The Effects of Senior Internal Auditor Behaviour on Staff Performance and Satisfaction

The increasing importance of the internal audit function in the USA is evidenced by the attention focused on this function by professional standard setting bodies (Institute of Internal Auditors, 1989; American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, 1991) and an investigatory commission (National Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting, 1987). Previous research in both accounting (Jiambalvo and Pratt, 1982; Pratt and Jiambalvo, 1981) and organisational behaviour (see Yukl, 1989 for a review) has identified specific leader behaviours that result in improved performance and satisfaction. Using a recently developed taxonomy unavailable at the time these previous studies were conducted, this study explores the effect of leader (senior internal auditor) behaviours on subunit (internal audit team) performance and subordinate (internal audit staff) satisfaction. The results of this study indicate that audit efficiency is influenced by both task behaviours (e.g. administering discipline) and relationship oriented behaviours (e.g., facilitating cooperation and teamwork and providing praise and recognition); in contrast, audit effectiveness is influenced primarily by task-oriented behaviour. Staff satisfaction is influenced by both types of behaviour. These associations have implications for the training of internal auditors and assignment of internal auditors to projects. Also, increases in staff satisfaction should result in lower turnover, providing a cost saving to the organisation through reduced training, staffing and recruiting costs.     

Financing China’s unprecedented infrastructure boom: the evolution of capital structure from 1978 to 2015

ABSTRACT

The authors examine the sources of the funds that have financed China’s infrastructure development since 1978. They define the five periods in which this development has taken place in terms of predominant financing: fiscal funds, build-operate-transfer (BOT), treasury bonds, the land financing, and local bonds. The system is characterized by a heavy reliance on debt financing and one-off revenues. These approaches have raised widespread concerns about fiscal sustainability in China. The authors explain why a shift towards the more conventional approach of fiscal funds is necessary.     

Earnings management and IPO anomalies in China

This paper empirically examines the impact of earnings management and investor sentiment on IPO anomalies using a sample of 506 Chinese IPOs issued over the 1998–2003 period. We develop a parsimonious pricing model in which both the offer price and the short-term aftermarket price are influenced by the use of earnings management, and show that the offer price can be below the fair price while the short-term equilibrium price in the aftermarket can be overvalued due to investor sentiment. Consistent with the overreaction hypothesis, the empirical results reveal a positive relation between the initial return and managed accruals and a negative relation between the long-term stock performance and the initial return. Earnings management appears to generate a pattern where the initial price following an IPO tends to be inflated by overreaction in the secondary market but adjusts to its fundamental level in the long run. These findings are robust across a variety of test specifications.     

Control and organizational order

This paper presents a broader conception of control, exploring its role within pluralistic organization. Reconceptualization is necessary because conventional authoritative and consensual versions of the manegerial control model fail to take account of autonomous activity. An alternative conception, regarding controlling as causing and attributing control to all sources of stability and change, is needed to recognize that forces other than senior management can and do shape organizational order. Control is not management's prerogative; organizations are also self-governed through the assumptions, principles and rules underlying their beliefs and behaviours. Control is, thus, a non-cybernetic system encompassing both managerial and autonomous activity. Repositioning the conventional model within a pluralistic framework provides an understanding of why conceptualizing control as the cybernetic implementation of management's intentions has often obscured rather than illuminated the concept.     

The Effect of Bilingual Education on Housing Price-a Case Study of Bilingual School Conversion

The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics - This paper presents a case study of the impact of bilingual school designation on housing price by analyzing the case of school conversion from a...     

The pathogen construct in risk analysis

Project risk analysis has traditionally emphasized the analysis of external threats. Here we argue that internal decisions and structures are more fundamental, because they determine which external events pose risks to project management. A “pathogen” metaphor is used to understand these internal sources of risk, in an analysis of failure in two sets of projects that lie on the border between the private and public sectors. This analysis goes beyond earlier work on organizational pathogens by treating them as subjective interpretations, not objective conditions. The study suggests that the more insidious risks to which a project is exposed involve different project members holding contradictory beliefs about what is pathogenic and what is protective     

Systematic risk and international diversification: An empirical perspective

This paper reports findings from a study that systematically evaluated the nature of the relationship between internationalization and systematic risk. In addition to previous conceptualizations, this study also examined whether the number of foreign countries and segments a firm operates in constitute a part of the information used by market participants to assess a firm's risk exposure. We find that international diversification is significantly and positively associated with systematic risk and that diversification augments systematic risk. Our findings have implications on the stability of foreign expansion and business decisions by managers on the appropriate level of overseas commitment.