are still the
subject of economics. For example, your decisions about whether it
should be you or your roommate who should be the one to clean
up or do the dishes, whether you should spend an hour a week
volunteering for a worthy charity or send them a little money via
your cell phone, or whether you should take a job so you can help
support your siblings or parents or save for your future are all
economic decisions. In many cases, money is merely a helpful tool
or just a veil, standing in for a partial way to evaluate some of the
goals you really care about and how you make choices about
thosegoals.
People also think economics is all about "economizing" or being
efficient--not making foolish or wasteful choices about how you
spend or budget your time and money. That is certainly part of
what economics is about. However, that's just the tip of the
iceberg. We all know that we can save money or time by being
more efficient in our planning. A trip to the supermarket can be
coordinated with a trip to deposit a check at the bank across the
street to save on gas. But we sometimes don't choose the most
efficient options. Why not? Economics is also about plumbing the
depths of why we sometimes do and sometimes don't make
whatseemlike themosteconomizingoreconomicalchoices. 
It is also the study of scarcity, the study of how people use
resources and respond to incentives.According to David A. Dilts,
“Economics is the study of the allocation of scarce resources to
meet unlimited human wants”.(David A. Dilts, Introduction to
Microeconomics, E201, Indiana-Purdue University-Fort Wayne,
1995). For him it is the study of human behavior as it pertains to
material well-being. As a matter of fact, there are a finite number of
resources available;whilehuman wants are unlimited; resources will
be scarce in the long run. Because there are fewer resources than
wants, David A. Dilts thinks that there must be allocation
mechanism of some sort.

2- FIELD OF INTERVENTION
a) - Economics can help us answer such questions as: Why are
some countries rich and other countries poor? Why do women
earn less than men? How can data help us understand the world?
Why do we ignore information that could help us make better
decisions? What causes recessions? Etc.
b)-Economics intersects many disciplines. Its applications include
health, gender, environment,  education, and immigration.
 Economics affects everyone’s life.Learning about economic
concepts can help you understandthe news, make financial
decisions, shape public policy, and see the world in a new way.
) -Economists have all kinds of jobs, such as professors, government
advisors, consultants, and private sector employees. Using
theoretical models or empirical data, they evaluate programs,
study human behavior, and explain social phenomena. Their
contributions inform about everything, from public policy to
household decisions.

3- ECONOMIC RESOURCES
Economic resources are all the inputs which are needed to produce
goods and services. They are also called factors of production.
There are four factors ofProduction: Land, Labour, Capital and
Enterprise.
a) -Landincludes all natural resources. In Economics, land refers to
everything that is grown, or that is in the air or the sea or under the
ground. It is clear that there is only a limited amount of land
available to produce goods and services.
b)-Labour includes all human resources. These human resources
may be skilled, semi-skilled or unskilled. Labour is a limited
resource because the human population is limited and the number
of people with skills is limited.
c) Capital is of three kinds which are:
Physical capital concerns the resources which have already been
produced and are used to produce other goods and
services.Human capital concerns education or training.Financial
capital is the money used to finance the purchase of physical
capital.
d)Enterprise means the special skills and energy needed to co-
ordinate the factors of production, to produce goods and services
and to develop new ways of producing.

4- SOME BASIC ECONOMIC CONCEPTS

a)BARTER ECONOMY
Before the introduction of money in the economic system, people
had to rely on barter in order to exchange goods they produced for
goods they wished to consume, or to exchange a service they could
do for a service they needed.
The problem with a barter economy is that it requires acoincidence
of wants. A coincidence of wants exists when someone wants what
you have to exchange, and you want what they have to exchange.
This would probably have been no problem at first; but as the
needs of a society became more complex, the problem with
bartering would go worse.
b)-MONEY ECONOMY
People,later, realized that money was the solution in exchange
between them. It is said that money makes the world go round;
and so it does. Indeed, increasing specialization allows more and
more goods and services to be produced. Increasing trade between
individuals and countries allows more and more to be consumed.
In such situations, money appears to be the solution in the
different exchanges between people instead of barter.

 FUNCTIONS OF MONEY
Defined as anything that is readily accepted to settle a debt, money
is necessary in modern time exchanges regarding its four functions
which are:
-as a medium of exchange it can be used in place of barter to have
any good or service.
-As a unit of account (measure of worth), money is used to value
goods and services; for example, instead of calculating a value for
the good they wish to trade in terms of other good, traders only
have to value it in terms of money.
-As a store of value, money can replace some goods which are not
needed immediately and be used to buy the goods later.
-As a standard of deferred payment, the use of money in economy
removes uncertainty in trade; a certain amount of money for the
value of some goods can be paid immediately and the other
amount can be paid in the future

 CHARACTERISTICS OF MONEY
In order to perform its functions properly, money needs to have
certain characteristics. It mustbe-acceptable, portable,durable and
homogeneous

c) - MICROECONOMICS / MACROECONOMICS
Economics is generally classified into two general categories of
inquiry; these two categories are: microeconomics and
macroeconomics.
 Micro
economics is concerned with decision-making by individual
economic agents such as firms and consumers. In other words,
microeconomics is concerned with the behavior of individuals or
groups organized into firms, industries, unions, and other
identifiable agents. The focus of microeconomics is on decision-
making, and hence markets.
 Macro
economics is concerned with the aggregate performance of the
entire economic system. That is for example the performance of
the economy of a country or in a more modern sense the global
economy. The issues of unemployment, inflation, economic
development and growth, the balance of trade, and business cycles
are the topics that occupy most of the attention of students of
macroeconomics.

d) -SPECIALISATION
It is when someone becomes an expert in one task or a group of
tasks, rather than performingmany tasks. In economics,
specialization can make it possible to have a massive increase
inproduction.

II- MANAGEMENT

1- DEFINITION
We can definemanagement asthe process of coordinatingwork
activities so that they are completed efficientlyand effectivelywith
and through other people.
-Efficiency refers to getting the most output from the least amount
of inputs. It is referred to as “doing things rights”. Because
managers deal with scarce inputs-including resources
suchas people, money and equipment- they are concerned with the
efficient use of those resources.
-Effectiveness is the fact of completing activities so that the
organization can reach its goals. It is often described as “doing the
rights things”.
Whereas efficiency is concerned with the means of getting things
done, effectiveness is concerned with the ends, or attainment of
organizational goals. Management is concerned, then, not only
with getting activities completed and meeting organizational goals
(effectiveness) but also with doing as efficiently as possible. In
successful organizations, high efficiency and high effectiveness
typically go hand in hand. Poor management is most often due to
both inefficiency and ineffectiveness or to effectiveness achieved
through inefficiency.

2- WHAT IS A MANAGER?
A manager is someone who works with and through other people
by coordinating their work activities in order to accomplish
organizational goals. That may mean coordinating the work of a
department group, or it might mean supervising a single person. It
could involve coordinating the work activities of a team composed
of people from several different departments or even people
outside the organization such as temporary employees or
employees who work for the organization’s suppliers.

3- DIFFERENT TITLES OF MANAGERS

a) -First–line managers are the lowest level of management and
manage the work of no-managerial individuals who are involved
with the production or creation of the organization’s product. They
are often called supervisors but may also be called line managers,
office managers, or even foremen.
b) -Middle managers include all levels of management between the
first-line level and the top level of the organization. These
managers manage the work of first-line managers and many have
titles such as department head, project leader, plant manager, or
division manager.
c) -Top managers are at the top of the organization. They are
responsible for making decisions and establishing the plans and
goals that affect the entire organization. They typically have titles
such as executive vice president, president, managing director,
chief operating officer, chief executive officer, or chairman of the
board.
 4- MANAGEMENT FUNCTONS, PROCESS, ROLES AND SKILLS
a) MANAGEMENT FUNCTONS
In the early part of the twentieth century, Henri Fayol a French
industrialist proposed that all managers perform certain
management functions such as: planning, organizing,
commanding,coordinating,and controlling.(Henri Fayol, Industrial
and General Administration, Paris, Dunod,1916). But they have been
condensed down to four basic and very important functions:
planning,organizing, leading, and controlling
 The
planning function involves the process of defining goals,
establishing strategies for achieving those goals, and developing
plans to integrate and coordinate activities.
 Organ
izing is the fact of arranging work to accomplish the organization’s
goals. It involves the process of determining what tasks are to be
done, who is to do them, how the tasks are to be grouped, who
reports to whom, and where decisions are to be made.
 The
leading function is when managers motivate subordinates,
influence individuals or teams as they work, select the most
effective communication channel, or deal in any way with
employee behavior issues.
 Contr
olling involves the process of monitoring, comparing, and
correcting. After the goals are set and the plans are formulated
(planning), the structural arrangements determined (organizing),
and he people hired, trained, and motivated (leading), there has to
be some evaluation of whether things are going as planned. To
ensure that work is going as it should, managers must monitor and
evaluate performance. Actual performance must be compared with
the previously set goals.
b) -MANAGEMENT PROCESS
It is a set of ongoing decisions and work activities in which
managers engage as they plan, organize, lead, and control. This
means that as managers manage, their work activities are usually
done in a continuous manner-that is, in a process.

c)-MANAGEMENT ROLES
The termmanagement roles refer to specific categories of
managerial behavior.Managers play different roles at work:
 Theint
erpersonal roles are roles that involve subordinate and persons
outside the organization and other duties that are ceremonial and
symbolic in nature. The three interpersonal roles include being a
figurehead, leader and liaison.
 The
informational roles involve receiving, collecting, and disseminating
information. We have three roles including a monitor,
disseminator, and spokesperson.
 The
decisional roles revolve around making choices. The four decisional
roles include entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator,
and negotiator.

d)-MANAGEMENT SKILLS
A manager’s job is varied and complex. They need certain skills to
perform the duties and activities associated with being a manager.
We have different skills:
 Techn
ical skills include knowledge of and proficiency in a certain
specialized field, such as engineering, computers, accounting, or
manufacturing.
 Huma
n skills involve the abilityto work well with other people both
individually and in group. Because managers deal directly with
people, this skill is crucial. Managers with good human skills are
able to get the best out of their people. They know how to
communicate, motivate, lead, and inspire enthusiasm and trust.
 Conce
ptual skillsinvolve the ability to see the organization as a whole,
understand the relationships among various subunits, and visualize
how the organization fits into its broader environment.

4-MARKETING IN MANAGEMENT
a) - WHAT IS MARKETING
The popular conceptionof marketing is that it primarily involves
sales. Other perspectives view marketing as consisting of
advertising or retailing activities. For others, market research,
pricing, or product planning come to mind. Although all these
activities are part of marketing, it involves more than that. The
American Marketing Association defines marketing as: “the process
of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and
distribution of ideas, and services to create exchanges that satisfy
individual and organizational objectives.” (“AMA Board Approves
New Marketing Definitions,” Marketing News, March 1, 1985, p. 1.)
Effective marketing requires that managers recognize the
interdependence of such activities as salesandpromotion and how
they can be combined to develop a marketing program.

b)-MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
 THE GROWTH OF ADVERTISING AND PROMOTION
Advertising and promotion are an integral part of our social and
economic systems. In our complex society, advertising has evolved
into a vital communications system for both consumers and
businesses. The ability of advertising and other promotional
methods to delivercarefully prepared messages to target audiences
has given them a major rolein the marketing programs of most
organizations. Companies ranging from large multinational
corporations to small retailers increasingly rely on advertising and
promotion to help them market products and services. In market-
based economies, consumers have learned to rely on advertising
and other forms of promotion for information they can use in
making purchase decisions.
Evidence of the increasing importance of advertising and
promotion comes from the growth in expenditures in these areas in
international markets. The tremendous growth in expenditures for
advertising and promotion reflects in part the growth of global
economies. The growth in promotional expenditures also reflects
the fact that marketers around the world recognize the value and
importance of advertising and promotion.

 THE ROLE OF ADVERTISING AND PROMOTION

-Advertising is defined as “any paidform of nonpersonal
communication about an organization’s, product, service, or idea
by an identified sponsor.” (Ralph S. Alexander, ed., Marketing
Definitions, Chicago, American Marketing Association, 1965, p. 9.)
The paid aspect of his definition reflects the fact that the space or
time for an advertising message generally must be bought. The
nonpersonal component means advertising involves mass media
(TV, radio, magazines, and newspapers) that can transmit a
message to large groups of individuals, often at the same time. It
also means there is generally no opportunity for immediate
feedback from the message recipient. Therefore, before the
message is sent, the advertiser must consider how the audience will
interpret and respond to it.
Advertising is the best-known and most widely discussed form of
promotion, probably because of its pervasiveness. It is also a very
important promotional tool, particularly for companies whose
products and services are targeted at mass consumer markets. It
can also be used to create images and symbolic appeals for a
company or brand, a very important capability for companies
selling products and services that are difficult to differentiate on
functional attributes. Another advantage of advertising is its ability
to strike a responsive chord with consumers when differentiation
across other elements of the marketing mix(the controllable
elements of a marketing program including product, price,
promotion, and place) is difficult to achieve.
-Promotion is defined as the coordination of all seller-initiated
efforts to set up channels of information and persuasion to sell
goods and services or promote an idea.
An organization’s communications with the marketplace take
place in a carefully planned and controlled promotional program.
The basic tools used to accomplish an organization’s
communication objectives are often referred to as the promotional
mix (including advertising, direct marketing, sales promotion,
publicity/public relations, and personal selling.)
Promotion plays an important role in an organization’s efforts to
market its product, service, or ideas to its customers. Promotional
strategies play an important role in the marketing programs of
companies as they attempt to communicate with and sell their
products to their customers.

NB: Advertising and promotion must be integrated with the other

marketing mix decisions to accomplish an organization’s goals as
for the overall image of a product or brand.

5) ACCOUNTANCY (ACOUNTING) IN MANAGEMENT

a) DEFINITION
Accounting or accountancy is the measurement, processing,
andcommunication of financial information about economic
entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which
has been called the “language of business” measures the results of
an organization’s economic activities and conveys this information
to a variety of users, including investors, creditors,  management,
and regulators.Practitioners of accounting are known
as accountants.

b) OBJECT
Itis concerned primarily with methods for recording transactions,
keeping financial records,performing internal audits, reporting and
analyzing financial information to the management,and advising
on taxation matters. It is a systematic process of identifying,
recording,measuring, classifying, verifying, summarizing,
interpreting and communicating financialinformation. It reveals
profit or loss for a given period, and the value and nature of a
firm'sassets, liabilities and owners' equity. Accounting provides
information on the resourcesavailable to a firm, the means
employed to finance those resources, and the results
achievedthrough their use.

c) FIELDS OF ACCOUNTING
 Accounting has several subfields or subject areas,
includingmanagement accounting, financial
accounting, auditing,tax accounting and accountinginformation
systems.

 MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING AND ITS ROLE IN AN

ORGANIZATION
 WHAT IS MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING
Management accounting is the process of preparing management
reports and accounts that provide accurate and timely financial
and statistical information required by managers to make day-to-
day,short-term and long-term decisions. It identifies measures,
analyzes, interprets, and communicates information to enable an
organization to pursue its goals.
Management accounting focuses on the measurement, analysis and
reporting of information that can help managers in making
decisions to fulfill the goals of an organization. In management
accounting, internal measures and reports are based on cost-
benefit analysis, and are not required to follow the generally
accepted accounting principle.
Management accounting produces future-oriented reports—
for example the budget for 2006 is prepared in 2005—and the time
span of reports varies widely. Such reports may include both
 financial and non financial information, and may, for example,
focus on specific products and departments.
The field of Management Accounting, often referred to as
Managerial Accounting or Corporate Accounting, includes the
financial and accounting tasks required to operate a business.

 THE ROLE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

-Management Accounting helps forecast the future. Forecasting aids
decision-making and answering questions, such as: Should the
company invest in more equipment? Should it diversify into different
markets? Should it buy another company? Management accounting
helps in answering these critical questions and forecasting the future
trends in business.
-Is it cheaper to procure materials or a product from a third party or
manufacture them in-house? Cost and production availability are the
deciding factors in this choice. Through management accounting,
insights will be developed which will enable decision-making at both
operational and strategic levels. Management Accountingthen helps
take some decisions as for whether to make or to buy some materials
or products.
-Predicting cash flows and the impact of cash flow on the business is
essential. How much cost will the company incur in the future?
Where will its revenues come from and will the revenues increase or
decrease in the future? Management accounting involves designing
of budgets and trend charts, and managers use this information to
decide how to allocate money and resources to generate the
projected revenue growth.
-Management Accounting helpsunderstand Performance
Variances.Business performance discrepancies are variances between
what was predicted and what is actually achieved. Management
accounting uses analytical techniques to help the management build
on positive variances and manage the negative ones.
-Before embarking on a project that requires heavy investments, the
company would need to analyze the expected Rate of Return (ROR).
If given two or more investment opportunities, how should the
company choose the most profitable one? In how many years would
the company break even on a project? What are the cash flows likely
to be? These are all vital questions that can be answered through
management accounting.
Managerial accountants work within companies and organizations
to direct internal financial processes; monitor costs, sales, spending
and budgets; conduct audits; identify past trends and predict
future needs; and assist company leaders with financial decisions.

 FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING
Financial accounting focuses on the reporting of an organization's
financial informationincluding the preparation of financial
statements to external users of the information, such as potential
investors, regulators and creditors or suppliers. It calculates and
records business transactions and prepares financial statements for
the external users in accordance with generally accepted
accounting principles which in turn, arises from the wide
agreement between accounting theory and practice, and change
over time to meet the needs of decision-makers.
Financial accounting produces past-oriented reports—for example
the financial statements prepared in 2006 report on performance in
2005—on an annual or quarterly basis, generally about the
organization as a whole.

 AUDITING
Auditing is the verification of assertions made by others regarding
a payoff,and in the context of accounting it is the
"unbiased examination and evaluation of the financial statements
of an organization".
An audit of financial statements aims at expressing or disclaiming
an opinion on the financial statements. The auditor expresses an
opinion on the fairness with which the financial statements
presents the financial position, results of operations, and cash flows
of an entity, in accordance with the generally acceptable
accounting principle (GAAP) and "in all material respects". An
auditor is also required to identify circumstances in which the
generally acceptable accounting principles (GAAP) has not been
consistently observed.

 TAX ACCOUNTING
Tax accounting concentrates on the preparation, analysis and
presentation of tax payments and tax returns. In The U.S. for
example tax system requires the use of specialized accounting
principles for tax purposes which can differ from the generally
accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for financial
reporting. Corporate and personal income are taxed at different
rates, both varying according to income levels and including
varying marginal rates (taxed on each additional dollar of income)
and average rates (set as a percentage of overall income).

 ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS

An accounting information system is a part of an
organization's information system that focuses on processing
accounting data.

 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FINANCIAL ACCOUNTANCY AND

 MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Management accounting differs from financial accounting. While

financial accounting provides information to people inside and,
more importantly, people outside the organization, management
accounting is mostly aimed at aiding managers inside the
organization with decision making.
Unlike financial accounting, which produces annual reports mainly
for external stakeholders,management accounting generates
monthly or weekly reports for an organization's internalaudiences
such as department managers and the chief executive officer. These
reportstypically show the amount of available cash, sales revenue
generated, amount of orders inhand, state of accounts payable and
accounts receivable, outstanding debts, raw material andinventory,
and may also include trend charts, variance analysis, and other
statistics.
Management accountants are often confused with financial
accountants; while both provide valuable services to an
organization, there are key differences between the two roles.
Managerial accounting primarily involves completing tasks and
producing reports that inform company leadership about financial
decisions related to general company operations. Financial
accounting’s central focus is informing external groups – such as
banks, boards of directors, stockholders and tax agencies – about
the company’s financial status.
Management accounting information differs from financial
accountancy information in several ways:
 while shareholders, creditors, and public regulators use
publicly reported financial accountancy information, only
managers within the organization use the normally confidential
management accounting information
 while financial accountancy information is historical,
management accounting information is primarily forward-looking;
 while financial accountancy information is case-based,
management accounting information is model-based with a degree
of abstraction in order to support generic decision making;
 While financial accountancy information is computed by
reference to general financial accounting standards, management
accounting information is computed by reference to the needs of
managers, often using management information systems.

Focus:
 Financial accounting focuses on the company as a whole.
 Management accounting provides detailed and disaggregated
information about products, individual activities, divisions, plants,
operations and tasks.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

DrDavidA. Dilts,Introduction to Microeconomics E201, Indiana,Indian-

Purdue University- Fort
Wayne, 1995.

Gary Dessler, Human Resource Management 8thed, North Asia, Prentice

Hall inc, 2000.

Henri Fayol, Industrial and General Administration, Paris, Dunod, 1916.

Horngren, Charles T.; Datar, Srikant M.; Foster, George Cost Accounting:
A Managerial
Emphasis (12th ed.), New Jersey Pearson Prentice Hall 2006. 

Oldroyd, David: The role of accounting in public expenditure and

monetary policy in the first century
AD Roman Empire, Accounting Historians Journal, Volume 22, Number
2, Birmingham, Alabama,
December 1995, p.124.

Ralph S. Alexander, ed., Marketing Definitions, Chicago, American

Marketing Association, 1965, p.9.

Ralph S. Alexander, ed., New Marketing Definitions,” Marketing News,

March 1, 1985, p. 1.

Stephen P. Robbins, Mary Coulter, Management 7thed, North Asia,

Prentice Hall inc, 2002.