Quality of internal control procedures : antecedents and moderating effect on organisational justice and employee fraud

Purpose – This study aims to bring together theoretical concepts from the organizational justice, internal control and fraud literature to develop two distinct models relating to employee fraud and the quality of internal control procedures (ICP), respectively.

Design/methodology/approach – Survey data from 64 Australian firms were used to develop the two models. The first model was tested using a logistic regression analysis, and the second model was tested using a multiple regression analysis.

Findings – The first model reveals that the quality of ICP has a moderating effect on the relationship between perceptions of organizational justice and employee fraud. The second model indicates that ICP quality is significantly and positively related to three key organizational factors: the corporate ethical environment, the extent of risk management training of staff, and the internal audit (IA) activity level.

Practical implications – Risk management strategies relating to employee fraud will need to pay greater attention to organizational factors that affect both perceptions of justice at the workplace and ICP quality, including fostering a more ethical and equitable work environment, increasing IA activities and staff training in risk management.

Originality/value – Using the fraud triangle framework, this study extends previous literature by providing empirical evidence on the role of organizational justice and ICP regarding employee fraud.

Development of organizational internet security policy: a holistic approach

This chapter describes a general framework for developing organizational internet security policy. A model of internet security risks for an internet user organization is proposed. The framework utilizes this model, as well as a holistic approach, to develop the organization's internet security policy. A hierarchy of sub-policies for the internet security policy is also suggested. This chapter presents findings from part of a wider investigation into internet security policy.

Organizational factors in the diffusion of an industry standard: implementing an online documentation system for Australian exporters

At present, governments in many countries are actively engaged in the development of electronic trading and certification standards to enable the smooth operation of export markets. Standards and their usability underpin confidence in the operations of markets and their effective functioning. In institutional markets, an important role for government agencies lies in developing the initial specifications for standards for interoperable systems. Once these specifications are accepted, governments can then facilitate the eventual diffusion of a standard to the B2B marketplace. Acceptance of an industry standard can determine demand, which defines the viability of that market. In this paper, we describe an initiative by a government agency, the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS), in developing EXDOC, a standard for export documentation and the role that AQIS played in its implementation and diffusion. Our case study illustrates a successfully facilitated B2G implementation. It demonstrates how a standard can be supported and promulgated for the effective functioning of markets in the transition from manual to online export documentation. Once the overarching specifications for related industries have been established and diffused by government, opportunities arise for private sector markets to develop across these industries. Government agencies can promote the effective operation of standards for electronic markets. The EXDOC implementation and its iterations provide an exemplar of active engagement in the development of electronic trading and certification standards for an institutional market. Its successful diffusion provides a model of the implementation process for other export sectors and agencies.

High Stakes: Lessons from stakeholder groups in the biodiversity conservation network

Research in common property, participatory resource management, and community development points to the central importance of organizational arrangements in conservation and development interventions. The dilemma facing contemporary conservation practitioners is how best to assist and facilitate such arrangements in support of participatory resource management and sustainable livelihoods, given the range of organizations, societal processes, and structures in which interventions might engage. This article presents some key findings from a study of stakeholder groups at 4 project sites, with information from a further 16 sites, in the Biodiversity Conservation Network: (1) Longstanding organizations had an established community niche, but could become bogged down in bureaucratic procedures; (2) poor communication between organizations was common and could undermine resource management; and (3) charismatic individuals and local elite interests could dominate groups, diminishing their representativeness. Based on these findings, the article argues that conservation professionals need to build their capacity as facilitators and negotiators, paying greater attention to how stakeholder groups form and function, their links to wider arenas, and the aims and positions of groups and individuals.

Clinical nurses` response to an environment of health care reform and organizational restructuring

The aim of this paper is to provide an explanation for clinicians' undisputed acceptance of change. This will be performed by examining the process of organizational restructuring across three analytical levels – the macro, meso and micro; identifying the consequences of restructuring for clinical nurses' performance; and evaluating organizational restructuring using a micro-political theoretical framework.

Securing institutional legitimacy or organizational effectiveness?

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider the impact of a major initiative (the National Competition Policy) and pieces of legislation (the Local Government Act and the Local Government Finance Standards) on the internal practices of a large Australian local authority.

Design/methodology/approach: A theoretical framework is developed using new public management (NPM) and neo-institutional theory literatures to explain the findings. A case study approach was applied to collect the data for the research.

Findings: The findings reveal that the National Competition Policy 1993, the Local Government Act 1993 and the Local Government Finance Standards 1994 mainly have brought about significant changes to the organisation's internal management control processes, such as financial reporting, budgeting and performance appraisal. The changes brought in appeared to be coincidentally similar to NPM ideals. Furthermore, senior managers (such as the chief executive and divisional heads) played a major role in implementing new accounting technologies (activity-based costing and the balanced scorecard type performance measurement system).

Research limitations/implications: Future research on public sector financial management from the outset of organisational contexts could considerably further the stock of knowledge in this area, especially given the rapid changes occurring within the public sector throughout the world. Future research may wish to extend this study by assessing how external legitimating functions become internal reality, the perceptions of reality of the organisational members, and how these perceptions change over time.

Practical implications: The findings reported provide evidence to further our understanding of how the introduction of private sector styles of organisational practices into large areas of the public sector brought about significant changes in the demand for “new” financial management practices.

Originality/value: The findings reported on in this paper will open a new path of research that may increase our understanding about the factors that play a role in the design of management and accounting systems in a public sector context. Further, they will help policy makers and public sector managers in their day-to-day decision-making.

The organizational legitimacy of the Bauhaus

Gaining and maintaining organizational legitimacy can be a major issue
for social and political structures such as cultural organizations. Legitimacy, sometimes called credibility, brings with it access to resources needed for survival and development. Organizations without legitimacy tend not to be successful in attracting grants, subsidies, and sponsorships. Research suggests that legitimate organizations may be seen as valuable social structures (Hybels 1995; Suchman 1995) and come to be “taken for granted” as part of the social fabric. In this article, I explore organizational legitimacy using the framework of institutional theory. I first define legitimacy and then discuss the key concepts of organizational legitimacy. Next, I present a case study based on an art/craft/design school. The school, known as the Bauhaus, existed between 1919 and 1933 in three German cities—Weimar, Dessau, and Berlin. Deterministic views of the pre–World War II environment suggest that the Nazi party was responsible for the closure of the Bauhaus. I argue that other factors were apparent. The Nazi regime was becoming a significant force in the late 1920s, but the story of the Bauhaus becomes more complex when viewed under the rubric of arts management and organizational legitimacy. In this article, I discuss how the Bauhaus sought and managed legitimacy and the role that the state and other actors played in granting that legitimacy. In conclusion, I offer a summary of the relevance of legitimacy to contemporary arts organizations.

Multi-jurisdictional merger review procedures - a better way

Corporate mergers whose effects transcend national borders have faced increasing regulation over the past few decades as more jurisdictions have developed merger laws and imposed pre-merger notification requirements. The level of regulatory response to multi-jurisdictional mergers is likely to continue to increase as even more jurisdictions contemplate the introduction of competition laws. This level of regulation now goes beyond that required to protect national economies from potentially harmful mergers and has seen burgeoning costs to business, regulators and, ultimately, the public. In recognition of this, the relatively newly formed International Competition Network has placed merger regulation at the forefront of its agenda for greater harmonisation and cooperation in competition law. This has seen, over the past three years, the development of a set of guiding principles and recommended practices for merger notification procedures designed to reduce the regulatory burden. This article evaluates these recommendations and discusses areas for further reform.

A study of organizational effectiveness for national olympic sporting organizations

This study applies the competing values approach (CVA) of organizational effectiveness to a sample of nonprofit Australian national Olympic sporting organizations (NOSOs). The purpose of the study was to determine the psychometric properties of the subscales developed within each of the four quadrants composing the CVA. Two hundred eightynine constituents from 10 NOSOs participated in this study. Initial factor analysis resulted in six of the eight theoretically derived cells in the CVAeach yielding one reliable factor. These were Flexibility, Resources, Planning, Productivity, Availability of Information, and Stability. The other two cells, Skilled Workforce and Cohesive Workforce, each produced a two-factor structure. To understand the relationship between these manifest factors (cells) and organizational effectiveness, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted, which revealed that the rational-goal model, comprising Productivity and Planning, was the critical determinant of effectiveness in NOSOs.

Organizational change in the public sector: augmenting the demand control model to predict employee outcomes under New Public Management

This study identifies the environmental and personal characteristics that predict employee outcomes within an Australian public sector organization that had, under New Public Management (NPM), implemented a variety of practices traditionally found in the private sector. These are more results-oriented, and their adoption can be accompanied by increased strain for employees. The current investigation was guided by two complementary theories, the Demand Control Support (DCS) model and Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, and sought to examine the benefits of building on the DCS to include both situation-specific stressors and internal coping resources. Survey responses from 1,155 employees were analysed. The hierarchical regression analyses indicated that both external and employee-centred variables made significant contributions to variations in psychological health, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. The external resources, work based support and, to a lesser extent, job control, predicted relatively large proportions of the variance in the target variables. The situation-specific stressors, particularly those involving harmful management practices (e.g., insufficient time to do job as well as you would like, lack of recognition for good work), made significant contributions to the outcome measures and generally supported the process of augmenting the generic components of the DCS with more situation-specific variables. In terms of internal resources, problem and emotion-based coping improved the capacity of the model to predict psychological health. The results suggest that the impact of NPM can be ameliorated by incorporating the dimensions of the augmented DCS and coping resources into the change programme.

Triangulation in organizational research : a re-presentation

This paper extends the discussion of postmodern thinking in organizational theory through a re-presentation of the concept of triangulation in organizational research. Initially triangulation is defined through the contrasting lenses of positivism and post-positivism/postmodernism and analysed as a metaphor for fixing and capturing the research subject. Subsequently triangulation is ‘re-presented’ as ‘metaphorization’—in terms of process and movement between researcher-subject positions. Rethinking the lines and angles of enquiry in triangulation, the paper suggests a shift from the ‘triangulation of distance’ tradition to a more reflexive consideration of ‘researcher stance’. This movement is represented across three perspectives: the researcher as a follower of nomothetic lines; the researcher as the taker of an ideographic overview; and the researcher as the finder of a particular angle. The implications of this re-presentation are then discussed in terms of perspective, data capture, reflexivity and metatriangulation.