William J. Read

The Relationship Between Student Evaluations of Teaching and Faculty Evaluations

Abstract The AACSB, AECC, AAHE and other institutions have recently suggested that colleges and universities reassess their commitment to teaching. Reliance on student evaluations (SEs) of faculty teaching has been criticized in the literature because many SEs include items that students cannot properly assess and exclude demographic and contextual questions that are known sources of response bias. This study surveyed administrators of accounting programs from a cross-section of schools and programs to determine whether there is an association between the weight given teaching and the weight assigned to SEs. The results show a statistically significant inverse relationship between the weight given SEs and the emphasis placed on teaching.

Whistle‐blowing to internal auditors

Whistle‐blowing can play an important role in the internal control environment of an organization, and internal auditors are its natural outlets. This study examines whistle‐blowing complaints received by internal auditors based on survey responses from 129 chief internal auditors of US manufacturing companies. Within the past two years, 71 percent of chief internal auditors received whistle‐blowing complaints, 65 percent of which were found to be true upon investigation. The receipt of whistle‐blowing complaints was positively associated with involvement of internal auditing in monitoring compliance with the corporate code of conduct, and with audit committee support of internal auditing (as evidenced by audit committee involvement in decisions to dismiss the chief internal auditor). These results are consistent with recent calls by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations and others for public companies to maintain and enforce a code of conduct, and by the Blue Ribbon Committee and others about the need for audit committees to deal proactively with internal and external auditors.

The 150‐hour rule: does it improve CPA exam performance?

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) has established 150 semester hours as the minimum education requirement to qualify to take the CPA examination. This educational requirement is generally believed to impose additional potential costs on students, academic accounting departments, public accounting firms, and audit clients. Since a goal of the 150‐hour rule is to improve the overall quality of work performed by CPAs, it is worthwhile to examine whether an association exists between the number of semester hours of education and performance on the CPA exam. After controlling for SAT scores (verbal and quantitative), accounting credit hours, and enrollment in CPA coaching courses, this study found that first‐time candidates, on a national basis, having a minimum of 150‐semester hours of education performed better on the CPA exam. We interpret these results as indicating that there are benefits to students, CPA firms, and their audit clients from the higher education standard.

An Investigation of the Relationship Between Task Structure and Task Programmability in Audit Risk Assessment

ABSTRACT Simon [1960] classified tasks as either programmable or non-programmable. Management scientists interpreted Simons classification as structured or unstructured. Based on this classification, decision aid theorists have developed a contingency model between task structure and decision aid type where automation is suggested for structured tasks, decision support systems for semi-structured tasks, and knowledge-based expert systems for unstructured tasks. This paper argues and provides evidence from auditing that the programmable/non-programmable classification does not map onto the task structure/decision aid contingency model. Specifically, (1) tasks can be classified as programmable or non-programmable regardless of their degree of task structure; (2) only for the tasks classified as programmable, will there be a contingency between task structure and decision aid type. One hundred and thirty four auditors from seven international accounting firms evaluated the appropriate type of decision suppo...