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Article
Publication date: 2 June 2014

Warren Maroun and Jill Atkins

The purpose of this paper is to explore how notions of disciplinary power manifest themselves in audit regulatory developments. When it comes to research on the relationship…

2119

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how notions of disciplinary power manifest themselves in audit regulatory developments. When it comes to research on the relationship between audit quality and regulation, much of the prior scholarly work has kept to the positivist tradition of quantitative analysis under the guise of “economic rationality”. In contrast, this research takes an interpretive approach to provide an alternate and unique perspective, using motifs of Foucauldian power and control to illuminate the operation of external regulation in a South African setting. The paper examines what may be loosely described as a mandatory whistle-blowing duty imposed on external auditors.

Design/methodology/approach

Detailed interviews with some of South Africa's leading corporate governance experts are used to highlight the disciplinary effect of an auditor's duty to bring reportable irregularities to the attention of an independent regulator.

Findings

Blowing the whistle on irregularities contributes, not only to increasing the information made available to stakeholders, but to creating a valid expectation of auditors serving the public interest by enhancing a sense of transparency and accountability. Elements of resistance to panoptic-like control are, however, also present suggesting that, in part, the regulation may simply be creating the illusion of active reporting.

Research limitations/implications

The research relies on a relatively small sample of subject experts and does not provide a complete account of regulatory developments taking place in South Africa and abroad. Additional research on the role of whistle-blowing in an external audit setting is needed focusing particularly on similarities and variations in interpretations of reporting by auditors from the perspective of more diverse stakeholder groups.

Practical/implications

Mandatory reporting of irregularities by auditors can provided additional useful information for stakeholders and may contribute to demands for more effective reporting by auditors.

Social implications

Arms-length regulation of the audit profession should not be seen only as a means of improving audit quality and the utility of audit reports. Powerful social forces are also. This research demonstrates how laws and regulations have a potential disciplinary effect on the audit profession that contributes to a restoration of confidence in the audit process after it is best by scandals, even if motifs of power and control are somewhat illusionary.

Originality/value

This research addresses the need for more detailed analysis of precisely how mechanisms of accountability and transparency operate in the broader corporate governance arena. The paper also contributes to the calls for more detailed, context-specific studies of audit. Finally, this paper is one of the first to employ a critical theoretical perspective on audit in an African setting, responding to the need for contextual, methodological and theoretical eclecticism in the area of corporate governance research.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 27 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Abstract

Institutional structures of professional career paths often support breadwinner–homemaker families, with a stay at home wife available full time to support the professional (and children), so the professional can devote complete energy and time to developing a career. This research examines how two partners in the same narrowly structured, fast track occupational culture such as those occurring for dual military officer couples shape how women and men negotiate decision making and life events. Data from interviews with 23 dual U.S. Navy officer couples build upon Becker and Moen’s (1999) scaling back notions. With both spouses in these careers, placing limits on work is extremely difficult due to fast track cultures that demand higher status choices and structures that formally do not reliably consider collocations. Trading off occurs, but with distress due to the unique demands on two partners in the fast track culture, which means career death for some. Two partners in fast track careers may not yet have given up on two careers as many peers may have, but they lose a great deal, including time together and their desired number of children. But they ultimately posit individual choice rather than focusing on structural change. The pressured family life resulting is likely similar to that for partners in other narrowly structured, fast track cultures such as in law firms and academia.

Details

Visions of the 21st Century Family: Transforming Structures and Identities
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78350-028-4

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 23 November 2018

Clement Olatunji Olaoye, Stephen Ayodeji Ogunleye and Festus Taiwo Solanke

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the tax audit on tax productivity in Lagos state, Nigeria. Specifically, the study analyzed trends of tax audit and tax…

7721

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the tax audit on tax productivity in Lagos state, Nigeria. Specifically, the study analyzed trends of tax audit and tax productivity, and the impact of Desk audit, Field audit and Back-duty audit on tax productivity in Lagos state.

Design/methodology/approach

The study made use of both primary and secondary data. Primary data used in the study were collected with the use of questionnaires administered to 350 randomly selected staffs of Lagos state Internal Revenue Services, while secondary data used in the study were sourced from Federal Inland Revenue Service and Lagos Internal Revenue Service audit division in Lagos state over the period spanning from 2000 to 2015. Data collated in the study were analyzed descriptively using inferential methods such as unit root test, and estimation techniques such as Fully Modified Least Square (FMOLS) co-integration regression and Logit regression analysis.

Findings

The study revealed that Field tax audit, desk tax audit and Back duty tax audit exert a significant positive impact on tax productivity with reported estimate of 0.530454 (p=0.0044<0.05) for FIDAUD, 0.774450 (p=0.0085< 0.05) for DEKAUD, 1.244317 (p=0.0001<0.05) for BAKAUD.

Research limitations/implications

Relevant tax authority (RTA), tax auditors and FIRS staff members should have full knowledge of modern audit tools like Computer Aided Audit Tools (CAATs) to enhance performance and maximum tax revenue generation.

Practical implications

The study concluded that tax audit enhances the level of productivity of tax administration in Lagos state and that any form of tax audit has the tendency of influencing revenue accruing to the government from taxation positively. Hence, tax audit should be carried out on a routine basis to ensure that actual revenue collected is what the RTA remits to the government. Tax audit department should be given autonomy to carry out their responsibilities effectively.

Social implications

Tax audit should be carried out on a routine basis to ensure that actual revenue collected is what the RTA remits to the government. Tax audit department should be given autonomy to carry out their responsibilities effectively.

Originality/value

This tax audit and tax productivity in Lagos state, Nigeria, fulfills an identified need to study how brand-supportive behavior can be enabled.

Details

Asian Journal of Accounting Research, vol. 3 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2443-4175

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 July 1977

John S. Evans

A striking feature of Jaques' work is his “no nonsense” attitude to the “manager‐subordinate” relationship. His blunt account of the origins of this relationship seems at first…

1242

Abstract

A striking feature of Jaques' work is his “no nonsense” attitude to the “manager‐subordinate” relationship. His blunt account of the origins of this relationship seems at first sight to place him in the legalistic “principles of management” camp rather than in the ranks of the subtler “people centred” schools. We shall see before long how misleading such first impressions can be, for Jaques is not making simplistic assumptions about the human psyche. But he certainly sees no point in agonising over the mechanism of association which brings organisations and work‐groups into being when the facts of life are perfectly straightforward and there is no need to be squeamish about them.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 15 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Article
Publication date: 1 November 1972

Reid, Morris of Borth‐y‐Gest, Pearson, Simon of Glaisdale and Salmon

June 28, 1972 Limitation of action — Asbestosis — Workman contracting insidious disease over number of years through employers' breach of statutory duty — Action commenced more…

81

Abstract

June 28, 1972 Limitation of action — Asbestosis — Workman contracting insidious disease over number of years through employers' breach of statutory duty — Action commenced more than one year after giving up work — Lack of knowledge that disease attributable to breach of duty — Whether workman entitled to bring action outside period — Limitation Act 1963 (c.47) ss. 1(3), 7(3).

Details

Managerial Law, vol. 13 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0558

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1901

The institution of food and cookery exhibitions and the dissemination of practical knowledge with respect to cookery by means of lectures and demonstrations are excellent things…

51

Abstract

The institution of food and cookery exhibitions and the dissemination of practical knowledge with respect to cookery by means of lectures and demonstrations are excellent things in their way. But while it is important that better and more scientific attention should be generally given to the preparation of food for the table, it must be admitted to be at least equally important to insure that the food before it comes into the hands of the expert cook shall be free from adulteration, and as far as possible from impurity,—that it should be, in fact, of the quality expected. Protection up to a certain point and in certain directions is afforded to the consumer by penal enactments, and hitherto the general public have been disposed to believe that those enactments are in their nature and in their application such as to guarantee a fairly general supply of articles of tolerable quality. The adulteration laws, however, while absolutely necessary for the purpose of holding many forms of fraud in check, and particularly for keeping them within certain bounds, cannot afford any guarantees of superior, or even of good, quality. Except in rare instances, even those who control the supply of articles of food to large public and private establishments fail to take steps to assure themselves that the nature and quality of the goods supplied to them are what they are represented to be. The sophisticator and adulterator are always with us. The temptations to undersell and to misrepresent seem to be so strong that firms and individuals from whom far better things might reasonably be expected fall away from the right path with deplorable facility, and seek to save themselves, should they by chance be brought to book, by forms of quibbling and wriggling which are in themselves sufficient to show the moral rottenness which can be brought about by an insatiable lust for gain. There is, unfortunately, cheating to be met with at every turn, and it behoves at least those who control the purchase and the cooking of food on the large scale to do what they can to insure the supply to them of articles which have not been tampered with, and which are in all respects of proper quality, both by insisting on being furnished with sufficiently authoritative guarantees by the vendors, and by themselves causing the application of reasonably frequent scientific checks upon the quality of the goods.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 3 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 9 January 2007

Leonieke G. Zomerdijk and Jan de Vries

The aim of this paper is to investigate how the distinction between contact and non‐contact activities influences the design of service delivery systems and to identify key design…

7349

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to investigate how the distinction between contact and non‐contact activities influences the design of service delivery systems and to identify key design decisions for structuring front office and back office work.

Design/methodology/approach

Building on current literature, the paper identifies three design decisions and associated performance trade‐offs. The design decisions regard the degree of customer contact in the process, the decoupling of activities and the grouping of employees. The design decisions and the trade‐offs are empirically validated in five case studies of 15 service delivery systems in the financial services sector.

Findings

Distinguishing between the three design decisions is more suitable for describing today's practices than traditional front office – back office thinking. For each design decision a trade‐off was observed consisting of several design considerations. However, the trade‐offs do not involve the weighing of one set of performance objectives against another, as the design choices contribute to the same objectives, yet in different ways.

Research limitations/implications

This study concentrated on a limited number of cases in the financial services sector. The contents of the trade‐offs should be tested on a larger scale and in different industries. In order to develop design guidelines, future research should also examine the impact of contingency factors, such as the service being delivered and strategic priorities.

Originality/value

The three design decisions and the trade‐offs improve understanding of the impact of customer contact on a service organisation and provide support for designing service delivery systems in practice.

Details

International Journal of Operations & Production Management, vol. 27 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3577

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 September 2023

Sumant Kumar and Avanish Bhai Patel

COVID-19 lockdown imposed by the government in India affected markets, factories, industries, construction sites, restaurants, transport services, etc. in which migrant workers…

Abstract

Purpose

COVID-19 lockdown imposed by the government in India affected markets, factories, industries, construction sites, restaurants, transport services, etc. in which migrant workers were engaged. Migrant workers expected that after the imposition of the lockdown government will facilitate transportation facilities to their hometowns as they lost their jobs. But due to negligence from both the central and the state governments, neither transportation was arranged nor food, shelter or health facilities were arranged. This paper aims to investigate the causes of the death of migrant workers under the theoretical framework of negligence theory.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors have applied the content analysis method and collected 926 death cases of migrant workers from 28 Indian states. The researchers applied this technique as the newspapers in India are one of the largest and most useful sources to generate a report/record on migrant workers causes during the COVID-19 lockdown. During the lockdown period, due to lack of attention from the government, police atrocities, hunger and accidental cases increased which resulted in the death of migrant workers.

Findings

The finding of the study proves that during the first phase of COVID-19 lockdown the death cases of migrant workers increased due to negligence by the governments. The number of death cases of migrant workers has been analysed through applying negligence theory which included duty, breach, cause, in fact, proximate cause and harm which increased the death cases. It has been noticed that the central government without any prior notice-imposed lockdown all over India, in which all the states were not received any guidelines or communication which indicate what they have to do or how to handle the Covid-19 situation.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is an original work of researchers which is basically based on negligence theory.

Details

Mental Health and Social Inclusion, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-8308

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 January 2024

Xinyang Liu, Anyu Liu, Xiaoying Jiao and Zhen Liu

The purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of implementing anti-dumping duties on imported Australian wine to China in the short- and long-run, respectively.

219

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of implementing anti-dumping duties on imported Australian wine to China in the short- and long-run, respectively.

Design/methodology/approach

First, the Difference-in-Differences (DID) method is used in this study to evaluate the short-run causal effect of implementing anti-dumping duties on imported Australian wine to China. Second, a Bayesian ensemble method is used to predict 2023–2025 wine exports from Australia to China. The disparity between the forecasts and counterfactual prediction which assumes no anti-dumping duties represents the accumulated impact of the anti-dumping duties in the long run.

Findings

The anti-dumping duties resulted in a significant decline in red and rose, white and sparkling wine exports to China by 92.59%, 99.06% and 90.06%, respectively, in 2021. In the long run, wine exports to China are projected to continue this downward trend, with an average annual growth rate of −21.92%, −38.90% and −9.54% for the three types of wine, respectively. In contrast, the counterfactual prediction indicates an increase of 3.20%, 20.37% and 4.55% for the respective categories. Consequently, the policy intervention is expected to result in a decrease of 96.11%, 93.15% and 84.11% in red and rose, white and sparkling wine exports to China from 2021 to 2025.

Originality/value

The originality of this study lies in the creation of an economic paradigm for assessing policy impacts within the realm of wine economics. Methodologically, it also represents the pioneering application of the DID and Bayesian ensemble forecasting methods within the field of wine economics.

Details

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-6119

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1987

Howard Johnson

The new Consumer Protection Act, 1987 has three main objectives:

Abstract

The new Consumer Protection Act, 1987 has three main objectives:

Details

Managerial Law, vol. 29 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0558

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