Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Chapter 5
Leadership
Leadership
Leadership means leading a group of people in an organization to achieve organizational goals. A leader can
be ‘transformational’ leader or a ‘transactional’ leader
Leadership Theories
Trait Theories
▪ Focuses on qualities of a good leader
▪ E.g. visionary, energy, communication skills, motivator, etc.
Contingency Theories
▪ No ‘one right way’ of leading, that will serve all situations
▪ Leadership styles varies with the situation (contingent)
▪ Appropriate leadership style depends on the team and the nature of task
▪ E.g. Feilder: Psychologically Distant Managers, Psychologically Close Managers
Theory Y Manager:
▪ Manager feels that the team has the expertise and willing to take responsibility
▪ The manager allows the team to do self-planning and decision making
▪ The manager does not gets involved in routine tasks and minor decision making
▪ The team is accountable as they are responsible for their decision making
▪ This approach works for complex tasks
Intrapreneurship
▪ An employee who promotes innovation and new ideas within his existing organization
▪ Intrapreneurs bears less risk compared to entrepreneurs as investment is made by the Organization
▪ Many organizations are now encouraging Intrapreneurship within the organization as it leads to
innovation by encouraging sharing of new ideas
▪ Integrity: Honest, straight forward, truthfulness, do not conceal any wrong thing, fair dealing
▪ Professional competence and due care: Maintain professional knowledge and skills, up-to-date with all
laws, diligent in work, act with due care
▪ Confidentiality: Should not disclose confidential information unless there is legal or professional duty, do
not use confidential information for personal advantage
▪ Professional behavior: Avoid actions which discredits the profession / members, for e.g. not following
company policies or procedures
▪ Self Interest
Financial interest in the company (e.g. owning shares)
Close business relationship (e.g. high dependency on income from particular client)
Close family or personal relationship
Valuable gifts or hospitality
Loans and terms outside normal course of business
Overdue fees for earlier assignments
Contingent fees (e.g. high fee for good report, low fee for bad report)
Fee based on % age (e.g. % age of profit)
Low-balling (quoting abnormally lower quote affecting the quality of audit)
▪ Advocacy Threat
Means when the auditor promotes a client to the point where auditor’s subsequent objectivity is
compromised
E.g. the auditor is representing a client in a litigation
▪ Familiarity Threat
Long association with the client to the extent which affects objectivity and independence
For e.g. you have known the Finance Director for many years
▪ Intimidation Threat
When the auditor is stopped from acting objectively by threats from directors or employees
E.g. could be blackmail, bad feedback, physical or family treat, litigation, etc.
3. Conceptual framework (explains how ‘spirit’ of principles is applied rather than ‘form’)
4. Detailed application (practical application of the codes, specific situations and examples)
Public Interest
Public Interest
▪ Public interest is one of the key themes in professionalism
▪ Public interest means working in the interest and well-being of the society, in addition to serving the
interest of the shareholders
▪ Professionals (including professional accountants) have a duty to protect public interest and have to
demonstrate high social values (integrity, fairness, no corruption, etc.)
Fraud
Definition
Fraud is an ‘intentional’ act of dishonesty to gain unjust or illegal advantage. There are two types of fraud:
Common types of frauds include fictitious employees, collusion with suppliers to inflate prices, fictitious
expense claims, stealing or misusing company assets, manipulation of financial statements, etc.
Organizations can only control the ‘opportunity’ factor in order to prevent fraud.
▪ Prevention
Commitment by top management / governance
Create a right culture
Implement policies and procedures
Risk assessment
Strong internal controls
Segregation of duties
Tight screening at the time employees are recruited
Regular staff rotation
Monitoring
▪ Detection
Surprise checks
Internal audits
Whistle blowing procedures (see below)
▪ Response
Strict disciplinary actions
Legal prosecution
Whistle Blowing
A whistle blower is a person who provides any kind of information to senior management regarding fraud (or
suspected fraud) or illegal activity within an organization. Whistle blower can be internal (e.g. employee) or can
by an outsider (customer or supplier).
Sometimes whistle blowers are scared to highlight any fraud due to fear or later consequences. In UK, whistle
blowers are protected by law if they report something relating to public interest.
Bribery
Bribery is offering, giving, demanding or receiving a financial or other advantage to act or perform an activity
improperly
▪ The Act sets out 6 principles that help organization assess whether adequate procedures and controls
are in place to prevent bribery and corruption:
Commitment by management
Risk assessment (assess the size and nature of risk of bribery and corruption)
Internal - procedures (procedures to be proportionate to the size and nature of risk)
Due diligence (extra cautious with employees who are at greater risk for bribery and
corruption)
Communication (regular training and education of all employees)
Monitoring and review (procedures should be regularly reviewed and improved)
▪ Penalties:
Guilty individual faces imprisonment upto 10 years
Guilty organization is liable to unlimited fine
The above is in addition to any civil claims and reputational loss
‘Corporate ethics’ means application of ethical values to business dealings. E.g. of unethical behaviours
includes:
▪ Is it profitable?
▪ Is it legal?
▪ Is it fair to all stakeholders?
▪ Is it right ethically?
▪ Is it sustainable and environmentally friendly?
Practice Questions
P1 - Dec 2013 Q4: Director Leaving | Technology Risk | Professional Ethics (Lobo Co)