The effect of the work environment on accounting students' moral reasoning and development

Puxty et al. (1994) claim that professional accountants are induced to act ethically through two aspects of their socialisation, the education process, and the influence of work experience and role models who show what it means to be ethical. The education of accountants is not simply a matter of becoming technically competent, it is also a process of internalising accepted norms of professional conduct. Student accountants learn acceptable behaviour by learning the principles of good conduct in their education, and receiving advice and observing what significant others do in the workplace. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of the work environment on accounting students moral reasoning and development by comparing the DIT P-scores of accounting students pre and post cooperative education. Cooperative eduction is an industry placement program where students are required to work in commerce and industry for one year. Findings indicate that DIT P-scores decrease during cooperative education suggesting that accounting students, whilst in the work environment, do not reason according to their capability as measured by their pre-test scores.

Developing an ethics education framework for accounting

The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework of ethics education that promotes the structured learning of ethics in the accounting discipline. The Ethics Education Framework (EEF) is based on three key inter-related components that include: Rest’s (1986) Four-Component Model of ethical decision-making and behaviour; the key cognitive and behavioural objectives of ethics education; and the discrete and pervasive approaches to delivering content. The EEF provides university students and professional accountants a structure to learn to identify, analyse and resolve ethical issues, to the point of action. The EEF is a four-stage learning continuum represented as a set of building blocks which introduces ethical concepts and then reinforces and develops new levels of understanding with progressive stages. This paper describes the EEF, and includes a discussion of how it compares with other ethics education models, and an analysis of the support through responses by professional organisations (based on an Exposure Draft issued by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), as the initial International Education Practice Statement). The IFAC has now revised its International Education Standard (IES 4) in relation to ethics, with a commentary period till July 2011.

Understanding the conditions of trust in the ALT and AMT relationships in project alliancing

This research also aims to develop a robust trust framework which can improve the understanding of the theory to support trust in alliancing, in particular the ALT and AMT relationship to improve project success factors. Research in trust within the construction industry has not yet examined how the relational signals within the five situations in the normative framework identified by Siegwart Lindenberg affect the level of trustworthiness between partners. More research is necessary to explore potential frameworks that can be used as the basis for future research in trust. Data from previous research in the performance of alliance has been used to verify the proposed framework. The framework will be developed in the ALT and AMT relationship to improve project success factors within the alliance. The originality of this research is trying to understand trust in the context of project alliancing in Australia as there are an increasing number of construction projects using the alliancing procurement method. Additionally, this research is examining the conditions of trust from the ALT and AMT teams specifically formed for the collaboration of project alliancing.

Style of information usage and use of accounting information : a Malaysian study

Purpose – Since the 1990s, there has been a growing interest in style of information usage. However, most studies on style of information usage are conducted in developed countries. There is limited research on style of information usage in developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to fill the gap in the existing literature by examining relationships between style of information usage and use of financial and non-financial information in Malaysia.

Design/methodology/approach – The authors adopted a survey method, for which a written questionnaire was prepared and mailed out to companies in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Terengganu and Pulau Pinang.

Findings – Findings of the study show that diagnostic style of information usage is positively associated with use of financial information, while interactive style of information usage is positively associated with use of non-financial information. Further analysis on types of non-financial information used by managers who adopt interactive style of information usage reveals that customer-related non-financial information such as quality, customer satisfaction and flexibility play a more important role in their decision-making processes.

Originality/value – The paper provides insights into relationships between style of information usage on and use of accounting information in developing countries. Findings of the study can be applied to assist management accountants in meeting managers’ information requirements.

Professional ethics for UK construction professionals

The construction industry has a number of unique characteristics, including a temporary organisational structure, and it is one of the most dangerous of all industries. Therefore, it is important for construction professionals to have a high level of professional ethics. However, the public standing of construction professional ethics may not be high and it attracts a lot of attention.

This paper investigates UK construction professionals' view on professional ethics. The issues which are investigated for quantity surveyors include their view on ethical behaviours, their ranking and rating of parties and constituencies when they face ethical dilemmas and their opinion on whether they think the ethical standards have declined over the last decade. The paper also outlined the UK construction managers' view on the ethical perception of other construction managers. In addition, the factors influencing the ethical decision making of the UK quantity surveyors and construction managers are also identified. Furthermore, the background of influence on the views of professional ethics is also outlined.

The research method of the project is through questionnaire survey, one set of questionnaires was sent to quantity surveyor and the other was sent to construction managers. The questions in the questionnaires are developed from the previous literature.

CONBPS : an expert system to improve the efficiency of the construction process

The aim of the research outlined in this paper is to develop a best practice process model for building projects based on the use of an expert system. The CONstruction Best Practice System (CONBPS) focusses on projects which are based on the traditional procurement strategy, using the JCT 80 standard form of contract. The model clearly identifies the sequence of construction activities. It also identifies the roles and responsibilities of the major parties on the building team and the issues within the project cycle, which can prove critical to project success. The system incorporates many user-friendly functions, including the provision of multi-choice icons and the provision of an on-line help function. Besides, it also provides interim and final reports which are used to advise the participants on the success factors that they have ignored and to which aspects they should pay more attention. A framework was initially developed focussing on the whole design process with a full knowledge-based system developed for the Inception Stage. CONBPS can be used as a teaching/learning tool to assist teachers and students to better understand the construction process. Also, it could prove useful to project managers and all the participants in the construction process.

A comparative analysis of decision trees vis-à-vis other computational data mining techniques in automotive insurance fraud detection

The development and application of computational data mining techniques in financial fraud detection and business failure prediction has become a popular cross-disciplinary research area in recent times involving financial economists, forensic accountants and computational modellers. Some of the computational techniques popularly used in the context of - financial fraud detection and business failure prediction can also be effectively applied in the detection of fraudulent insurance claims and therefore, can be of immense practical value to the insurance industry. We provide a comparative analysis of prediction performance of a battery of data mining techniques using real-life automotive insurance fraud data. While the data we have used in our paper is US-based, the computational techniques we have tested can be adapted and generally applied to detect similar insurance frauds in other countries as well where an organized automotive insurance industry exists.

Factors affecting capital program performance audit findings

Complex capital programs require specialized management techniques, in order to address the volatility, cost overruns, significant delays in completion, and failures with which such programs are typically associated. The need is greater than ever for careful oversight, especially for programs that expend public monies.

Audit is commonly a statutory or governance requirement on such programs, but traditional performance audit techniques and standards may be insufficient for certain types of programs and industries, providing a mere illusion of oversight adequacy instead of the assurance that is needed. In order to most appropriately define the performance audit scope, phrase the solicitation for services, select the audit team, and provide support to the auditors during the engagement, public and private sector entity auditees need to understand the factors that impact performance audit results and effectiveness. The question becomes one of how performance audit can be improved, and stakeholders satisfied regarding program achievements, accountability for resource use, transparency in operations, and risk management.

The author considered program complexity, governance, project controls, the history and evolution of the audit function, stakeholder expectations, assurance, and obstacles to audit, and used this information in conjunction with data from a large sample of 775 audit reports from complex construction programs, to derive questions and conclusions about performance audit results and effectiveness, and comparisons to expenditure audit results. The ultimate goal was to define key components in the execution of performance audits, based on theconclusions of the analysis, in order to improve performance audit findings and thus their applicability and usefulness.

While this study focused on program performance audit, it was also related to the field of program management. Although the data population was concentrated in the area of construction programs, conclusions from this research may also be applied to other complex, multifaceted or phased activities such as projects and programs in other industries (manufacturing, information technology), and also pursuits such as major event planning, company launch, mergers, and large program implementations or rollouts.

The research results clearly demonstrated that different types of findings were generated by different audit scopes. The author observed that typical audit findings focused on routine procedural, accounting, and controls errors. On average, contract expenditure audits questioned only 2.65% of expenditures, and performance audits of large complex programs questioned only 0.03% of expenditures. The majority (72.56%) of the performance audits in the sample yielded no findings or questioned costs.

There were significant positive correlations between: the number of expenditures tested and the number of qualitative findings, inclusion of construction experts on the audit team and the percentage of expenditures questioned, inclusion of construction experts on the audit team and the number of qualitative findings, broader audit scope and the percentage of expenditures questioned, and broader audit scope and the number of qualitative findings. Of these, auditor expertise and audit scope were the driving factors.

There were significant negative correlations between the application of agreed-upon procedures and the percentage of expenditures questioned, and the application of agreed upon-procedures and the number of qualitative findings. It was determined that the significant negative correlation between the application of audit standards and the number of qualitative findings was due to other factors, such as the application of agreed-upon procedures and the lack of construction experts on the audit team.

Other findings, resulting from review of the data, were unrelated to the research questions yet of considerable importance to industry. An extremely high percentage (81%) of the “performance audits” instead applied a very limited set of agreed-upon-procedures (AUP) in the engagement, According to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CPAs), AUP engagements could not be classified as audits. Thus, it was inappropriate for the accounting firms to apply AUP engagements in lieu of a performance audit, and it was especially egregious for them to state in their report that the engagements were conducted in accordance with audit standards, as AUP engagements and the specific audit standards were by their very nature mutually exclusive.

The soft systems approach to understanding trust in alliances in Australia

Alliances are complex projects with high levels of risk and uncertainty. Despite the pain share and gain share commercial arrangement in alliances, Trust is still an issue between the Alliancing Leadership Team (ALT) and Alliancing Management Team relationship (AMT). Although the concept and components of trust have been discussed by various researchers, the characteristic of trust under different situations has not been tested within the procurement research domain. Based on semi-structured interviews with the members of the ALT and AMT of an alliance project in Australia the underlying trust based relationships between the AMT and ALT were investigated using the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM). Results demonstrate that cognitive, affect, system and cognitive-affect based trust are mediated by common good, needs, sharing, breach temptation and mishap situations. This research demonstrates that the adversarial culture of the Australian construction industry cannot be changed by the implementation of trust principles alone. The culture of suspicion dominating the ideological view of the construction industry requires organizational learning between alliance parties to execute appropriate behaviours, aligned with the alliancing philosophy, to effectively achieve ideal collaboration.

The expectation-performance gap in generic skills in accounting graduates : Evidence from Sri Lanka

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the generic skills that are important for the career success of accounting graduates in Sri Lanka from the perspectives of university educators and employers.

Design/methodology/approach
Bui and Porter's (2010) expectation-performance gap framework was modified to match with the context of the current study. Data collected via questionnaire survey was analysed for non-parametric tests: the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and the Mann-Whitney test, using SPSS version 20, and quantified the expectation-performance gap and its components.

Findings
The major finding of this research is that the main cause for the expectation-performance gap, as identified in the analysis of the constraint gap is university educators’ low confidence in teaching the required generic skills for career success of graduates. However, university educators are aware of the employer expectations of graduate accountants in terms of generic skills. Employers indicated that many of the generic skills are not achieved by the accounting graduates.

Practical implications
Findings of this study reflect the importance of expanding the accounting curricula by embedding and assessing generic skill development activities. In addition, it is vital to develop the capacities of university educators in terms of teaching and assessing generic skills in accounting degree programmes.

Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature as one of few studies that investigate the generic skills development of accounting graduates in Asia, particularly in Sri Lanka.

Commercial awareness in real estate courses

 Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how and to what extent commercial awareness is
embedded within the curriculum of the UK Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)-accredited
real estate courses. It also discusses the development of commercial awareness taxonomy.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents the research findings of questionnaire
survey and interviews with RICS-accredited real estate course providers in the UK. The questionnaire
aimed to gather course directors’ views on the definitions and components of commercial awareness
and identify what skills and attributes are required for its development. It also evaluated how
commercial awareness has been embedded in the real estate courses. The aim of the interview was to
gain deeper insight on how components of commercial awareness are embedded in real estate courses
and nine interviews were conducted. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and coded to identify
similar themes. The frequency of the answer in the questionnaire and comments from interviewees
is presented.
Findings – The UK real estate academics agreed the most important definition of commercial
awareness as that of a “person’s ability on understanding of the economics of business”. They agreed
that “strategic” is the most important component for commercial awareness, followed with “financial”
and “process”. However, the “financial” component is embedded the most in the curriculum. The most
important skill and attribute for commercial awareness development are “ability to define and solve
problems” and “ability and willingness to update professional knowledge”, respectively. Commercial
awareness was embedded in the overall curriculum and the key element for developing it is through
having “practical experience”.
Originality/value – This project is the first to conduct an in-depth analysis of commercial awareness
in real estate education. It also develops the pioneer commercial awareness taxonomy.
Keywords UK, Curriculum development, Commercial awareness, Curriculum enhancement,
Real estate education
Paper type Research paper