Professional ethics in accounting and auditing: A necessity or choice

Ethics is an inclusive subject that covers all aspects of human’s life. The ever- increasing development of human communities and further complexity of social relations and ties create new requirements. Emerging of various professions is the consequence of effort to meet these needs which form over the time and change in circumstances and gradually pass through path of development and evolution. Due to necessity of work division and expert nature of affairs, these professions are more consolidated every day and play their role in improving public welfare for communities. Survival of any profession and employment is subjected to type and quality of services that it presents and credit and trust, which are acquired as a result of giving such services. This credit and confidence is the main capital for any profession and it crucially important to maintain them. This requires any profession and its members to serve the community as their main task and goal and to pursue and interpret their personal benefits only within the framework of giving these services. Although, it is a long time that accounting professional communities in several countries have codified professional conduct code in order to protect from public properties and requiring accountants to observe professional ethics, it seems that professional conduct code could not solely solve the existing problems and so far professional accounting scandals occur throughout the world

Professional ethics in accounting and auditing: A necessity or choice

Ethics is an inclusive subject that covers all aspects of human’s life. The ever- increasing development of human communities and further complexity of social relations and ties create new requirements. Emerging of various professions is the consequence of effort to meet these needs which form over the time and change in circumstances and gradually pass through path of development and evolution. Due to necessity of work division and expert nature of affairs, these professions are more consolidated every day and play their role in improving public welfare for communities. Survival of any profession and employment is subjected to type and quality of services that it presents and credit and trust, which are acquired as a result of giving such services. This credit and confidence is the main capital for any profession and it crucially important to maintain them. This requires any profession and its members to serve the community as their main task and goal and to pursue and interpret their personal benefits only within the framework of giving these services. Although, it is a long time that accounting professional communities in several countries have codified professional conduct code in order to protect from public properties and requiring accountants to observe professional ethics, it seems that professional conduct code could not solely solve the existing problems and so far professional accounting scandals occur throughout the world

Professional ethics in accounting and auditing: A necessity or choice

Ethics is an inclusive subject that covers all aspects of human’s life. The ever- increasing development of human communities and further complexity of social relations and ties create new requirements. Emerging of various professions is the consequence of effort to meet these needs which form over the time and change in circumstances and gradually pass through path of development and evolution. Due to necessity of work division and expert nature of affairs, these professions are more consolidated every day and play their role in improving public welfare for communities. Survival of any profession and employment is subjected to type and quality of services that it presents and credit and trust, which are acquired as a result of giving such services. This credit and confidence is the main capital for any profession and it crucially important to maintain them. This requires any profession and its members to serve the community as their main task and goal and to pursue and interpret their personal benefits only within the framework of giving these services. Although, it is a long time that accounting professional communities in several countries have codified professional conduct code in order to protect from public properties and requiring accountants to observe professional ethics, it seems that professional conduct code could not solely solve the existing problems and so far professional accounting scandals occur throughout the world

Workplace peer educators and HIV testing: understanding the challenges faced in a South African mining company

MA , Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011South Africa has a high number of people living with HIV as UNAIDS (2009) projected the population of people living with HIV to be 5.7 million of which 20% of this population is said to be in employment. As a corrective measure, various strategies at national and company levels are being employed to get people to test for HIV. HIV testing helps people to know their status which is a gateway to informed prevention behavior and treatment. In workplaces, peer educators play an important role in getting workers to take up HIV test. As workplace peer educators mobilize workers to take up HIV test, they continue to face challenges. This precedes the broad objective of this study, which is to understand challenges faced by workplace peer educators in getting workers to take up HIV test. This report is a product of in-depth interviews, with fourteen peer educators, two wellness officers and the wellness coordinator. Participant observations and document analysis were also employed in gathering data. The data collection process extended from July to December 2010 in a mining company in the North West province in South Africa. Findings of the research revealled that despite the company’s HIV testing programme being a success as evidenced by a recorded cumulative annual uptake rate of 82% (2009), peer educators still face challenges emanating from environmental, programmatic and socio-interactional and perceptional factors. Environmental factors include skepticism based on precarious employment contracts while programmatic factors include certification of test results, speculation of test results based on time spent in the testing cubicle, consent procedures and incentivisation of testing. Lastly socio-interactional and perceptional factors that include stigma and discrimination, cultural beliefs, poor disclosure strategies, perceived racialisation of workplace testing centers and male workers relying on results from partner’s antenatal test were identified as another set of challenges faced by peer educators. The study suggests that in order to improve the HIV test uptake rate, in this context referring to the attainment of an absolute uptake rate, mitigation measure which include the use of trade unions in mobilizing workers for HIV testing, training on disclosure, re-negotiation and design of testing programmes and education must be considered. The adoption and administration of these measures into the case study company’s HIV test programme and other institutions facing the same challenges will help improve the HIV test uptake

About the Importance of Interface Complexity and Entropy for Online Information Sharing

In this paper, we describe two experiments that show the powerful influence of interface complexity and entropy on online information sharing behaviour. 134 participants were asked to do a creativity test and answer six open questions against three different screen backgrounds of increasing complexity. Our data shows that, as an interface becomes more complex and has more entropy users refer less to themselves and show less information sharing breadth. However, their verbal creativity and information sharing depth do not suffer in the same way. Instead, an inverse U shaped relationship between Interface complexity and creativity as well as information sharing depth can be observed: Users become more creative and thoughtful until a certain tipping point of interface complexity is reached. At that point, creativity and th inking suffer, leading to significantly less disclosure. This result challenges the general HCI assumption that simplicity is always best for computers interface design , as users'creativity and information sharing depth initially increases with more interface complexity. Our results suggest that the Yerkes Dodson Law may be a key theory underlying online creativity and depth of online disclosures

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF ORGANIZATIONAL SILENCE IN HIERARCHICAL ORGANIZATIONS: TURKISH NATIONAL POLICE CASE

As being the main ingredient of organizations, employees possess information, experience, institutional knowledge, and ideas about their organizations. They also encounter many problems at the all stages of their work. Although it is expected from them to report the problems or share the solutions and information they have, they sometimes choose to remain silent. Understanding the employees’ perspectives are very important for better understanding the reasons they behave in an undesired manner. This study is aimed at determining what reasons that negatively affect employees’ decisions speak up and the extent they feel the given reasons lead them to remain silent. The research showed that administrative and organizational reasons are the most effective reasons impacting employee silence. Reassuring trust from executives by ensuring spaces for employees’ vocal participation and rebuilding the communication bridges between managers and subordinates will help increase the performance and efficiency of the organization as a result

Antecedents of self-disclosure on social networking sites (SNSs): A study of Facebook users

Self-disclosure on social networking sites (SNSs) leads to social capital development, connectedness, and relationship building. Due to several benefits associated with this behavior, self-disclosure has become a subject of research over the last few years. The current study investigates the antecedents of self-disclosure under the lens of the technology acceptance model (TAM). The research is quantitative, and the data were collected from 400 Pakistani Facebook users with a variety of demographic characteristics. The partial least squares-structural equation model (PLS-SEM) analysis technique was employed to analyze the data. The study′s findings confirmed that perceived usefulness is a strong predictor of personal information sharing, and it along with other variables causes a 31% variation in self-disclosure behavior. However, trust (medium and social) mediates the relationship of perceived usefulness, privacy concerns, and self-disclosure behavior

How the introduction of the COVID-19 tracing apps affects future tracking technology adoption

Purpose Studies on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tracing apps have mostly focused on how to optimize adoption and continuous use, but did not consider potential long-term effects of their introduction. This study aims to analyse whether the characteristics of the recent introduction of tracing apps may negatively impact individuals' attitudes and intentions to adopt future tracking technology. Design/methodology/approach In an online experiment across three countries (Australia, Germany, UK), the authors measured how perceived benefits of COVID-19 tracing apps as well as specific government and campaign-related factors affect privacy concerns, attitude towards future tracking apps and intention to adopt. The authors manipulated the type of provider (governmental vs private) and the type of beneficiaries of the future tracking technology app (the individual alone or also the public) as determinants of adoption. Findings The authors find that privacy concerns towards the COVID-19 tracing apps negatively impact attitude and intention to adopt future tracking apps. Future adoption is more likely if the app is provided by the government, whereas additional benefits to the public do not positively stimulate adoption. Second, the study analyzed different factors, including perceptions on governments and the app introduction, as well as perceived benefits. Originality/value Taking the introduction of COVID-19 apps in different countries as a basis, the authors link both perceived benefits and contextual factors to privacy concerns, attitudes towards and intention to adopt the related technology in the future. The authors hereby clarify the responsibility of governmental actors who conduct large-scale technology introductions for the future diffusion of related technologies

Essays on behavioural and organizational economics

This thesis consists of three self-contained experimental studies focusing on conformity behavior in the leader appointment process, self-group risk preferences of elected leaders and performance feedback mechanisms. In Chapter 1, I investigate discrimination against women in election settings and whether group dynamics undermine women’s chances to become leaders. I conduct a voting experiment which tests the effect of the candidate’s gender on voting behavior, and the role of conformity. Consistent with the predictions of a simple model, subjects tend to vote for candidates who exhibit similar (risk) preferences. Information on the gender of the candidates mitigates proximity concerns of the voter especially in favor of the male candidate. Yet, there is no conclusive result for the gender bias. The results also confirm that conformity is a significant factor in group decision-making. In Chapter 2, I analyze the mechanism which induces the difference between self and group risk attitudes of elected leaders. I focus on two motivations: a “leadership effect”, that is created by the competition and the sense of responsibility of the leadership status, and a “group concern” of the leader. The results show that elected leaders significantly become more risk-seeking when deciding on behalf of a group compared to their individual decisions. Meeting the expectations of group members seems the main driver of this observed behavioral change. In Chapter 3, in a setting where feedback is given strategically by a supervisor, we theoretically and experimentally analyze how employees interpret the received feedback in forming beliefs of themselves and whether feedback communicates the iv actual performance information truthfully. We found that information transmission occurs only in verifiable feedback mechanisms and private-verifiable is the most informative mechanism. We observed lying-aversion among principles: the results indicate a lying cost, and there is a tendency to send the true information where lying is profitable