Auditing in the Digital Age: The Role of IoT, Staff Training and Client Confidentiality

Changing the business processes, development of technology as well as usual everyday changes in the market, can make that the process of internal control is constantly being improved. The environment in which internal control is implemented is subject of change on a daily basis and is in line with that required permanent adjustment. Wrong assumptions and decisions, bad management practice information systems can lead Tourist organizations to potential risks. In this manner, may put in danger their competitive position. Many managers now realize the importance of internal controls, information systems and what problems can arise from them. Therefore, they have a big role in recognizing the importance of establishing internal controls. Assessing internal controls that support the business objectives of management of tourist organizations should be placed near the top of its list of plans and activities. This is the way that in the future the risk doing a business in Tourist organization can be reduced to a minimum. The role of internal audit is to assess internal controls. In certain areas, such as a Tourist Agency engage auditors and specialists who have more experience in this area and in marketing. In this way it is more easily recognized whether internal controls exist at the tourist organization, and then evaluate their design and their effectiveness. Tourist organizations with strong internal controls and good information system perceived improvement in the efficiency and reliability of managing them. Business tourist organizations are heavily reliant on information systems. Implementation of information systems is reflected in all the processes in the tourism organization. Although information systems are rapidly changing environment stimulated business changes, using their potential risks. This is the ultimate importance for the tourism organization as each new risk and new potential threats. Ability to carry out planned activities, the timely delivery of development projects, lower price, better range of products and services compared to competitors, consistent availability and reliability of information and service information system across the tourism organization, clear communication with the management of effective controls, the ability of fast and effective protection new vulnerabilities and threats and recover from any disruption in business tourism organization are just some of the indicators of effective control systems. Generally speaking, the goals of well placed internal controls within each tourist organizations are: the availability of reliable information, the compliance of information systems with the strategies and policies of tourism organizations, external requirements, risk management Tourism Organization, the protection of its interests, facilitating mutually privileged relations with business partners, identifying and responding to threats and possible violations of control. When all this is established, management can make decisions more precisely and securely and also could ignore certain types of risk or diminish their importance. When reaching a solution to control that works well in a tourist organization, it may be helpful to someone else. The paper explained the universal steps of internal marketing audit (planning the implementation of internal marketing audit, defining audit objectives and defining the expected controls into tourist organisation, identifying and recording system marketing in tourist organizations, identifying internal control in marketing , assessment control, testing , drawing conclusions of internal marketing audit in tourist organizations, the audit report and action plan, monitoring of implementation).A list of marketing audit for the tourism organization provides a guide of performing that type of revision in practice. The ultimate goal of internal marketing audit based on the corporate risk register, to confirm the internal control by managers and their staff, confirm the audit assurance by internal control and business performance management strategy that includes all these and manages them. The conclusion is that the internal audit in marketing tourism organizations slowly fits into future model because it ensures plans more easily controlled, conclusions adopted on accurate information, however it all also give serious value to their business.

\nУ статті міститься порівняльний аналіз принципів забезпечення якості розвитку професійної компетентності керівників структурних підрозділів підприємств сфери зв’язку в зарубіжній та вітчизняній науковій літературі.\n
\n\nВиділено принципи забезпечення якості розвитку професійної компетентності, яким підпорядковуються системи розвитку професійної компетентності керівників структурних підрозділів зарубіжних підприємств сфери зв’язку, а саме: принцип поліфункціональності систем розвитку професійної компетентності керівників; принцип безперервності навчання; принцип забезпечення результативності; принцип інноваційності; принцип є диверсифікації політики в сфері навчання та розвитку; принцип використання моделі компетенцій для моделювання системи розвитку професійної компетентності керівників; принцип системності розвитку професійної компетентності керівників структурних підрозділів підприємств сфери зв’язку. А також принципи забезпечення якості розвитку професійної компетентності, яким підпорядковуються системи розвитку професійної компетентності керівників вітчизняних підприємств сфери зв’язку: принцип диверсифікації форм та методів педагогічного впливу на персонал; принцип мультиплікації досвіду всередині підприємства; принцип відповідності стратегії розвитку професійної компетентності керівників актуальній стратегії підприємства.\n
\n\nПроведений порівняльний аналіз дав змогу виявити істотні відмінності у принципах забезпечення якості розвитку професійної компетентності керівників структурних підрозділів підприємств сфери зв’язку у зарубіжній та вітчизняній практиці, а також в особливостях систем розвитку професійної компетентності даної категорії керівників (зокрема, в цілях навчання, домінуючих принципах та підходах до моделювання систем розвитку професійної компетентності, стратегії навчання, змісті, формах та методах навчання, організаційно-педагогічних умовах та очікуваних результатах навчання). Перспективним вважаємо вивчення доцільності й можливості використання зарубіжного досвіду в процесі розвитку професійної компетентності зазначеної категорії керівників, моделювання систем їх розвитку у відповідності з виявленими принципами, а також оцінка ефективності педагогічних впливів на них.\n

This paper aims to suggest of the relationship between internal audit creativity strategy and firm performance. Internal audit creativity strategy comes from two parts, including organization creativity and internal audit process. The components of internal audit creativity strategy are a compound of proactive internal audit planning orientation, new internal audit method implementation, technology-based internal audit practice concentration, integrative internal audit resource focus, and internal audit teamwork awareness. The consequences of internal audit creativity strategy comprise internal audit innovation, corporate practice efficiency, governance outcome, and risk management effectiveness. For the relationships among five dimensions of internal audit creativity strategy, its consequences can be explained by the resource-advantage theory. Future research is needed to collect data to increase the level of reliability for the literature review. Theoretical and managerial contributions are explicitly provided. A conclusion and suggestions and directions of the future research are included. Keywords Internal Audit Creativity Strategy, Internal Audit Innovation, Corporate Practice Efficiency, Governance Outcome, Risk Management Effectiveness, Firm Performance, Change Awareness

Considerable research has been conducted based on the assumption that educators’ intention on ecological and professional competences development is associated with educators’ genders and different institute locations. In this study, researchers go beyond the previous studies by synthesizing relevant empirical research on the topic has been limited to individual investigations of the links between educators’ self-reported motivations and self-reported institute locations. The purpose of this study was to systematically analyze the research exploring how different genders and institute locations affect educators’ motivations on PD. After applying meta-analysis technology to integrate and analyze relevant empirical studies, the major findings as follows: First, analysis of 48 studies representing 15,038 participants reveals a positive correlation (ES=0.10, 95%CI=0.09~0.12) between overall different genders and educators’ motivations on ecological and professional competences development. The strongest effect found was for ‘expectations from others’, while the smallest was ‘pursue toward achievement’. While the strongest effect found on the intentions of ‘female’ educators was for avoidance/stimulation, the smallest effect was organizational development for ‘male’ educators. Second, analysis of 67 studies representing 4,442 participants reveals a positive correlation (ES=.083, 95%CI=0.06~0.10) between overall different institute locations and educators’ motivations on ecological and professional competences development. The strongest effect found was in institutes in ‘suburban’ areas while the smallest effect was in ‘county’ areas. Implications and suggestions for future research will be discussed.

The study aimed to explore the influence of motivation factors on the development of professional competencies using Russian and Indonesian institutions of higher education as case studies. In pursuit of this objective, quantitative survey methodology was incorporated, and surveys were conducted during November and April of the 2018/2019 to 2021/2022 school years. The questionnaire was developed with a 10-point rating scale, aimed at addressing the development of students' professional competencies and the factors that motivate learning and competency development. Using the questionnaire, the level of professional competency development of students in Russian and Indonesian universities has been empirically analysed. The results of the study supported the spiral nature of students' professional competencies development, showing that the development of professional competencies follows a progressive and non-linear nature of component development. These results confirm that the process of professional competency development is structurally divided into separate, relatively independent stages reflecting sequential and gradual progression. The positive character of the influence of the balanced development level of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors on the formation of students' professional competencies has been established. The results of the research may prove useful for educational institutions and public administration bodies for the development of effective mechanisms for students' motivation within the framework of competency-based approach implementation in higher education. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2022-06-03-012 Full Text: PDF

Teacher’s professional competence development becomes very important in the general area of study of education, it is probably because the professional competence development of the teacher plays an important role in their performance in teaching and the interaction with the students and other members of the school community. So, the problem statement of this research are: (i) What are the EFL teacher’s at SMA Negeri 1 Parepare Perspectives on the meaning of professional competence development. The research applying a qualitative descriptive method in the form of a phenomenological study approach. The findings indicate that (i) EFL teacher’s perspectives on the meaning of professional competence development in SMA Negeri 1 Parepare are: English teacher’s professional competence development is very necessary and very helpful it feels like a re-fresh and recharge program, English teacher’s professional competence development is very influential in increasing them self-confidence at teaching and influential to the teaching quality for both professional and pedagogical competence, Professional competence development very much helped to improve their professional and pedagogical competence, EFL teacher’s professional competence development has very good and a lot of positive effects for their profession as a teacher, EFL teacher’s professional competence development is really feel indeed greatly help improve their quality in teaching.

Internal audit is crucial to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of internal controls, governance, and risk management processes in organizations. For an internal audit organization, to benefit from the knowledge of its staff, it is vital to identify the knowledge that is needed to complete quality and efficient internal audits. Knowledge management is a system that is concerned with using to the best advantage knowledge and experience. In internal auditing, knowledge management is increasingly recognized as a tool to effectively manage not only the knowledge of individuals, but also the collective knowledge in the organization. Research on internal audit has appeared since the 1980s and brought many benefits to internal audit activities, but these studies have not explained how knowledge is created during an internal audit. To address the research gap, this study looks into how knowledge is managed in an internal audit process. The applied methodology is to conduct qualitative case study research by using in-depth interviews, observations, and documentary analysis in the internal audit field.
 Findings from empirical analysis of the case together with the literature review provide useful insights to construct a potential model of knowledge management in internal audit. During an internal audit process, there are three key elements including data, information, and knowledge that internal auditors need to consider. Data is a series of separate observations, measurements, or events in the audited company. Information is the organized data that has been arranged with relevance and purpose for better comprehension of the internal activities. The knowledge generated and applied by internal auditors can be thought of as a collection of specific and broad information sets and experience in similar audit situations. The process of knowledge management in internal audit involves four sub-processes: collecting data, analyzing data to get information, synthesizing information to create knowledge, and improving knowledge by putting knowledge into practice. The research findings imply that the process of internal auditing requires internal auditors to apply not only analysis capacities but also empirical experience in their work. In the internal audit, it requires collaboration from within the auditing organization and from the auditee’s sources to enable a valuable outcome for all involved.

Corporate governance is a crucial aspect of any organization, especially in the Nigerian manufacturing sector. Effective corporate governance practices are essential for promoting transparency, accountability, and sustainable business growth. Internal audit plays a significant role in ensuring that these practices are adhered to and maintained. This conceptual paper aims to explore the role of internal audit in enhancing corporate governance practices in the Nigerian manufacturing sector through review of scholarly literature. The article revealed that internal audit plays a vital role in enhancing corporate governance practices in the Nigerian manufacturing sector. The internal audit function provides independent and objective assurance to the board and management that the organization's systems and processes are operating effectively, efficiently, and ethically. The paper also highlighted the challenges faced by internal auditors in Nigeria, including inadequate resources, lack of awareness about the internal audit function, and the perception that internal audit is only focused on financial reporting. The study recommends that the internal audit function should be adequately resourced, and internal auditors should receive continuous professional development training to keep up with emerging trends and best practices in corporate governance. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the crucial role of internal audit in enhancing corporate governance practices in the Nigerian manufacturing sector. The study's findings can guide organizations in improving their corporate governance practices by leveraging the internal audit function's strengths to enhance transparency, accountability, and sustainable business growth. Keywords: internal audit, corporate governance, Nigerian manufacturing sector, sustainable business growth DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/14-10-04 Publication date: May 31 st 2023

This study investigates voluntary demand for auditing by family businesses, a significant but relatively unexplored segment of the economy. The paper considers demand for both internal and external auditing by using survey data to investigate the impact of firm characteristics linked to the cost vs. benefit of engaging an auditor. Variables examined are firm size, debt, and two agency proxies that measure separation of ownership and control, namely, the proportion of nonfamily management in the firm, and the proportion of nonfamily representation on the board of directors. The paper also considers the association between internal and external auditing. Descriptive results on voluntary demand for auditing by 186 family businesses revealed that internal audit was more prevalent than external audit, and outsourcing was a common method for providing internal audit. Results from logistic regression analyses provide support for the hypothesized impact of the two agency proxies and firm debt on demand for external audit, but do not explain the demand for internal audit. For firms that voluntarily engaged an auditor (internal and/or external audit), the negative and significant correlation between internal and external audit suggest that in the family business environment they are more commonly viewed as substitute rather than complementary responses.

Current business environment has experienced rapid and revolutionary change with far reaching consequences for companies worldwide. Management responses to fierce global competition include improved quality and risk management initiatives, reengineered structures and processes and greater accountability to ensure more timely, reliable and relevant information for decision‐making and to secure confidence and trust of the investors. Over the last few years the importance to the strong corporate governance of managing risk has been increasingly acknowledged. Companies are under pressure to identify all the business risks they face: social, ethical and environmental as well as financial and operational, and to explain how they manage them to an acceptable level. Therefore in order to reach its objectives each company has to develop and implement an approach to assessing and managing the uncertainties and opportunities it faces in the pursuit of its business strategy, with the intention of maximizing shareholder value and performance, i.e. meeting the determined objectives. Shareholders are extremely demanding with respect to the activities of the management and want an independent and objective assessment of the risk management and governance system the management is responsible for. In this radically changed business environment the internal auditing gained an important role within companies. Over the past sixty years internal audit developed from control function responsible for inspection of accounting and financial data to a strategic partner for the shareholders and the management of the company in improving governance processes. In current environment the management of the company more and more rely on the internal audit to evaluate whether controls are sufficient to manage risks and uncertainties. This developing role of the internal auditing is also reflected in its current definition, i.e. internal auditing is an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve a company's operations. It helps an organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control and governance processes. Only efficient internal audit can perform its tasks properly. Internal audit efficiency depends on its subordination level, which must be appropriate for internal audit to be independent and objective, on the professional qualification and practical experience of internal audit staff, on the internal audit strategy, activities and value added to the company and on the ability to improve itself. The article analyses efficient internal audit establishment and support issues and internal audit efficiency estimation principles. Taking into account the scope of organization's direction and control, internal audit takes on important roles, integrating several other governance and control aspects into organizational governance and stands out as the most important, single mechanism for ensuring adequate and effective governance of the organization. The article provides criteria to assess efficiency of internal audit which could be applied when implementing internal audit function or improving the existing one.

Achievements of educational researchers in Vietnam and in the world have affirmed the close relationship between professional learning communities and teachers’ professional competency development in the modern education system. The professional learning communities are the purpose, the tool, and the environment for teachers’ professional competency development. Based on the theoretical background of the above content, the article recommends some methods of teachers’ professional competency development by organizing school-based learning communities.

The article aims the substantiation of theoretical foundations of professional competence development of managers within intra-firm training (on the examples of Ukrainian communication companies). The results of theoretical analysis ofthe concepts of intra-firm training», «intra-firm training and retraining of personnel», «intra-firm personnel development», «intra-firm qualification improvement», «corporate training», «corporate development of personnel»are presented; semantic analysis of the concept of «intra-firm training» is performed, its essential characteristics are revealed, the author’s definition of the concepts of «intra-firm training» is proposed. The theoretical foundations (modern theories, scientific concepts, conceptual ideas and provisions) concerning the managers’ professional competence development within intra-firm training is analysed. Among them are the group of theories of professional development (theory of mental development (G. Kostyuk), the concept of professional development of a personality (Y. Povarenkov), theory of professionalism (A. Markova), theory of professional development of a personality (E. Zeer); the group of career development theories (the trait and factor theory of occupational choice (F. Parsons), the theory of career choice (J. Holland), the theory of vocational development (D. Super); the group of theories of organization and organizational behaviour (the theory of organization (L. Gulick) (the POSDCORB theory), the theory of intraorganizational ecology (J. Preffer, D. Galunic, K. Eisenhardt); the theory of human capital (G. Becker, J. Mincer, T. Shults). Principles of managers’ professional competence development within intra-firm training based on results of analysis and scientific synthesis of theoretical foundations of such development are substantiated.

This paper examines the relation between audit committee characteristics, internal audit function characteristics and internal auditors’ assessment of their contribution to financial statement audits. Using survey data from chief internal auditors of 76 Malaysian publicly‐listed firms, we provide evidence of a positive relationship between internal auditors’ assessment of their contribution to financial statement audits and three audit committee characteristics: the proportion of independent audit committee members, their knowledge and experience of accounting and auditing, and the extent of audit committee review of internal audit programmes, budget and coordination proposals. Further, a positive relationship is found between internal auditors’ evaluation of their contribution to the financial statement audit and internal audit function characteristics including size, prior experience of staff in auditing, time availability and the closeness of the function’s relationship with the external auditor. The results indicate that more effective audit committees and well‐resourced internal audit units tend to be positively associated with the internal auditors’ assessment of their contribution to the external audit.

With the growth of computing and communication technologies, the information processing paradigm of the healthcare environment is evolving. The patient information is stored electronically, making it convenient to store and retrieve patient information remotely when needed. However, evolving the healthcare systems into smart healthcare environments comes with challenges and additional pressures. Internet of Things (IoT) connects things, such as computing devices, through wired or wireless mediums to form a network. There are numerous security vulnerabilities and risks in the existing IoT-based systems due to the lack of intrinsic security technologies. For example, patient medical data, data privacy, data sharing, and convenience are considered imperative for collecting and storing electronic health records (EHR). However, the traditional IoT-based EHR systems cannot deal with these paradigms because of inconsistent security policies and data access structures. Blockchain (BC) technology is a decentralized and distributed ledger that comes in handy in storing patient data and encountering data integrity and confidentiality challenges. Therefore, it is a viable solution for addressing existing IoT data security and privacy challenges. BC paves a tremendous path to revolutionize traditional IoT systems by enhancing data security, privacy, and transparency. The scientific community has shown a variety of healthcare applications based on artificial intelligence (AI) that improve health diagnosis and monitoring practices. Moreover, technology companies and startups are revolutionizing healthcare with AI and related technologies. This study illustrates the implication of integrated technologies based on BC, IoT, and AI to meet growing healthcare challenges. This research study examines the integration of BC technology with IoT and analyzes the advancements of these innovative paradigms in the healthcare sector. In addition, our research study presents a detailed survey on enabling technologies for the futuristic, intelligent, and secure internet of health things (IoHT). Furthermore, this study comprehensively studies the peculiarities of the IoHT environment and the security, performance, and progression of the enabling technologies. First, the research gaps are identified by mapping security and performance benefits inferred by the BC technologies. Secondly, practical issues related to the integration process of BC and IoT devices are discussed. Third, the healthcare applications integrating IoT, BC, and ML in healthcare environments are discussed. Finally, the research gaps, future directions, and limitations of the enabling technologies are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to identify, examine and evaluate characteristics of an internal audit function (IAF) that help to distinguish between two groups of IAFs with sharply contrasting levels of perceived effectiveness. Based on survey data from 46 heads of internal audit (chief audit executives, CAEs) in private organizations in Germany, we differentiate IAFs that indicate varying and contrasting levels of internal auditing (IA) effectiveness. In doing so, this study plants the seeds for a potential general theory of IA effectiveness – a theory that may also have relevance in other countries. Extant theory highlights the multi‐faceted aspects of IA effectiveness and these are considered in the study to sort its ‘wheat from the chaff’. We suggest four key dimensions or categorical blocks: organization, IA resources, IA processes and IA relationships. Within these dimensions, statistically valid discriminatory characteristics and features identified in the study include: the existence of an IA charter that is agreed by the board/audit committee (AC); possible career progression after a tenure in IA; some degree of co‐sourcing and outsourcing of IA services; the level of training and professional qualification of IA staff and CAEs; the use of IA technology and risk‐based IA; whether IA makes recommendations for improving the governance process and rates individual findings and grades the overall report; whether the CAE has appropriate access to the board/AC; whether the CAE benefits from senior management's (SM) and the board/AC's input to the IA plan; and the CAE's informal contact with SM. Appropriately employed, a mix of these characteristics contribute to a theoretical grounding that may help explain IA effectiveness.