DIRECTOR OF INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCES: PROF. P.A.
KHAN (South Africa)
DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS: PROF.
AHMADU SALAM (India)
DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC PLANNING: PROF. STONE WHITE (Australia)
Research
in the humanities involves different methods such as
for example hermeneutics and semiotics,
and a different, more relativist epistemology. Humanities scholars usually do
not search for the ultimate correct answer to a question, but instead explore
the issues and details that surround it. Context is always important, and
context can be social, historical, political, cultural or ethnic. An example of
research in the humanities is historical research, which is embodied in historical
method. Historians use primary
sources and other evidence to systematically investigate a topic, and then to
write histories in the form of accounts of the past.
Legal
definition and copyright
differs from the vast
majority of a company's activities which are intended to yield nearly immediate
profit or immediate improvements in operations and involve little uncertainty
as to the return on investment (ROI). The first
model of R&D is generally staffed by engineers
while the second model may be staffed with industrial
scientists. R&D activities are carried out by corporate
(businesses) or governmental entities. R&D is a form of applied
research.
Generally
such firms prosper only in markets whose customers have extreme needs, such as
medicine, scientific instruments, safety-critical mechanisms (aircraft) or high
technology military armaments. The extreme needs justify the high risk of
failure and consequently high gross margins from 60% to 90% of revenues. That
is, gross profits
will be as much as 90% of the sales cost, with manufacturing costing only 10%
of the product price, because so many individual projects yield no exploitable
product. Most industrial companies get 40% revenues only.
There
is however a hybrid form where a consultant may be hired as an Interim Manager or Executive, bringing a
combination of specialist expertise to bear on a role that is temporarily
vacant (usually at a senior level).
Symposia
were usually held in the andrōn (ἀνδρών), the men's quarters of the household. The
participants, or "symposiasts", would recline on pillowed couches
arrayed against the three walls of the room away from the door. Due to space
limitations the couches would number between seven and nine, limiting the total
number of participants to somewhere between fourteen and twenty seven (Oswyn
Murray gives a figure of between seven and fifteen couches and reckons fourteen
to thirty participants a "standard size for a drinking group"). If
any young men took part they did not recline but sat up. However, in Macedonian
symposia the focus was not only on drinking but hunting, and young men were
allowed to recline only after they had killed their first wild boar
Food and wine were served. Entertainment was provided, and depending on the occasion could include games, songs, flute-girls or boys, slaves performing various acts, and hired entertainment.
Symposia often were held for specific occasions. The most famous symposium of all, described in Plato's dialogue of that name (and rather differently in Xenophon's) was hosted by the poet Agathon on the occasion of his first victory at the theater contest of the 416 BC Dionysia. According to Plato's account, the celebration was upstaged by the unexpected entrance of the toast of the town, the young Alcibiades, dropping in drunken and nearly naked, having just left another symposium.
The men apart of the symposium would discuss a multitude of topics—from philosophy to love and the differences between genders.
One way to support the policy process is through “evidence based” policy-making. It requires translating research evidence into policy action. In this seminar, participants will learn about different public policy models and research outcomes (quantitative and qualitative) that can be integrated in the formulation of a policy.
Some countries succeed better than others at implementing public policies that facilitate development. The feature lessons from success and failure of public policy models from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe or other regions of the world will be analyzed and compared. This seminar will help public servants and senior level officials to enhance their competencies in managing the public policies’ life cycle (agenda setting, formulation, implementation and evaluation).
Within
the strategy management context, all three of these characteristic closed-loop
control elements need to be derived from the organisation's strategy and also
need to reflect the ability of the observer to both monitor performance and
subsequently intervene - both of which may be constrained.
Kaplan
and Norton's first book remains their most popular. The book reflects the
earliest incarnations of balanced scorecards - effectively restating the
concept as described in the second Harvard Business Review article. Their
second book, The Strategy Focused Organization, echoed work by others
(particularly a book published the year before by Olve et al. in Scandinavia)
on the value of visually documenting the links between measures by proposing
the "Strategic Linkage Model" or strategy
map.
Modern
balanced scorecards have evolved since the initial ideas proposed in the late
1980s and early 1990s, and the modern performance management tools including
Balanced Scorecard are significantly improved - being more flexible (to suit a
wider range of organisational types) and more effective (as design methods have
evolved to make them easier to design, and use).
Although
less common, these early-style balanced scorecards are still designed and used
today.
Design
methods for balanced scorecards continue to evolve and adapt to reflect the
deficiencies in the currently used methods, and the particular needs of
communities of interest (e.g. NGO's and government departments have found the
3rd generation methods embedded in results based management more useful than
1st or 2nd generation design methods).
A
second kind of criticism is that the balanced scorecard does not provide a
bottom line score or a unified view with clear recommendations: it is simply a
list of metrics (e.g. Jensen 2001). These critics usually include in their
criticism suggestions about how the 'unanswered' question postulated could be
answered, but typically the unanswered question relate to things outside the
scope of balanced scorecard itself (such as developing strategies) (e.g.
Brignall)
The
processes of collecting, reporting, and distributing balanced scorecard
information can be labor-intensive and prone to procedural problems (for
example, getting all relevant people to return the information required by the
required date). The simplest mechanism to use is to delegate these activities
to an individual, and many Balanced Scorecards are reported via ad-hoc methods
based around email, phone calls and office software.
Accounting
can be divided into several fields including financial accounting, management accounting, auditing,
and tax
accounting. Financial accounting focuses on the reporting of an
organization's financial information, including the preparation of financial statements, to external users of the
information, such as investors, regulators
and suppliers;
and management accounting focuses on the measurement, analysis and reporting of
information for internal use by management. The recording of financial
transactions, so that summaries of the financials may be presented in financial
reports, is known as bookkeeping, of which double-entry bookkeeping is the most
common system.
Accountancy refers to the occupation
or profession
of an accountant, particularly in British
English.
Management
accounting produces future-oriented reports—for example the budget for 2006 is
prepared in 2005—and the time span of reports varies widely. Such reports may
include both financial and nonfinancial information, and may, for example,
focus on specific products and departments.
To
benefit the organization, quality auditing should not only report
non-conformance and corrective actions but also highlight areas of good
practice and provide evidence of conformance. In this way, other departments
may share information and amend their working practices as a result, also
enhancing continual improvement.
RESEARCH
Research
comprises "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to
increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and
society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications."
It is used to establish or confirm facts, reaffirm the results of previous
work, solve new or existing problems, support theorems,
or develop new theories.
A research project may also be an expansion on past work in the field. To test
the validity of instruments, procedures, or experiments, research may replicate
elements of prior projects, or the project as a whole. The primary purposes of basic
research (as opposed to applied
research) are documentation, discovery, interpretation, or the research and development (R&D) of
methods and systems for the advancement of human knowledge.
Approaches to research depend on epistemologies,
which vary considerably both within and between humanities and sciences. There
are several forms of research: scientific, humanities, artistic, economic, social,
business, marketing, practitioner research, etc.
Forms of research
Scientific
research is a systematic way of gathering
data, a harnessing of curiosity. This research provides scientific
information and theories for the explanation of the nature and the
properties of the world. It makes practical applications possible. Scientific
research is funded by public authorities, by charitable organizations and by
private groups, including many companies. Scientific research can be subdivided
into different classifications according to their academic and application
disciplines. Scientific research is a widely used criterion for judging the
standing of an academic institution, such as business schools, but some argue that
such is an inaccurate assessment of the institution, because the quality of
research does not tell about the quality of teaching (these do not necessarily
correlate totally).
Research
in the humanities involves different methods such as
for example hermeneutics and semiotics,
and a different, more relativist epistemology. Humanities scholars usually do
not search for the ultimate correct answer to a question, but instead explore
the issues and details that surround it. Context is always important, and
context can be social, historical, political, cultural or ethnic. An example of
research in the humanities is historical research, which is embodied in historical
method. Historians use primary
sources and other evidence to systematically investigate a topic, and then to
write histories in the form of accounts of the past.
Artistic
research, also seen as 'practice-based
research', can take form when creative works are considered both the research
and the object of research itself. It is the debatable body of thought which
offers an alternative to purely scientific methods in research in its search
for knowledge and truth.
Definitions
Research has been
defined in a number of different ways.
A broad definition
of research is given by Martyn Shuttleworth - "In the broadest sense of
the word, the definition of research includes any gathering of data,
information and facts for the advancement of knowledge."
Another definition
of research is given by Creswell who states that - "Research is a process
of steps used to collect and analyze information to increase our understanding
of a topic or issue". It consists of three steps: Pose a question, collect
data to answer the question, and present an answer to the question.
The
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines research in more detail as "a
studious inquiry or examination; especially : investigation or
experimentation aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts, revision of
accepted theories or laws in the light of new facts, or practical application
of such new or revised theories or laws".
Steps in conducting research
Research
is often conducted using the hourglass model structure of research. The
hourglass model starts with a broad spectrum for research, focusing in on the
required information through the method of the project (like the neck of the
hourglass), then expands the research in the form of discussion and results.
The major steps in conducting research are:
- Identification
of research problem
- Literature review
- Specifying the purpose of research
- Determine specific research questions
- Specification of a Conceptual framework - Usually a set of hypotheses
- Choice of a methodology (for data collection)
- Data collection
- Analyzing and interpreting the data
- Reporting and evaluating research
- Communicating the research findings and, possibly, recommendations
The
steps generally represent the overall process, however they should be viewed as
an ever-changing iterative process rather than a fixed set of steps. Most
researches begin with a general statement of the problem, or rather, the
purpose for engaging in the study. The literature review identifies flaws or
holes in previous research which provides justification for the study. Often, a
literature review is conducted in a given subject
area before a research question is identified. A gap in the current literature,
as identified by a researcher, then engenders a research question. The research
question may be parallel to the hypothesis.
The hypothesis is the supposition to be tested. The researcher(s) collects data
to test the hypothesis. The researcher(s) then analyzes and interprets the data
via a variety of statistical methods, engaging in what is known as Empirical research. The results of the data
analysis in confirming or failing to reject the Null
hypothesis are then reported and evaluated. At the end the
researcher may discuss avenues for further research.
Rudolph
Rummel says, "... no researcher should accept any one or two
tests as definitive. It is only when a range of tests are consistent over many
kinds of data, researchers, and methods can one have confidence in the
results."
PUBLICATION
To publish is to
make content available to the general
public. While specific use of the term may vary among countries, it
is usually applied to text, images, or other audio-visual
content on any traditional medium, including paper (newspapers,
magazines,
catalogs, etc.). The word publication
means the act of publishing, and also refers to any printed copies.
Legal
definition and copyright
"Publication"
is a technical term in legal contexts and especially
important in copyright legislation. An author of a work
generally is the initial owner of the copyright
on the work. One of the copyrights granted to the author of a work is the
exclusive right to publish the work.
In
the United States,
publication is defined as:
the distribution of copies or phonorecords of a work to the
public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending.
The offering to distribute copies or phonorecords to a group of persons for
purposes of further distribution, public performance, or public display, constitutes
publication. A public performance or display of a work does not of itself
constitute publication.
To perform or display a work "publicly" means –
(1) to perform or display it at a place open to the public
or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal
circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered; or
(2) to transmit or otherwise communicate a performance or
display of the work to a place specified by clause (1) or to the public, by
means of any device or process, whether the members of the public capable of
receiving the performance or display receive it in the same place or in
separate places and at the same time or at different times.
Furthermore,
the right to publish a work is an exclusive right of the copyright owner (17 USC 106),
and violating this right (e.g. by disseminating copies of the work without the
copyright owner's consent) is a copyright infringement (17 USC 501(a)),
and the copyright owner can demand (by suing in court) that e.g. copies
distributed against his will be confiscated and destroyed (17 USC 502,
17 USC 503).
The
definition of "publication" as "distribution of copies to the
general public with the consent of the author" is also supported by the Berne
Convention, which makes mention of "copies" in article
3(3), where "published works" are defined. In the Universal Copyright Convention,
"publication" is defined in article VI as "the reproduction in
tangible form and the general distribution to the public of copies of a work
from which it can be read or otherwise visually perceived." Many countries
around the world follow this definition, although some make some exceptions for
particular kinds of works. In Germany, §6 of the Urheberrechtsgesetz
additionally considers works of the visual arts (such as sculptures)
"published" if they have been made permanently accessible by the
general public (i.e., erecting a sculpture on public grounds is publication in
Germany). Australia and the UK (as the U.S.) do not have this exception and
generally require the distribution of copies necessary for publication. In the
case of sculptures, the copies must be even three-dimensional.
CONFERENCE
A conference is a meeting
of people who "confer" about a topic.
- Academic conference, in science and academic, a formal event where researchers present results, workshops, and other activities.
- Business conference, organized to discuss business-related matters
- Conference call, in telecommunications, a "multi-party call"
- Conference hall, room where conferences are held
- News conference, an announcement to the press (print, radio, television) with the expectation of questions, about the announced matter, following.
- Parent-teacher conference, a meeting with a child's teacher to discuss grades and school performance.
- Peace conference, a diplomatic meeting to end conflict.
- Settlement conference, a meeting between the plaintiff and the respondent in lawsuit, wherein they try to settle their dispute without proceeding to trial
- Trade conference, or trade fair, organized like a business conference but with wider participation and providing the opportunity for business people and the general public alike to network and learn more about topics of interest through workshops, viewing whitepaper presentations, and meeting vendors of similar or related services.
- Unconference
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
The research and
development (R&D, also called research and technical development
or research and technological development, RTD in Europe) is a
specific group of activities within a business. The activities that are
classified as R&D differ from company to company, but there are two primary
models. In one model, the primary function of an R&D group is to develop new products; in the other model, the
primary function of an R&D group is to discover and create new knowledge
about scientific and technological topics for the purpose of uncovering and
enabling development of valuable new products, processes, and services. Under
both models, R&D
differs from the vast
majority of a company's activities which are intended to yield nearly immediate
profit or immediate improvements in operations and involve little uncertainty
as to the return on investment (ROI). The first
model of R&D is generally staffed by engineers
while the second model may be staffed with industrial
scientists. R&D activities are carried out by corporate
(businesses) or governmental entities. R&D is a form of applied
research.Background
New product design
and development is more often than not a crucial factor in the survival of a
company. In an industry that is changing fast, firms must continually revise
their design and range of products. This is necessary due to continuous
technology change and development as well as other competitors and the changing
preference of customers. Without an R&D program, a firm must rely on strategic alliances, acquisitions,
and networks to tap into the innovations of others.
A system driven by
marketing
is one that puts the customer needs first, and only produces goods that are
known to sell. Market research is carried out, which establishes what is
needed. If the development is technology driven then R&D is directed toward
developing products that market research indicates will meet an unmet need.
In general,
R&D activities are conducted by specialized units or centers belonging to a
company, or can be out-sourced to a contract research organization, universities,
or state agencies. In the context of commerce,
"research and development" normally refers to future-oriented,
longer-term activities in science or technology, using similar techniques to scientific
research but directed toward desired outcomes and with broad forecasts of
commercial yield.
Statistics
on organizations devoted to "R&D" may express the state of an industry,
the degree of competition or the lure of progress. Some common measures include: budgets,
numbers of patents
or on rates of peer-reviewed publications. Bank ratios are one of the best
measures, because they are continuously maintained, public and reflect risk.
In the U.S., a
typical ratio of research and development for an industrial company is about
3.5% of revenues; this measure is called "R&D
intensity". A high technology company such as a computer
manufacturer might spend 7%. Although Allergan
(a biotech
company) tops the spending table with 43.4% investment, anything over 15% is remarkable
and usually gains a reputation for being a high technology company. Companies
in this category include pharmaceutical companies such as Merck &
Co. (14.1%) or Novartis (15.1%), and engineering companies like Ericsson
(24.9%). Such companies are often seen as credit risks because their spending
ratios are so unusual.
Generally
such firms prosper only in markets whose customers have extreme needs, such as
medicine, scientific instruments, safety-critical mechanisms (aircraft) or high
technology military armaments. The extreme needs justify the high risk of
failure and consequently high gross margins from 60% to 90% of revenues. That
is, gross profits
will be as much as 90% of the sales cost, with manufacturing costing only 10%
of the product price, because so many individual projects yield no exploitable
product. Most industrial companies get 40% revenues only.
On a technical
level, high tech organizations explore ways to re-purpose and repackage
advanced technologies as a way of amortizing
the high overhead. They often reuse advanced manufacturing processes, expensive
safety certifications, specialized embedded software, computer-aided design
software, electronic designs and mechanical subsystems.
Research has shown
that firms with a persistent R&D strategy outperform those with an
irregular or no R&D investment program.
Business
Present-day
R&D is a core part of the modern business world. Major decisions in firms
are made on base of research and development.
Research and
development is of great importance in business as the level of competition,
production processes and methods are rapidly increasing. It is of special
importance in the field of marketing where companies keep an eagle eye on
competitors and customers in order to keep pace with modern trends and analyze
the needs, demands and desires of their customers.
Unfortunately,
research and development are very difficult to manage, since the defining
feature of research is that the researchers do not know in advance exactly how
to accomplish the desired result. As a result, higher R&D spending does not
guarantee "more creativity, higher profit or a greater market share".
Benefit of research and development by sector
In general, it has
been found that there is a positive relationship between research and
development and firm productivity across all sectors, but that this positive
relationship is much stronger in high-tech firms than in low-tech firms. In
research done by Francesco Crespi and Cristiano Antonelli, high-tech firms were
found to have "virtuous" Matthew
effects while low-tech firms experienced "vicious" Matthew
effects, meaning that high-tech firms were awarded subsidies on merit while
low-tech firms most often were given subsidies based on name recognition, even
if not put to good use. While the strength of the relationship between R&D
spending and productivity in low-tech industries is less than in high-tech
industries, studies have been done showing non-trivial carryover effects to
other parts of the marketplace by low-tech R&D.
CONSULTANT
A
consultant (from Latin: consultare "to discuss") is a professional
who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as
security (electronic or physical),
management,
accountancy,
law, human
resources, marketing (and public
relations), finance, engineering, science
or any of many other specialized fields.
A
consultant is usually an expert or a professional in a specific field and has a
wide knowledge of the subject matter. The role of consultant outside the
medical sphere (where the term is used specifically for a grade of doctor) can
fall under one of two general categories:
- Internal consultant - someone who operates within an organization but is available to be consulted on areas of specialism by other departments or individuals (acting as clients); or
- External consultant - someone who is employed externally (either by a firm or some other agency) whose expertise is provided on a temporary basis, usually for a fee. As such this type of consultant generally engages with multiple and changing clients.
The
overall impact of a consultant is that clients have access to deeper levels of
expertise than would be feasible for them to retain in-house, and may purchase
only as much service from the outside consultant as desired.
Ways of work
The range of areas
of expertise covered by the term consultant is extremely wide. One of the more
general attributions is as a Management Consultant but this is not an
exclusive term. Consulting and the means by which the (external) consultant is
engaged vary according to industry and local practice. However the principal
difference between a consultant and a temp
is generally one of direction. A consultant is engaged to fulfill a brief in
terms of helping to find solutions to specific issues but the ways in which
that is to be done generally falls to the consultant to decide, within
constraints such as budget and resources agreed with the client. (A temp on
the other hand is normally fulfilling a role that usually exists within the
organization and is helping to bridge a gap caused by staffing shortages for
whatever reason. They fall under the direction of the normal management
structure of the organization.)
There
is however a hybrid form where a consultant may be hired as an Interim Manager or Executive, bringing a
combination of specialist expertise to bear on a role that is temporarily
vacant (usually at a senior level).
Some consultants
are employed indirectly by the client via a consultancy staffing company, a
company that provides consultants on an agency basis. (The staffing company
itself does not usually have consulting expertise but works rather like an
employment agency.) This form of working is particularly common in the ICT sector. Such
consultants are often called contractors since they are usually providing
technical services (such as programming or systems
analysis) that could be performed in-house were it not easier for
the employer to operate a flexible system of only hiring such technologists at
times of peak workload rather than permanently.
SEMINAR
A seminar is,
generally, a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a
commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing
together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some
particular subject, in which everyone present is requested to actively
participate. This is often accomplished through an ongoing Socratic
dialogue with a seminar leader or instructor, or through a more
formal presentation of research. Normally, participants must not be beginners
in the field under discussion (at US and Canadian universities, seminar classes
are generally reserved for upper-class students, although at UK and Australian
universities seminars are often used for all years). The idea behind the
seminar system is to familiarize students more extensively with the methodology
of their chosen subject and also to allow them to interact with examples of the
practical problems that always occur during research work. It is essentially a
place where assigned readings are discussed, questions can be raised and debates can be
conducted. It is relatively informal, at least compared to the lecture
system of academic instruction.
Origins of the word
The word seminar
is derived from the Latin word seminarium, meaning "seed
plot".
Universities
In American universities,
the term seminar refers to a course of intense study relating to the student's
major. Seminars typically have significantly fewer students per professor than
normal courses, and are generally more specific in topic of study. Seminars can
revolve around term papers, exams, presentations, and several other
assignments. Seminars are almost always required for university graduation.
In some European
universities, a seminar may be a large lecture course, especially when
conducted by a renowned thinker (regardless of the size of the audience or the
scope of student participation in discussion). Some non-English speaking
countries in Europe use the word seminar (e.g., German Seminar,
Slovenian seminar, Polish seminarium, etc.) to refer to a
university class that includes a term paper or project, as opposed to a lecture
class (i.e., German Vorlesung, Slovenian predavanje, Polish wykład,
etc.). This does not correspond to English use of the term. In some academic
institutions, the term "preceptorial" is used interchangeably with
seminar, although this is typically utilized in the scientific fields.
SYMPOSIUM
In ancient
Greece, the symposium (Greek συμπόσιον symposion, from
συμπίνειν sympinein, "to drink together") was a drinking
party. Literary works that describe or take place at a symposium include two Socratic
dialogues, Plato's
Symposium and Xenophon's
Symposium, as well as a number of Greek poems such as the elegies
of Theognis of Megara. Symposia are depicted in Greek
and Etruscan art
that shows similar scenes
Setting and social occasion
The Greek symposium was a key Hellenic social institution. It was a forum for men of good family to debate, plot, boast, or simply to revel with others. They were frequently held to celebrate the introduction of young men into aristocratic society. Symposia were also held by aristocrats to celebrate other special occasions, such as victories in athletic and poetic contests. They were a sort of pride for them.Symposia
were usually held in the andrōn (ἀνδρών), the men's quarters of the household. The
participants, or "symposiasts", would recline on pillowed couches
arrayed against the three walls of the room away from the door. Due to space
limitations the couches would number between seven and nine, limiting the total
number of participants to somewhere between fourteen and twenty seven (Oswyn
Murray gives a figure of between seven and fifteen couches and reckons fourteen
to thirty participants a "standard size for a drinking group"). If
any young men took part they did not recline but sat up. However, in Macedonian
symposia the focus was not only on drinking but hunting, and young men were
allowed to recline only after they had killed their first wild boarFood and wine were served. Entertainment was provided, and depending on the occasion could include games, songs, flute-girls or boys, slaves performing various acts, and hired entertainment.
Symposia often were held for specific occasions. The most famous symposium of all, described in Plato's dialogue of that name (and rather differently in Xenophon's) was hosted by the poet Agathon on the occasion of his first victory at the theater contest of the 416 BC Dionysia. According to Plato's account, the celebration was upstaged by the unexpected entrance of the toast of the town, the young Alcibiades, dropping in drunken and nearly naked, having just left another symposium.
The men apart of the symposium would discuss a multitude of topics—from philosophy to love and the differences between genders.
Public Policies: Design, Implementation and Evaluation
Policies that focus on fighting
poverty and on achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDG) have emerged in
developing countries for more than a decade. The challenge is to implement
successful initiatives (for health, education, or housing and water) that
encourage local participation, ownership of national objectives and
coordination of fundings (Paris, 2005, Accra, 2008, and Busan, 2011). Such
changes are not easy to manage and often require the strengthening of national
capacities. National leaders must manage these changes under the permanent
pressure of donors, local lobbies and the ever increasing influence of social
networks and mobilized populations.
One way to support the policy process is through “evidence based” policy-making. It requires translating research evidence into policy action. In this seminar, participants will learn about different public policy models and research outcomes (quantitative and qualitative) that can be integrated in the formulation of a policy.
Some countries succeed better than others at implementing public policies that facilitate development. The feature lessons from success and failure of public policy models from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe or other regions of the world will be analyzed and compared. This seminar will help public servants and senior level officials to enhance their competencies in managing the public policies’ life cycle (agenda setting, formulation, implementation and evaluation).
PRACTICAL
OBJECTIVES
- Understand the importance, nature and limits of public policies, success criteria and success factors.
- Identify the actors, processes and methods which lead to the formulation of public policies.
- Learn and Master the tools and research methods for designing evidence-based policy making.
- Improve the participants’ ability to assess public policy performance and to implement evaluations.
MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
Change management
is an approach to transitioning individuals,
teams, and organizations
to a desired future state. In a project management context, change management
may refer to a project management process wherein changes to the scope of a
project are formally introduced and approved or the definition of change
management defined on this page
Approach
Organizational
change is a structured approach in an organization for ensuring that changes
are smoothly and successfully implemented to achieve lasting benefits.
Reasons for change
Globalization and the constant innovation of technology
result in a constantly evolving business environment. Phenomena such as social media
and mobile adaptability have revolutionized business and the effect of this is
an ever increasing need for change, and therefore change management. The growth
in technology also has a secondary effect of increasing the availability and
therefore accountability of knowledge. Easily accessible information has
resulted in unprecedented scrutiny from stockholders and the media and pressure
on management.
With the business
environment experiencing so much change, organizations must then learn to
become comfortable with change as well. Therefore, the ability to manage and
adapt to organizational change is an essential ability required in the
workplace today. Yet, major and rapid organizational change is profoundly
difficult because the structure, culture, and routines of organizations often
reflect a persistent and difficult-to-remove "imprint" of past
periods, which are resistant to radical change even as the current environment
of the organization changes rapidly.
Due to the growth
of technology, modern organizational change is largely motivated by exterior innovations
rather than internal moves. When these developments occur, the organizations
that adapt quickest create a competitive advantage for themselves, while the
companies that refuse to change get left behind. This can result in drastic
profit and/or market share losses.
Organizational
change directly affects all departments from the entry level employee to senior
management. The entire company must learn how to handle changes to the
organization.
Choosing what changes to implement
When determining
which of the latest techniques or innovations to adopt, there are four major
factors to be considered:
1.
Levels,
goals, and strategies
2.
Measurement
system
3.
Sequence
of steps
4.
Implementation
and organizational change
Managing the change process
Regardless of the
many types of organizational change, the critical aspect is a company’s ability
to win the buy-in of their organization’s employees on the change. Effectively
managing organizational change is a four-step process:
1.
Recognizing
the changes in the broader business environment
2.
Developing
the necessary adjustments for their company’s needs
3.
Training
their employees on the appropriate changes
4.
Winning
the support of the employees with the persuasiveness of the appropriate
adjustments
As a
multi-disciplinary practice that has evolved as a result of scholarly research,
organizational change management should begin with a systematic diagnosis of
the current situation in order to determine both the need for change and the
capability to change. The objectives, content, and process of change should all
be specified as part of a Change Management plan.
Change management
processes should include creative marketing to enable communication between
changing audiences, as well as deep social understanding about leadership’s
styles and group dynamics. As a visible track on transformation projects,
Organizational Change Management aligns groups’ expectations, communicates,
integrates teams and manages people training. It makes use of performance
metrics, such as financial results, operational efficiency, leadership
commitment, communication effectiveness, and the perceived need for change to
design appropriate strategies, in order to avoid change failures or resolve
troubled change projects.
Successful change
management is more likely to occur if the following are included:
1.
Benefits
management and realization to define measurable stakeholder aims, create a
business case for their achievement (which should be continuously updated), and
monitor assumptions, risks, dependencies, costs, return on investment,
dis-benefits and cultural issues affecting the progress of the associated work
2.
Effective
communication that informs various stakeholders of the reasons for the change
(why?), the benefits of successful implementation (what is in it for us, and
you) as well as the details of the change (when? where? who is involved? how
much will it cost? etc.)
3.
Devise
an effective education, training and/or skills upgrading scheme for the
organization
4.
Counter
resistance from the employees of companies and align them to overall strategic
direction of the organization
5.
Provide
personal counseling (if required) to alleviate any change-related fears
6.
Monitoring
of the implementation and fine-tuning as required
Examples
- Mission changes
- Strategic changes
- Operational changes (including Structural changes)
- Technological changes
- Changing the attitudes and behaviors of personnel
Personality Wide Changes
BALANCED SCORECARD
The
balanced scorecard (BSC) is a strategy performance management tool - a
semi-standard structured report, supported by design methods and automation tools, that
can be used by managers to keep track of the execution of activities by the
staff within their control and to monitor the consequences arising from these
actions.
The
critical characteristics that define a Balanced Scorecard are
- its focus on the strategic agenda of the organisation concerned
- the selection of a small number of data items to monitor
- a mix of financial and non-financial data items.
Use
Balanced Scorecard
is an example of a closed-loop controller or cybernetic control
applied to the management of the implementation
of a strategy. Closed-loop or cybernetic control is where actual performance
is measured, the measured value is compared to an expected value and based on
the difference between the two corrective interventions are made as required.
Such control requires three things to be effective - a choice of data to
measure, the setting of an expected value for the data, and the ability to make
a corrective intervention.
Within
the strategy management context, all three of these characteristic closed-loop
control elements need to be derived from the organisation's strategy and also
need to reflect the ability of the observer to both monitor performance and
subsequently intervene - both of which may be constrained.
Two of the ideas
that underpin modern Balanced Scorecard designs concern facilitating the
creation of such a control - through making it easier to select which data to
observe, and ensuring that the choice of data is consistent with the ability of
the observer to intervene.
History
Organizations have
used systems consisting of a mix of financial and non-financial measures to
track progress for quite some time. One such system was created by Art
Schneiderman in 1987 at Analog Devices, a mid-sized semi-conductor company;
the Analog Devices Balanced Scorecard. Schneiderman's design was similar to
what is now recognised as a "First Generation" Balanced Scorecard
design.
In 1990 Art
Schneiderman participated in an unrelated research study in 1990 led by Dr. Robert
S. Kaplan in conjunction with US management consultancy Nolan-Norton, and
during this study described his work on performance measurement. Subsequently,
Kaplan and David P. Norton included
anonymous details of this balanced scorecard design in a 1992 article. Kaplan
and Norton's article wasn't the only paper on the topic published in early 1992
but the 1992 Kaplan and Norton paper was a popular success, and was quickly
followed by a second in 1993. In 1996, the two authors published a book The
Balanced Scorecard. These articles and the first book spread knowledge of
the concept of balanced scorecard widely, and has led to Kaplan and Norton
being seen as the creators of the concept.
While the
"balanced scorecard" terminology was coined by Art Schneiderman, the
roots of performance management as an activity run deep in management literature
and practice. Management historians such as Alfred
Chandler suggest the origins of performance management can be seen in the
emergence of the complex organisation - most notably during the 19th Century in
the USA. More recent influences may include the pioneering work of General
Electric on performance measurement reporting in the 1950s and the work of
French process engineers (who created the tableau de bord – literally, a
"dashboard" of performance measures) in the early part of the 20th
century. The tool also draws strongly on the ideas of the 'resource based view
of the firm' proposed by Edith Penrose. However it should be noted that none
of these influences is explicitly linked to original descriptions of balanced
scorecard by Schneiderman, Maisel, or Kaplan & Norton.
Kaplan
and Norton's first book remains their most popular. The book reflects the
earliest incarnations of balanced scorecards - effectively restating the
concept as described in the second Harvard Business Review article. Their
second book, The Strategy Focused Organization, echoed work by others
(particularly a book published the year before by Olve et al. in Scandinavia)
on the value of visually documenting the links between measures by proposing
the "Strategic Linkage Model" or strategy
map.
As the title of
Kaplan and Norton's second book highlights, even by 2000 the focus of attention
among thought-leaders was moving from the design of Balanced Scorecards
themselves, towards the use of Balanced Scorecard as a focal point within a
more comprehensive strategic management system. Subsequent writing on Balanced
Scorecard by Kaplan & Norton has focused on uses of Balanced Scorecard
rather than its design (e.g. "The Execution Premium" in 2008]),
however many others have continued to refine the device itself (e.g. Abernethy
et al.
Characteristics
The
characteristics of the balanced scorecard and its derivatives is the
presentation of a mixture of financial and non-financial measures each compared
to a 'target' value within a single concise report. The report is not meant to
be a replacement for traditional financial or operational reports but a
succinct summary that captures the information most relevant to those reading
it. It is the method by which this 'most relevant' information is determined
(i.e., the design processes used to select the content) that most
differentiates the various versions of the tool in circulation. The balanced
scorecard indirectly also provides a useful insight into an organisation's
strategy - by requiring general strategic statements (e.g. mission, vision) to
be precipitated into more specific / tangible forms.
The first versions
of balanced scorecard asserted that relevance should derive from the corporate strategy, and proposed design methods
that focused on choosing measures and targets associated with the main
activities required to implement the strategy. As the initial audience for this
were the readers of the Harvard Business Review, the proposal was
translated into a form that made sense to a typical reader of that journal -
managers of US commercial businesses. Accordingly, initial designs were
encouraged to measure three categories of non-financial measure in addition to
financial outputs - those of "customer," "internal business
processes" and "learning and growth." These categories were not
so relevant to non-profits or units within complex organizations (which might
have high degrees of internal specialization), and much of the early literature
on balanced scorecard focused on suggestions of alternative 'perspectives' that
might have more relevance to these groups.
Modern
balanced scorecards have evolved since the initial ideas proposed in the late
1980s and early 1990s, and the modern performance management tools including
Balanced Scorecard are significantly improved - being more flexible (to suit a
wider range of organisational types) and more effective (as design methods have
evolved to make them easier to design, and use). Design
Design of a
balanced scorecard is about the identification of a small number of financial
and non-financial measures and attaching targets to them, so that when they are
reviewed it is possible to determine whether current performance 'meets
expectations'. By alerting managers to areas where performance deviates from
expectations, they can be encouraged to focus their attention on these areas,
and hopefully as a result trigger improved performance within the part of the
organization they lead.
The original
thinking behind a balanced scorecard was for it to be focused on information
relating to the implementation of a strategy, and over time there has been a
blurring of the boundaries between conventional strategic planning and control
activities and those required to design a Balanced Scorecard. This is illustrated
well by the four steps required to design a balanced scorecard included in
Kaplan & Norton's writing on the subject in the late 1990s:
1.
Translating
the vision into operational goals;
2.
Communicating
the vision and link it to individual performance;
3.
Business
planning; index setting
4.
Feedback
and learning, and adjusting the strategy accordingly.
These steps go far
beyond the simple task of identifying a small number of financial and
non-financial measures, but illustrate the requirement for whatever design
process is used to fit within broader thinking about how the resulting Balanced
Scorecard will integrate with the wider business management process.
Although it helps
focus managers' attention on strategic issues and the management of the
implementation of strategy, it is important to remember that the Balanced
Scorecard itself has no role in the formation of strategy. In fact, balanced
scorecards can co-exist with strategic planning systems and other tools.
First Generation Balanced Scorecard
The first
generation of Balanced Scorecard designs used a "4 perspective"
approach to identify what measures to use to track the implementation of
strategy. `The original four "perspectives" proposed were:
- Financial: encourages the identification of a few relevant high-level financial measures. In particular, designers were encouraged to choose measures that helped inform the answer to the question "How do we look to shareholders?" Examples: cash flow, sales growth, operating income, return on equity.
- Customer: encourages the identification of measures that answer the question "How do customers see us?" Examples: percent of sales from new products, on time delivery, share of important customers’ purchases, ranking by important customers.
- Internal business processes: encourages the identification of measures that answer the question "What must we excel at?" Examples: cycle time, unit cost, yield, new product introductions.
- Learning and growth: encourages the identification of measures that answer the question "How can we continue to improve, create value and innovate?". Examples: time to develop new generation of products, life cycle to product maturity, time to market versus competition.
The idea was that
managers used these perspective headings to prompt the selection of a small
number of measures that informed on that aspect of the organisation's strategic
performance. The perspective headings show that Kaplan and Norton were thinking
about the needs of non-divisional commercial organisations in their initial
design. These headings are not very helpful to other kinds of organisations
(e.g. multi-divisional or multi-national commercial organisations, governmental
organisations, non-profits, non-governmental organisations, government agencies
etc.), and much of what has been written on balanced scorecard since has, in
one way or another, focused on the identification of alternative headings more
suited to a broader range of organisations, and also suggested using either
additional or fewer perspectives (e.g. Butler et al. (1997), Ahn (2001),
Elefalke (2001), Brignall (2002), Irwin
(2002), Radnor et al. (2003)).
These suggestions
were notably triggered by a recognition that different but equivalent headings
would yield alternative sets of measures, and this represents the major design
challenge faced with this type of balanced scorecard design: justifying the
choice of measures made. "Of all the measures you could have chosen, why
did you choose these?" These issues contribute to dis-satisfaction with
early Balanced Scorecard designs, since if users are not confident that the
measures within the Balanced Scorecard are well chosen, they will have less
confidence in the information it provides.
Although
less common, these early-style balanced scorecards are still designed and used
today.
In short, first
generation balanced scorecards are hard to design in a way that builds
confidence that they are well designed. Because of this, many are abandoned
soon after completion.
Second Generation Balanced Scorecard
In the mid-1990s,
an improved design method emerged. In the new method, measures are selected
based on a set of "strategic objectives" plotted on a "strategic
linkage model" or "strategy map". With this modified approach, the
strategic objectives are distributed across the four measurement perspectives,
so as to "connect the dots" to form a visual presentation of strategy
and measures.
In this modified
version of balanced scorecard design, managers select a few strategic
objectives within each of the perspectives, and then define the cause-effect
chain among these objectives by drawing links between them to create a
"strategic linkage model". A balanced scorecard of strategic
performance measures is then derived directly by selecting one or two measures
for each strategic objectives. This type of approach provides greater
contextual justification for the measures chosen, and is generally easier for
managers to work through. This style of balanced scorecard has been commonly
used since 1996 or so: it is significantly different in approach to the methods
originally proposed, and so can be thought of as representing the "2nd
generation" of design approach adopted for balanced scorecard since its
introduction.
Third Generation Balanced Scorecard
In the late 1990s,
the design approach had evolved yet again. One problem with the "2nd
generation" design approach described above was that the plotting of
causal links amongst twenty or so medium-term strategic goals was still a
relatively abstract activity. In practice it ignored the fact that opportunities
to intervene, to influence strategic goals are, and need to be, anchored in the
"now;" in current and real management activity. Secondly, the need to
"roll forward" and test the impact of these goals necessitated the
creation of an additional design instrument; the Vision or Destination
Statement. This device was a statement of what "strategic success,"
or the "strategic end-state" looked like. It was quickly realized,
that if a Destination Statement was created at the beginning of the design
process then it was easier to select strategic activity and outcome objectives
to respond to it. Measures and targets could then be selected to track the
achievement of these objectives. Design methods that incorporate a
"destination statement" or equivalent (e.g. the results based management method proposed
by the UN in 2002) represent a tangibly different design approach to those that
went before, and have been proposed as representing a "3rd generation" design
method for balanced scorecard.
Design
methods for balanced scorecards continue to evolve and adapt to reflect the
deficiencies in the currently used methods, and the particular needs of
communities of interest (e.g. NGO's and government departments have found the
3rd generation methods embedded in results based management more useful than
1st or 2nd generation design methods).
This generation
refined the second generation of the balanced scorecard to give the strategic
objectives more relevance and functionality. The major difference is the
incorporation of 'destination statements'. Other key components consist of
strategic objectives, strategic linkage model and perspectives, and measures
and initiatives.
Popularity
In 1997, Kurtzman
found that 64 percent of the companies questioned were measuring performance
from a number of perspectives in a similar way to the balanced scorecard.
Balanced scorecards have been implemented by government agencies, military
units, business units and corporations as a whole, non-profit organizations,
and schools.
Balanced Scorecard
has been widely adopted, and has been found to be the most popular performance
management framework in a recent survey
Many examples of
balanced scorecards can be found via web searches. However, adapting one
organization's balanced scorecard to another is generally not advised by
theorists, who believe that much of the benefit of the balanced scorecard comes
from the design process itself. Indeed, it could be argued that many failures in
the early days of balanced scorecard could be attributed to this problem, in
that early balanced scorecards were often designed remotely by consultants.
Managers did not trust, and so failed to engage with and use, these measure
suites created by people lacking knowledge of the organization and management
responsibility
Criticism
The balanced
scorecard has attracted criticism from a variety of sources. Most has come from
the academic community, who dislike the empirical nature of the framework:
Kaplan and Norton notoriously failed to include any citation of prior art in
their initial papers on the topic. Some of this criticism focuses on technical
flaws in the methods and design of the original Balanced Scorecard proposed by
Kaplan and Norton,. Other academics have simply focused on the lack of citation
support.
A
second kind of criticism is that the balanced scorecard does not provide a
bottom line score or a unified view with clear recommendations: it is simply a
list of metrics (e.g. Jensen 2001). These critics usually include in their
criticism suggestions about how the 'unanswered' question postulated could be
answered, but typically the unanswered question relate to things outside the
scope of balanced scorecard itself (such as developing strategies) (e.g.
Brignall)
A third kind of
criticism is that the model fails to fully reflect the needs of stakeholders -
putting bias on financial stakeholders over others. Early forms of Balanced
Scorecard proposed by Kaplan & Norton focused on the needs of commercial
organisations in the USA - where this focus on investment return was
appropriate. This focus was maintained through subsequent revisions. Even now
over 20 years after they were first proposed, the four most common perspectives
in Balanced Scorecard designs mirror the four proposed in the original Kaplan
& Norton paper. However, as noted earlier in this wiki page, there have
been many studies that suggest other perspectives might better reflect the
priorities of organisations - particularly but not exclusively relating to the
needs of organisations in the public and Non Governmental sectors. More modern
design approaches such as 3rd Generation Balanced Scorecard
and the UN's Results Based Management methods
explicitly consider the interests of wider stakeholder groups, and perhaps
address this issue in its entirety.
There are few
empirical studies linking the use of balanced scorecards to better decision
making or improved financial performance of companies, but some work has been
done in these areas. However, broadcast surveys of usage have difficulties in
this respect, due to the wide variations in definition of 'what a balanced
scorecard is' noted above (making it hard to work out in a survey if you are
comparing like with like). Single organization case studies suffer from the
'lack of a control' issue common to any study of organizational change - you
don't know what the organization would have achieved if the change had not been
made, so it is difficult to attribute changes observed over time to a single
intervention (such as introducing a balanced scorecard). However, such studies
as have been done have typically found balanced scorecard to be useful.
Software tools
It is important to
recognize that the balanced scorecard by definition is not a complex thing -
typically no more than about 20 measures spread across a mix of financial and
non-financial topics, and easily reported manually (on paper, or using simple
office software).
The
processes of collecting, reporting, and distributing balanced scorecard
information can be labor-intensive and prone to procedural problems (for
example, getting all relevant people to return the information required by the
required date). The simplest mechanism to use is to delegate these activities
to an individual, and many Balanced Scorecards are reported via ad-hoc methods
based around email, phone calls and office software.
In more complex
organizations, where there are multiple balanced scorecards to report and/or a
need for co-ordination of results between balanced scorecards (for example, if
one level of reports relies on information collected and reported at a lower
level) the use of individual reporters is problematic. Where these conditions
apply, organizations use balanced scorecard reporting software to automate the
production and distribution of these reports.
Recent surveys
have consistently found that roughly one third of organizations used office
software to report their balanced scorecard, one third used software developed
specifically for their own use, and one third used one of the many commercial
packages available.
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
Financial
management refers to the efficient
and effective management of money (funds) in such a manner as to accomplish the
objectives of the organization. It is the specialized function directly associated
with the top management. The significance of this function is not only seen in
the 'Line' but also in the capacity of 'Staff' in overall administration of a
company. It has been defined differently by different experts in the field.
It includes how to
raise the capital, how to allocate it i.e. capital budgeting. Not only about
long term budgeting but also how to allocate the short term resources like
current assets. It also deals with the dividend policies of the share holders.
Definitions of Financial Management
- “Financial Management is the Operational Activity of a business that is responsible for obtaining and effectively utilizing the funds necessary for efficient operation.” by Joseph Massie
- “Business finance deals primarily with rising administering and disbursing funds by privately owned business units operating in non-financial fields of industry.” – by Prather and Wert
“Financial Management is an
area of financial decision making, harmonizing individual motives and
enterprise goals.” By Weston and Brigham- “Financial management is the area of business management devoted to a judicious use of capital and a careful selection of sources of capital in order to enable a business firm to move in the direction of reaching its goals.” – by J.F.Bradlery
- “Financial management is the application of the planning and control function to the finance function.” – by Archer & Ambrosio
- “Financial management may be defined as that area or set of administrative function in an organization which relate with arrangement of cash and credit so that organization may have the means to carry out its objective as satisfactorily as possible .“ - by Howard & Opton.
- Business finance can be broadly defined as the activity concerned with planning, raising, controlling and administering of funds and in the business. “ by H.G Gathman & H.E Dougall
Topics in
financial management include:
- Managerial finance, a branch of finance concerned with the managerial significance of finance techniques.
- Corporate finance, a branch of finance concerned with monetary resource allocations made by corporations.
- Financial management for IT services, financial management of IT assets and resources.
- Financial Management Association, an organization for finance and economics students and professionals.
- Financial Management Service, a bureau of the U.S. Treasury which provides financial services for the government.
- Financial management, a professional designation in Canada indicating a financial planner.
ACCOUNTING
Accounting, or accountancy, is the measurement,
processing and communication of financial information about economic
entities. Accounting, which has been called the "language of
business", measures the results of an organization's economic activities
and conveys this information to a variety of users including investors,
creditors,
management,
and regulators. Practitioners of accounting are
known as accountants.
The terms accounting and financial reporting are often used as synonyms.
Accounting
can be divided into several fields including financial accounting, management accounting, auditing,
and tax
accounting. Financial accounting focuses on the reporting of an
organization's financial information, including the preparation of financial statements, to external users of the
information, such as investors, regulators
and suppliers;
and management accounting focuses on the measurement, analysis and reporting of
information for internal use by management. The recording of financial
transactions, so that summaries of the financials may be presented in financial
reports, is known as bookkeeping, of which double-entry bookkeeping is the most
common system.
Accounting is
facilitated by accounting organizations
such as standard-setters, accounting firms and professional bodies. Financial statements are usually audited by accounting firms, and are
prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting
principles (GAAP). GAAP is set by various standard-setting
organizations such as the Financial Accounting Standards Board
(FASB) in the United States and the Financial Reporting Council in the United
Kingdom. As of 2012, "all major economies" have plans to converge towards or adopt the International Financial Reporting
Standards (IFRS).
Etymology
Both the words
accounting and accountancy were in use in Great Britain
by the mid-1800s, and are derived from the words accompting and accountantship
used in the 18th century. In Middle
English (used roughly between the 12th and the late 15th century)
the verb "to account" had the form accounten, which was
derived from the Old French word aconter, which is in turn related to
the Vulgar Latin
word computare, meaning "to reckon". The base of computare
is putare, which "variously meant to prune, to purify, to correct
an account, hence, to count or calculate, as well as to think."
The word "accountant"
is derived from the French word compter, which
is also derived from the Latin word computare. The
word was formerly written in English as "accomptant", but in process
of time the word, which was always pronounced by dropping the "p",
became gradually changed both in pronunciation
and in orthography
to its present form.
Accounting and accountancy
Accounting has variously been defined as the keeping or
preparation of the financial records of an entity, the analysis, verification
and reporting of such records and "the principles and procedures
of accounting"; it also refers to the job
of being an accountant.
Accountancy refers to the occupation
or profession
of an accountant, particularly in British
English.Accounting affects the economy
Although financial
accounting produces past-oriented reports, it is based on generally accepted
accounting principles and generally accepted accounting practices compliant
with International Financial Reporting Standards/US GAAP. In order to prepare
the financial accounts/reports an entity has to comply with these GAAPs and
gaaps. Which of these accounting practices and principles the board of
directors choose at the start of the financial period and whatever changes in
these generally accepted accounting principles and practices are implemented
during the accounting period, affect the entity´s economy and affect the
financial accounts (financial reports) prepared at the end of the financial
period. When all entities implement the same change during the financial year
as required by IFRS/US GAAP, then that affects the entire economy.
Financial accounting
Financial
accounting is financial capital maintenance in either nominal monetary units
(Historical Cost Accounting) during low and high inflation and deflation or
units of constant purchasing power (Constant Purchasing Power Accounting) as
required in IFRS during hyperinflation. Financial accounting focuses on the
reporting of an organization's financial information to external users of the
information, such as investors, regulators
and suppliers
either based on the HCA model or the CPPA model. It measures and records
business transactions and prepares financial statements for the external users in
accordance with generally accepted accounting principles
(GAAP). GAAP, in turn, arises from the wide agreement between accounting theory and practice, and change over
time to meet the needs of decision-makers.
Financial
accounting produces past-oriented reports—for example the financial statements
prepared in 2006 reports on performance in 2005—on an annual
or quarterly basis, generally about the organization as a whole.
Management accounting
Management
accounting focuses on the measurement, analysis and reporting of information
that can help managers in making decisions to fulfil the goals of an
organization. In management accounting, internal measures and reports are based
on cost-benefit analysis, and are not
required to follow GAAP.
Management
accounting produces future-oriented reports—for example the budget for 2006 is
prepared in 2005—and the time span of reports varies widely. Such reports may
include both financial and nonfinancial information, and may, for example,
focus on specific products and departments. Auditing
Auditing is the
verification of assertions made by others regarding a payoff, and in the
context of accounting it is the "unbiased
examination and evaluation of the financial statements of an organization".
An audit of
financial statements aims to express or disclaim an opinion on the financial
statements. The auditor expresses an opinion on the fairness with which the
financial statements presents the financial position, results of operations,
and cash flows of an entity, in accordance with GAAP and "in all material
respects". An auditor is also required to identify circumstances in which
GAAP has not been consistently observed.
Accounting information systems
An accounting
information system is a part of an organisation's information system that focuses almost
exclusively on processing quantitative data.
AUDIT
The general
definition of an audit is a planned and documented activity performed by
qualified personnel to determine by investigation, examination, or evaluation
of objective evidence, the adequacy and compliance with established procedures,
or applicable documents, and the effectiveness of implementation. The term may
refer to audits in accounting, internal controls, quality management, project
management, water management, and energy conservation.
Auditing is
defined as a systematic and independent examination of data, statements,
records, operations and performances (financial or otherwise) of an enterprise
for a stated purpose. In any auditing the auditor perceives and recognizes the
propositions before him for examination, collects evidence, evaluates the same
and on this basis formulates his judgment which is communicated through his
audit report. The purpose is then to give an opinion on the adequacy of
controls (financial and otherwise) within an environment they audit, to
evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance
processes.
Accounting
Main article: Financial
audit
Auditing is a
vital part of accounting. Traditionally, audits were mainly associated with
gaining information about financial systems and the financial records of a
company or a business.
Financial audits
are performed to ascertain the validity and reliability of information, as well as to
provide an assessment of a system's internal
control. The goal of an audit is to express an opinion of the person
/ organization / system (etc.) in question, under evaluation based on work done
on a test basis.
Due to
constraints, an audit seeks to provide only reasonable assurance that
the statements are free from material error. Hence, statistical
sampling is often adopted in audits. In the case of financial
audits, a set of financial statements are said to be true
and fair when they are free of material misstatements – a concept influenced by
both quantitative (numerical) and qualitative
factors. But recently, the argument that auditing should go beyond just true and fair is gaining
momentum. And the US Public Company Accounting Oversight
Board has come out with a concept release on the same.
Cost
accounting is a process for verifying the cost of manufacturing or
producing of any article, on the basis of accounts measuring the use of
material, labor or other items of cost. In simple words, the term, cost audit means a
systematic and accurate verification of the cost accounts and records, and
checking for adherence to the cost accounting objectives. According to the
Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan, a cost audit is "an
examination of cost accounting records and verification of facts to ascertain
that the cost of the product has been arrived at, in accordance with principles
of cost accounting."
An audit must
adhere to generally accepted standards established by governing bodies. These
standards assure third parties or external users that they can rely upon the
auditor's opinion on the fairness of financial statements, or other subjects on
which the auditor expresses an opinion.
The definition for
Audit and Assurance Standard
AAS-1 by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of
India (ICAI): “Auditing is defined as a systematic and
independent examination of data, statements, records, operations and
performance (financial or otherwise) of an enterprise for a stated purpose. In
any auditing situation, the auditor perceives and recognises the proposition
before him for examination, collects evidence, evaluates the same and on this
basis formulates a judgment which is communicated through an audit report. An
audit is an independent examination of financial information of an entity,
irrespective of its size and form, when such examination is conducted with a
view of expressing an opinion thereon.”
Integrated audits
In US audits of publicly
traded companies are governed by rules laid down by the Public Company Accounting Oversight
Board (PCAOB), which was established by Section 404 of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002. Such an audit is
called an integrated audit, where auditors, in addition to an opinion on the
financial statements, must also express an opinion on the effectiveness
of a company's internal control over financial reporting, in accordance
with PCAOB Auditing Standard No. 5.
There are also new
types of integrated auditing becoming available that use unified compliance
material (see the unified compliance section in Regulatory compliance). Due to the
increasing number of regulations and need for operational transparency,
organizations are adopting risk-based
audits that can cover multiple regulations and standards from a
single audit event. This is a very new but necessary approach in some sectors
to ensure that all the necessary governance
requirements can be met without duplicating effort from both audit and audit
hosting resources.
Assessments
The purpose of an
assessment is to measure something or calculate a value for it. Although the
process of producing an assessment may involve an audit by an independent
professional, its purpose is to provide a measurement rather than to express an
opinion about the fairness of statements or quality of performance.
Auditors
Auditors of
financial statements can be classified into two categories:
- External auditor / Statutory auditor is an independent firm engaged by the client subject to the audit, to express an opinion on whether the company's financial statements are free of material misstatements, whether due to fraud or error. For publicly traded companies, external auditors may also be required to express an opinion over the effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting. External auditors may also be engaged to perform other agreed-upon procedures, related or unrelated to financial statements. Most importantly, external auditors, though engaged and paid by the company being audited, are regarded as independent auditors.
Cost
auditor / Statutory
Cost auditor is an independent firm engaged by the client
subject to the Cost audit, to express an opinion on whether the company's Cost
statements and Cost Sheet are free of material misstatements,
whether due to fraud or error. For publicly traded companies,
external auditors may also be required to express an opinion over the
effectiveness of internal controls over Cost reporting. These
are Specialized Person called Cost Accountants in India & CMA globally
either Cost & management Accountant or Certified management
Accountants.
Further information: Cost auditing
The most used
external audit standards are the US GAAS of the American
Institute of Certified Public Accountants; and the ISA International Standards on Auditing
developed by the International
Auditing and Assurance Standards Board of the International Federation of
Accountants.
- Internal auditors are employed by the organizations they audit. They work for government agencies (federal, state and local); for publicly traded companies; and for non-profit companies across all industries. The internationally recognised standard setting body for the profession is the Institute of Internal Auditors - IIA (www.theiia.org). The IIA has defined internal auditing as follows: "Internal auditing is an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organization'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". Thus professional internal auditors provide independent and objective audit and consulting services focused on evaluating whether the board of directors, shareholders, stakeholders, and corporate executives have reasonable assurance that the organization's governance, risk management, and control processes are designed adequately and function effectively. Internal audit professionals (Certified Internal Auditors - CIAs) are governed by the international professional standards and code of conduct of the Institute of Internal Auditors. While internal auditors are not independent of the companies that employ them, independence and objectivity are a cornerstone of the IIA professional standards; and are discussed at length in the standards and the supporting practice guides and practice advisories. Professional internal auditors are mandated by the IIA standards to be independent of the business activities they audit. This independence and objectivity are achieved through the organizational placement and reporting lines of the internal audit department. Internal auditors of publicly traded companies in the United States are required to report functionally to the board of directors directly, or a sub-committee of the board of directors (typically the audit committee), and not to management except for administrative purposes. As described often in the professional literature for the practice of internal auditing (such as Internal Auditor, the journal of the IIA) -, or other similar and generally recognized frameworks for management control when evaluating an entity's governance and control practices; and apply COSO's "Enterprise Risk Management-Integrated Framework" or other similar and generally recognized frameworks for entity-wide risk management when evaluating an organization's entity-wide risk management practices. Professional internal auditors also use Control Self-Assessment (CSA) as an effective process for performing their work.
Consultant auditors are
external personnel contracted by the firm to perform an audit following
the firm's auditing standards. This differs from
the external auditor, who follows their
own auditing standards. The level of independence is therefore somewhere
between the internal auditor and the external auditor. The consultant
auditor may work independently, or as part of the audit team that includes
internal auditors. Consultant auditors are used when the firm lacks
sufficient expertise to audit certain areas, or simply for staff
augmentation when staff are not available.
Performance audits
Safety, security,
information systems performance, and environmental concerns are increasingly
the subject of audits. There are now audit professionals who specialize in security
audits and information systems audits. With nonprofit
organizations and government agencies, there has been an
increasing need for performance audits, examining their success in
satisfying mission objectives.
Quality audits
Main article: Quality audit
Quality audits are
performed to verify conformance to standards through review of objective
evidence. A system of quality audits may verify the effectiveness of a quality
management system. This is part of certifications such as ISO 9001.
Quality audits are essential to verify the existence of objective evidence
showing conformance to required processes, to assess how successfully processes
have been implemented, and to judge the effectiveness of achieving any defined
target levels. Quality audits are also necessary to provide evidence concerning
reduction and elimination of problem areas, and they are a hands-on management
tool for achieving continual improvement in an organization.
To
benefit the organization, quality auditing should not only report
non-conformance and corrective actions but also highlight areas of good
practice and provide evidence of conformance. In this way, other departments
may share information and amend their working practices as a result, also
enhancing continual improvement.Project management
Projects can
undergo 2 types of Project audits:
- Regular Health Check Audits: The aim of a regular health check audit is to understand the current state of a project in order to increase project success.
- Regulatory Audits: The aim of a regulatory audit is to verify that a project is compliant with regulations and standards. Best practices of NEMEA Compliance Center describe that, the regulatory audit must be accurate, objective, and independent while providing oversight and assurance to the organization.
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Information and
communications technology (ICT)
is often used as an extended synonym for information technology (IT), but is a more
specific term that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration
of telecommunications (telephone
lines and wireless signals), computers as well as necessary enterprise software, middleware,
storage, and audio-visual systems, which enable users to access, store,
transmit, and manipulate information.
The term ICT
is also used to refer to the convergence of
audio-visual and telephone networks with computer
networks through a single cabling or link system. There are large
economic incentives (huge cost savings due to elimination of the telephone
network) to merge the telephone network with the computer network system using
a single unified system of cabling, signal distribution and management.
History of the term
The phrase ICT
had been used by academic researchers since the 1980s, but it became popular
after it was used in a report to the UK government by Dennis Stevenson in 1997
and in the revised National
Curriculum for England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2000. As of
September 2013, the term "ICT" in the UK National Curriculum has been
replaced by the broader term "computing".
ICT versus Infocommunications
The term infocommunications is sometimes used
interchangeably with ICT. Infocommunications is the expansion of telecommunications with information processing
and content handling functions on a common digital technology base. For a
comparison of these and other terms,
Global costs of IT
The money spent on
IT worldwide has been most recently estimated as US $3.5 trillion and is
currently growing at 5% per year – doubling every 15 years. The 2014 IT budget
of US federal government is nearly $82 billion. IT costs, as a percentage of
corporate revenue, have grown 50% since 2002, putting a strain on IT budgets.
When looking at current companies’ IT budgets, 75% are recurrent costs, used to
“keep the lights on” in the IT department, and 25% are cost of new initiatives
for technology development.
The average IT
budget has the following breakdown:
- 31% personnel costs (internal)
- 29% software costs (external/purchasing category)
- 26% hardware costs (external/purchasing category)
- 14% costs of external service providers (external/services).
ICT Development Index
The ICT Development Index compares the level
of ICT use and access across the world.
The WSIS Process and ICT development goals
On 21 December
2001, the United Nations General Assembly
approved Resolution 56/183, endorsing the holding of the World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS) to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing
today's information society. According to this resolution, the General Assembly
related the Summit to the United Nations Millennium Declaration's
goal of implementing ICT to achieve Millennium Development Goals. It also
emphasized a multi-stakeholder approach to achieve these goals, using all
stakeholders including civil society and the private sector, in addition to
governments.
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