Auditing And Society

Auditing has become an essential component in market societies and the need for auditing skills has risen in line with globalization. This textbook provides a comprehensive overview of the role of financial statement auditing in contemporary society, including the auditor’s role in evaluating the financial reporting of an auditee—a topic of central concern in the recent comprehensive review of the auditing profession in the Brydon Report (2019). The experienced authors provide insight into auditing research to help readers understand its function, regulation, and role in theory and practice. With focus on private sector financial statement auditing and its regulation, the book includes perspectives on social theory, history, and the importance of professional standards. The thought-provoking final chapter challenges students to consider the effectiveness of auditing in evaluating increasingly risky and complex accounting estimates involving assumptions about future events. A fundamental approach to auditing theory, this textbook will be useful reading for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students across business and accounting fields.

Auditing has become an essential component in market societies and the need for auditing skills has risen in line with globalization. This textbook provides a comprehensive overview of the role of financial statement auditing in contemporary society, including the auditor’s role in evaluating the financial reporting of an auditee—a topic of central concern in the recent comprehensive review of the auditing profession in the Brydon Report (2019). The experienced authors provide insight into auditing research to help readers understand its function, regulation, and role in theory and practice. With focus on private sector financial statement auditing and its regulation, the book includes perspectives on social theory, history, and the importance of professional standards. The thought-provoking final chapter challenges students to consider the effectiveness of auditing in evaluating increasingly risky and complex accounting estimates involving assumptions about future events. A fundamental approach to auditing theory, this textbook will be useful reading for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students across business and accounting fields.

Since the early 1980s there has been an explosion of auditing activity in the United Kingdom and North America. In addition to financial audits there are now medical audits, technology audits, value for money audits, environmental audits, quality audits, teaching audits, and many others. Why has this happened? What does it mean when a society invests so heavily in an industry of checking and when more and more individuals find themselves subject to formal scrutiny? The Audit Society argues that the rise of auditing has its roots in political demands for accountability and control. At the heart of a new administrative style internal control systems have begun to play an important public role and individual and organizational performance has been increasingly formalized and made auditable. Michael Power argues that the new demands and expectations of audits live uneasily with their operational capabilities. Not only is the manner in which they produce assurance and accountability open to question but also, by imposing their own values, audits often have unintended and dysfunctional consequences for the audited organization.

Since the early 1980s there has been an explosion of auditing activity in the UK and North America. Power looks at why this has happened, and asks what it means for society when more and more individuals are subject to formal scrutiny.

This book discusses the fundamental skills, techniques, and tools of auditing, and the characteristics of a good process safety management system. A variety of approaches are given so the reader can select the best methodology for a given audit. This book updates the original CCPS Auditing Guideline project since the implementation of OSHA PSM regulation, and is accompanied by an online download featuring checklists for both the audit program and the audit itself. This package offers a vital resource for process safety and process development personnel, as well as related professionals like insurers.