Professional accountants’ perceptions of servant-leadership: contexts, roles and cultures

The study takes servant-leadership and attempts to find if there is an equivalent concept in management. Leadership and management have been extensively compared and contrasted in research and theory and while there are divergent views of exactly what each entails, others hold the view that they might be equal and complementary. The research design follows a positivist philosophy. An instrument that measures distinct leader, manager and professional role preferences is used to check the discrete operation of three contexts among a sample of members of the accountancy profession. The instrument is derived from contextualising pre-developed and pre-tested servant-leadership measuring instruments. Items from the role preference map instrument are added together with demographic details to come up with a meta-instrument adapted for the study. After validating it through pilot-testing, the instrument is applied in real-world research. The research was conducted among a sample of professional accountants working in 28 countries across four continents in organisations with over 82,000 employees. Statistical analysis, employing; analysis of variance, correlations, frequencies, significances, means, variances and tests of scale reliability was performed on both the data and the instruments. The research found clear and reliable servant-leadership-type behaviours exhibited across the three discreet roles and contexts of leader, manager and professional. Some professional accountancy courses are delivered across many countries in the world. The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) is one such professional accountancy body that offers qualifications on a global scale. However, as accountants originate from, and practice in diverse cultures and economies around the world they are trained by institutes like ACCA from a common syllabus that has elements of management as a subject. Servant-leadership is a type of leadership that is theorised to be humanistic and spiritual rather than rational and mechanistic. Management practice on the other hand needs rationality and contains some mechanistic elements in typical management functions like coordinating and controlling. The implication is whether servant-leadership attributes can be exhibited if professional accountants contextualise themselves as leaders, managers or professionals. The study focuses on the profession of accountants and tests the operation of servant-leadership behaviours from the manager, leader and professional contexts using pre-tested servant-leadership scales and applying them in specific leader and manager contexts. This approach is new in its treatment of servant-leadership in this fashion. A further original approach is the use of the accountancy profession. This treatment of instruments from other fields like psychology and sociology is new.Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (A.C.C.A.

Assessment of Employees’ Perceptions on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Practices and Correlation with Organisational Cybersecurity Maturity

The purpose of this study was to assess employees’ perceptions of anti-money laundering practices at the National Development Bank in Botswana. The study used a quantitative approach. A sample of 84 respondents who are employees of the National Development Bank (NDB) of Botswana took part in the study. These were selected through a stratified random sampling method to ensure representation in all strata. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data.  The study found out that employees of National Development Bank understand the concept of money laundering and the stages involved in money laundering. Secondly, the study established that the main causes of money laundering were corruption, politicians and prominent persons influence, and weak banking and financial systems. Thirdly, the study established that money laundering is harmful to the economy in different ways that include increased national crime, increased corruption, and negative effects on the economy. The study recommended that the management of NDB should adopt anti-money laundering/ combating/ counter terrorism financing (AML/CFT) regulations laid out by regulating bodies including those of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Bank of Botswana and the Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA). In addition to this, the bank management should expose its employee to continuous knowledge on ML/FT through in-house training and external workshops with other industry stakeholders. The bank should also adopt a robust record management system that is able to capture all transactions taking place within it. The system should be robust enough to flag suspicious ML/FT activities taking place through transactions carried out within the bank

Assessment of Employees’ Perceptions on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Practices and Correlation with Organisational Cybersecurity Maturity

The purpose of this study was to assess employees’ perceptions of anti-money laundering practices at the National Development Bank in Botswana. The study used a quantitative approach. A sample of 84 respondents who are employees of the National Development Bank (NDB) of Botswana took part in the study. These were selected through a stratified random sampling method to ensure representation in all strata. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data.  The study found out that employees of National Development Bank understand the concept of money laundering and the stages involved in money laundering. Secondly, the study established that the main causes of money laundering were corruption, politicians and prominent persons influence, and weak banking and financial systems. Thirdly, the study established that money laundering is harmful to the economy in different ways that include increased national crime, increased corruption, and negative effects on the economy. The study recommended that the management of NDB should adopt anti-money laundering/ combating/ counter terrorism financing (AML/CFT) regulations laid out by regulating bodies including those of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Bank of Botswana and the Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA). In addition to this, the bank management should expose its employee to continuous knowledge on ML/FT through in-house training and external workshops with other industry stakeholders. The bank should also adopt a robust record management system that is able to capture all transactions taking place within it. The system should be robust enough to flag suspicious ML/FT activities taking place through transactions carried out within the bank

Development Financial Institution (DFI) Employees’ Awareness and Perceptions of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Practices and Cybersecurity Techniques

The purpose of this study was to assess employees’ perceptions of anti-money laundering practices at the National Development Bank in Botswana. The study used a quantitative approach. A population of 84 respondents who are employees of a development financial institution (DFI), the National Development Bank (NDB) of Botswana was sampled in this study. Out of these, 36 respondents were selected through a stratified random sampling method to ensure representation in all strata. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data.  The study found that employees of National Development Bank understand the concept of money laundering and the stages involved in money laundering. Secondly, the study established that the main causes of money laundering were corruption, politicians and prominent person’s influence, and weak banking and financial systems. Thirdly, the study established that money laundering is harmful to the economy in different ways that include increased national crime, increased corruption, and negative effects on the economy. The study recommended that the management of NDB should adopt anti-money laundering/ combating/ counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) regulations laid out by regulating bodies including those of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Bank of Botswana and the Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA). In addition to this, the bank management should expose its employee to continuous knowledge of ML/FT through in-house training and external workshops with other industry stakeholders. The bank should also adopt a robust record management system that is able to capture all transactions taking place within it. The system should be robust enough to flag suspicious ML/FT activities taking place through transactions carried out within the bank

Why should Business schools teach blockchain technology? The case of Botswana Accountancy College

In this digital era, tertiary education institutions students need to be acquainted with the latest technology such as blockchain, to equip them for industry readiness. There is a paradigm shift in blockchain technology. Thus, business schools would do well to teach tertiary students about blockchain technology which in turn can help them to solve real-life and industry challenges efficiently and effectively. This paper aimed to investigate tertiary students’ awareness and competency of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. The paper’s objectives were to assess students’ level of knowledge on blockchain, to explore students’ depth of awareness and competency on bitcoin and altcoins, and to recommend steps that business schools can take to teach students on blockchain. In July 2018, a closed-ended questionnaire was distributed to 266 students studying Business and Leisure related programs at Botswana Accountancy College, School of Business & Leisure. Quota-randomized system was used to allow participation of respondents that are more entrepreneurially aligned according to course content and aims. The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The study findings revealed that most students are challenged or know little about blockchain, let alone Bitcoin and Altcoins. Thus, business schools should take it upon themselves to educate not only students, but the community at large about blockchain to bring awareness. Furthermore, business schools such as BAC should make policies that allow them to embed blockchain technology into their teaching/learning strategies, record-keeping, and information management