Audit Society Research Articles

Pisa som belägg och auktoritetsförstärkare : En analys av mediekonstruktioner och deras funktioner i skolans granskningslandskap

This paper focuses on how media representations of the OECD’s Program for the International Student Assessment (Pisa) are realised linguistically, at the intersection of the audit society and theme ...

The View from the Farm: Gendered Contradictions of the Measurement Imperative in Global Goals

How do global development goals translate into local action? How do such goals support or undermine already existing efforts, at the local level, to build robust and sustainable communities? In this article we examine the experience of a women’s cooperative vegetable farm in rural South Africa, considering the on-the-ground consequences of high-level planning for development and, in particular, the measurement and accountability demands associated with such initiatives. We focus on the broad aims of Sustainable Development Goals 2 (to end hunger) and 5 (to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment). We explore farmers’ responses to external demands for measurement and accountability, some of which they are not well equipped to meet and others of which collide with their own priorities to support their households and wider community. We find a major problem of translation between global goals and the needs of people on the ground: far from resulting in material support for small-scale farmers, the daily burdens of the ‘audit society’ directly impede aims like ending hunger and achieving gender equality. The first section of the paper briefly canvasses recent efforts at global goal setting, considering the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and SDGs in turn. The longer second section offers the case study of the women’s farm, examining how the measurement demands related to global goals impact locally generated priorities.

Modelling the Micro-Foundations of the Audit Society: Organizations and the Logic of the Audit Trail

We live in an “audit society” in which performance accounting and auditing requirements continue to expand, despite widespread criticism by academics and practitioners alike. Macro-institutional th...

Public sector audit in contemporary society: A short review and introduction

AbstractThis article gives a short review of recent research on public sector audit, and then introduces six articles in a special issue on public sector audit in contemporary society. Many countries have developed their audit institutions and expanded the audit activities in particular since the 1980s. New public management and the theory of the ‘audit society’ explain much of this development well, also in some international organizations, but some countries have also experienced a contraction in the audit activities in the public sector. Moreover, literature on public sector audit outside the Anglo‐American and North European contexts, and especially from Africa, Asia and Latin‐America, is limited. There are big variations in how audit institutions are organized, in what they produce, in their relations to stakeholders and media, and in their impacts on organizations and society. Overall, auditors are little active in the fight against corruption, and the Napoleonic court system for organizing supreme audit institutions seems to be little effective. The audit institutions in the Anglo‐American and Nordic accountability regimes seem to be relatively effective, but the recent research show that auditors' independence and relevance are persistent challenging issues in public sector audit.

Technocratic recentralization in the French health care system: A critical evaluation.

The French health care system implemented several corporate management recipes such as diagnostic-related groups (DRGs), benchmarking, and activity-based management in a bid to restore fiscal discipline and to "reassert the center." The government also regrouped health policy decisions with the Regional Health Agencies and opted for a top-down line of command to ensure policy implementation. Though reforms emphasized evidenced-based policy and outputs measurement, outcomes were below expectations in many areas and led to a shift in values. Professional autonomy and patient engagement receded. This leads us to a critical evaluation of the French audit society.

How is the audit of therapy intensity influencing rehabilitation in inpatient stroke units in the UK? An ethnographic study

ObjectivesOccupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech and language therapy are central to rehabilitation after a stroke. The UK has introduced an audited performance target: that 45 min of each therapy should...

Too big to be audited? The new world of auditing in international organizations

AbstractWithin the NPM debate, audit reforms have been largely investigated at the national level. The best‐known theoretical approach to approach audit reforms is provided by Michael Power, who suggested the idea of an “audit explosion” and then of an “audit society.” Power draws his insights from cases situated at the national level without explicitly considering international organizations (IOs) as both subject and object of audit reforms, despite their increasing relevance in economy and society. It, therefore, makes sense to consider Power's hypotheses as a starting point for the analysis of audit reforms in IOs to investigate whether the framework has value in studying audit reforms in such organizations. This research adds to the existing body of literature by providing a comparative analysis of audit reforms in six IOs over the course of the past 20 years to shed light on a fundamentally changing method of auditing them.

The limits of audit culture extractivism: Risk and reinsurance in Canadian oil transport by rail and pipeline

Over the past five years the Canadian public has become increasingly aware of deficiencies in the regulation of the Canadian oil and gas sector. The provincial/federal responses and settlement that followed in the aftermath of the Lac-Mégantic tragedy in Quebec, and rising public concerns regarding pipeline safety across the country entailed regulatory changes geared toward reinsurance audit. This article considers rail and pipeline oil transportation in Canada via a multi-scalar examination of institutions existing or established to insulate and regulate oil and gas industry activity and investment. We argue that audit and transparency processes applied to industry-driven controversial oil and gas transportation projects emerge from the contemporary history of risk management and are part of broader characteristics of the so-called ‘audit society’. The article examines the parallels between specific techniques and practices employed to secure risk insurance in Canada and how corporate exclusions privilege market access over public safety. Such audit practices are financial prerequisites to industrial activity, yet are nonsubstantive socio-environmentally, what we term ‘audit culture extractivism’.

Den transparanta organisationen


 The transparent organization: The caseworker and the culture of visibility in the Social Insurance Agency
 The expansion of ”audit culture” in public sector governance is well documented, including its implications for caseworkers whose performance is constantly monitored. Transparency is an inherent part of the audit culture, yet there are fewer studies researching how the ideal of the transparent organization plays out in everyday life in welfare bureaucracies. Drawing on ethnographic research in five local offices of the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, this article investigates how the transparency ideal is enacted on an everyday basis in this agency. The analysis reveals how the transparency ideal penetrates the organizational life in a much more pervasive way than is usually acknowledged in the audit society literature. Special attention is given to the relevance of a horizontal dimension of transparency. It is argued that the horizontal dimension of transparency is a central aspect in relation to goal achievement and the normative governance of the caseworkers. However, even if the transparency ideal is central to the internal organizational life of the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, transparency is much less salient in relation to clients and the outside world. The article explores this organizational regime of visibility, as established in everyday social interaction as well as in organizational routines.

ПАРТИЦИПАЦИЈА СТУДЕНАТА У ЕВАЛУАЦИЈИ КВАЛИТЕТА ОБРАЗОВНО-ВАСПИТНОГ ПРОЦЕСА У ВИСОКОШКОЛСКОЈ УСТАНОВИ

У друштву ревизије, уводе се нови трендови контроле над високим образовањем, који се реализују, у складу са европским мерилима, унутрашњом и спољашњом евалуацијом високошколских установа. Кроз евалуацију педагошког рада наставника у овом процесу партиципирају студенти. У циљу обострано потребног унапређивања образовно-васпитног процеса, испитивани су ставови студената о оствареном квалитету и индикаторима на основу којих вреднују рад наставника. Подаци прикупљени путем есеј теста и листе за евалуацију, указују на значај формативне евалуације, али и да на оцењивање квалитета рада наставника утичу: недовољна информисаност студената о условима студирања, студијском програму, прописима, субјективни ставови студента условљени квалитетом њиховог постигнућа и општи утисци о личности наставника. Претпостављена недовољна компетентност студената за евалуациони процес је потврђена, те се препоручује правовремено информисање студената о питањима од значаја за студирање, заједничко утврђивање критеријума, упознавање са стандардима за наставни рад, примена формативне евалуације, измена инструмента за евалуацију, али и спремност наставника да уважи интерес студената и врши акционе корекције у свом раду.

Addressing Public Accountability through Implementation of Balanced Scorecard: Study Case on Directorate of Government Debt Securities, Ministry of Finance

Accountability is something that needs to be in place on every business activity particularly on public sector. Parties who are assigned with authority/power in a certain public organization should be accountable. They will be watched and controlled by other parties, such as supreme audit board, society, and non-government organization, who require explanation and justification of their conduct. One of means to answer the need of accountability in governmental activities is the performance management, that is broadly designed to guide the organization achieving its visions or objectives, fostering efficiency and effectiveness. Balanced scorecard is one example of performance management tools in contemporary era. Can it be said the implementation of balanced scorecard in the government agency is an attempt to deliver accountability? By analyzing and evaluating one practice of balanced scorecard in certain organization under Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia, this paper finds that the concept of balanced scorecard can be implemented as a tool to answer the needs of public accountability. Through every scorecard built in Directorate of Government Debt Securities, this paper discovers several ideas of public accountability such as financial, process, and hierarchical accountability, have been addressed by the implementation of balanced scorecard. However, such indicator of that unit’s balanced scorecard needs to be reformulated to answer other idea of public accountability.

Confronting Climate Change: The Uneasy Alliance of Scientists and Nonscientists in a Neoliberal World

Confronting Climate Change: The Uneasy Alliance of Scientists and Nonscientists in a Neoliberal World

Constructing audit society in the virtual world: the case of the online reviewer

PurposeOnline user reviews have increasingly become a popular means by which the lay person can both procure advice and offer personal opinions. Amazon, the electronic retail giant, is a prominent example of a site which hosts such user generated content; the opinions of its repository of reviewers have become an important source of assurance provision. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that Amazon provides an example of how audit logics have entered new spaces. In Amazon, the author witnesses the construction of auditability in the virtual world. This may explain the popularity and authority seemingly enjoyed by user reviews.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses the methodological approach of netnography (Kozinets, 2002). This new methodology has emerged in order to undertake ethnographic research within virtual communities. Applying this methodology to the case of Amazon involved becoming familiar with the operational features of the site and analysing its textual discourse.FindingsThe paper identifies in Amazon, Power’s (1996) three examples of how auditability is invoked: through rhetorics of measurability, auditable systems of control, and reliance on experts. The paper therefore argues that online user reviews are reflective of the extension of audit society into the virtual world.Originality/valueThe paper explores the possibilities of the virtual world for accounting research, a world which is an increasingly prominent feature of popular culture. In addition, the paper responds to recent calls to examine the processes of assurance provision beyond the traditional domain of financial audit.

Herbert Hoover and the construction of modernity

Herbert Hoover occupied two important roles prior to his presidency. At the Food Administration during World War I, Hoover learned the importance of eliminating waste, and establishing efficient delivery systems across firms and industries. As Secretary of Commerce he applied those principles in an attempt to improve living standards through the standardization of living. He charged the Bureau of Standards with creating (1) uniform specifications for purchases, (2) simplification to eliminate ‘unnecessary’ variation and (3) standards of quality for thousands of industrial products. He saw this as a moral endeavor in which engineers would create a third way between capital and labor. What Hoover failed to notice was that newly created standards promoted dominance by large corporations. Indeed, it helped to pave the way for the audit society in which we currently live and – despite its innovativeness as an approach – limited innovations to those proposed by management.JEL Codes: N00, N12

Organizing the Audit Society: Does Good Auditing Generate Less Public Sector Corruption?

Few cross-country studies examine the effects of auditing quality on public sector corruption. We present a definition of good auditing consisting of three principles: independence, professionalism, and recognizing the people as the principal. Using novel data from an original expert survey covering more than 100 countries, the concept is then operationalized and tested empirically. The results demonstrate that good auditing has a positive effect on national levels of public sector corruption. This lends reason to believe that auditing which is organized according to certain principles has potential to contribute to well-functioning public administrations with a low degree of corruption.

Compliance in the 'Audit Society'? Creation of Deviance by Standards

The paper is of conceptual nature and sheds light on the increasing pressure on organizations for compliance to standards in the audit society (Power, 1994). Compliance implies conformity with a ru...

Performance Audits and Supreme Audit Institutions’ Impact on Public Administration: The Case of the Office of the Auditor General in Norway

Performance audit is widespread but contested. The “audit society” proposition holds that audits are rituals producing comfort, whereas the “mandatory audit” proposition in public policy presumes that audits have positive impacts. Common to both propositions is the lack of empirical evidence of audit impact. This article analyzes survey data of the auditees’ tendency to make changes as a consequence of Supreme Audit Institutions’ performance audits. Civil servants who had experienced performance audits responded that ministries and agencies tend to make changes, but instrumental, institutional, and political factors have an effect on the institution’s propensity to make changes.

Evaluations of Social Work Education: A Critical Review

Since the introduction in England of the social work degree in 2002, there have been a number of significant changes to social work education culminating with the implementation of the Social Work Reform Board's innovations in 2013. This article critically explores the role of evaluations of changes in social work education and their implications for social work pedagogy. Evaluations can be linked to wider trends in society such as modernity, reflexive modernity, and the audit society. These wider influences affect the use of evaluations. A way forward for social work is proposed. Social work education needs to develop a critical pedagogy of hope to transform the profession's relationship not only to evaluations but to practise as well. The key message of this article is that evaluation studies of social work education mirror the underlying tensions of late modernity. Therefore, social work education needs to adopt a critical pedagogic approach to the use of evaluation research.

Cross-Continental Reflections on Evaluation Practice

The evaluation theory tree typology reflects the following three components of evaluation practice: (a) methods, (b) use, and (c) valuing. The purpose of this study was to explore how evaluation practice is conceived as reflected in articles published in the American Journal of Evaluation ( AJE) and Evaluation, a journal supported by the European Evaluation Society. A key finding from this international comparison suggests that evaluation practice as reflected in AJE and Evaluation both emphasize methods, in comparison to use and valuing. This article concludes using Peter Dahler-Larsen’s discussion on evaluation societies, among other sources, to examine the audit society, which might account for the trends in our findings. EvalPartners, a global community of evaluators, has declared 2015 as the international year of evaluation. These findings regarding cross-continental trends in evaluation are relevant for engaging in a global dialogue on evaluation practice.

Changing Occupational Roles in Audit Society—The Case of Swedish Student Aid Officials

This article is about occupational change concerning a non-professional group of Street Level Bureaucrats—student aid officials at the Swedish Board for Study Support (SBSS). The aim is to describe and analyze changes in their occupational role—their discretional space and working conditions under the impact of changed ways to manage public service organizations and new information and communication technology. The SBSS is the sole administrator of student financial aid in Sweden. Its officials investigate and take decisions about students’ applications and repayment of loans. This work includes interacting with clients via telephone and computer. These officials have to have a certain amount of discretion to interpret and apply rules and regulations on specific circumstances in individual cases. How are their working conditions affected by organizational and policy changes in the authority? How is their ability to exercise influence and control over their own work performance affected? The analysis highlights how officials suffer from decreased discretion and an increasing routinization in their work. This is a result of a regulatory framework continuously growing in detail together with increasing management control based on new information and communication technology. What remains of discretion is a kind of ‘task’ discretion, the ability to do minor technical manipulations of rules in individual cases. Even today’s top management seems critical of this development. Besides further automatization and reduction of staff an ongoing process of organizational change is therefore also aiming to develop officials’ competence and working conditions toward what may be seen as organizational professionalism, a development of specific occupational skills and a discretion adjusted and subordinated to managerial means and ends. The analysis rests on data from a research project (2011 to 2014) about Institutional Talk. Data sources are qualitative interviews, audio-taped speech sequences, observational field notes, and official documents.