The Values That Exist in Society - Essay Example

?Running Head: Research Proposal Research Proposal [Institute’s Research Proposal Introduction The values that exist in societyhave a complicated formula, of which a fundamental part has been ethics, ever since human evolution. This is an observation that holds true in business, especially concerning financial segments. According to research, people today give little importance to ethics in financial sectors, due to which organizations that monitor company operations as well as prevent and detect fraud have come into being. In addition, the number of fraudulent activities that take place in organizations, especially in their accounting departments, has risen rapidly due to several factors (O’Gara, pp. 29-33, 2004). Due to this, the practice of anti-fraud and risk management organizations is becoming a part of ordinary business in financial sectors. Risk management usually focuses on insurance companies, but an area of growing concern for risk management experts is occupational fraud. Due to this fact, this proposed research plans to explore the various dimensions of occupational fraud. In depth, it will analyze the specific aiding factors, which individuals use to commit fraud in financial calculations. Statement of the Problem In the light of this plan, the proposed research will include efforts on the following purpose statement: “To discover and analyze the risks and issues related to the occupational fraud that occurs in the financial calculations that take place in an organization” Aims and Objectives It is not enough for a researcher to present a thesis statement. He must also identify the main aims and objectives of the study, which will help plan a research, which will be both cost and time effective, as well as successful. In this regard, this research aims to identify the numerous conditions that can be prevalent in a workplace, which can enable an employee to commit fraudulent actions in accounting and business processes. Apart from this, the research will discover how big a role technology has to play in the opportunities available to employees for occupational fraud in the financial sector, especially focusing on financial computing. Therefore, the researcher will screen some of the operations in the financial sector in order to locate any downfalls and flaws, which they hope will lead a more effective prevention system for such frauds. This research also plans to broaden the perspective of risk management professionals, when they seek problems in the financial sector only concerning typical occupational fraud, and to enable them to design better fraud-prevention measures. Apart from this, the researchers also aim to establish research and findings that are both realistic and eye opening so that they aid other researchers to come in the following years. Literature Review In order to conduct a research at a maximum level of efficiency, it is necessary to develop a thorough understanding of the thesis statement presented. Thus, this paper briefly analyzes available information about risk management, focusing on the different types of occupational fraud. Prior to presenting these types, most works define the occupational fraud, often employing similar terms (Wells, pp. 42-47, 2007). They describe it as exploiting an organization against the law through unethical actions, which result in the party committing the act gaining benefit. Experts have further presented several categories of occupational fraud, of which each outlines a different aspect of it (Koletar, pp. 19-27, 2003). One of these types involves the thievery of a company’s assets, which in most cases around the globe, means cash. Over eighty-five percent of occupational frauds involve such thefts of cash from an organization. The other most frequently occurring type of occupational fraud is management fraud, where executives indulge in fraudulent activities by abusing their authority and power in an organization (Salinger, pp. 59-66, 2005). There are several other types of occupational fraud also, such as investment fraud, customer fraud and vendor fraud. Since the most globally common type of occupational fraud is the theft of assets such as cash, the research will mainly focus on this type. Research shows that due to the great rise in globalization in recent decades, there has been a lot of development and advancement in the financial sector around the world (Cipriani & Guarino, 2006). One such large development is the implementation technology in financial accounting systems, which has ironically also created major threats to organizations, due to the several ways that it enables occupational fraud (UCL, 2009). Researchers have explored the area of occupational fraud thoroughly in the recent few decades, and their opinions corroborate with each other’s concerning the implementation of technology in financial accounting. They all agree that while it is a phenomenal development and indicator for advancement of organizations, it has increased the risk of occupational fraud immensely (Ketz, pp. 89-93, 2006). Apart from this problem, there are three specific situations, which, according to experts, enable an individual to commit fraud (Beenen & Pinto, pp. 275-289, 2009). This study particularly refers to the negative impact the economic recessions are having on organizations, as they have greatly increased the financial restraints that the CFOs of these companies face, presenting a growing concern for the watchdog organizations and risk management experts. Additionally this pressure is now accompanied with the several opportunities for the accountants to manipulate their work, due to the many flaws in the technological systems that are now being used in financial reporting in companies. In other words, the pressure and the opportunities have a coupled effect on these accountants, as they become encouraged to commit fraud for personal gain, where these accounting system loopholes are the main reason for growing occupational fraud (Pickett, pp. 40-43, 2006). Another major contributing factor to this growth is the abilities of some of these white-collar executives to rationalize and justify all their actions, lawful and unlawful (Beenen & Pinto, pp. 275-289, 2009). The common existence of these factors has encouraged risk management experts to search for the flaws in accounting algorithms, especially the loopholes in the accounting systems, in order to help prevent and control fraud in companies (UCL, 2009). Another problem, apart from these loopholes, is the shortage of internal control that also facilitates fraud. This means that a stricter internal control system in these organizations can help reduce these occurrences of fraud. Another screw that organizations need to tighten tightened is the ethical policies, which have a large impact on the morality of the actions of the employees, and would greatly help keep fraud under control. This is to say that once an organization ensures that its ethical policies are sound and well designed, so that experts are able to conduct a more thorough search and prevention operation in terms of occupational fraud (Singleton, pp. 42-45, 2006). Finally, the multiplying occurrences of fraud in the financial sector have given risk management and forensic accounting immense importance in the business sector, as it deals with analyzing both direct and indirect risks of occupational fraud as well as prevention of it (Mohay, pp. 19-22, 2003). Methodology While the research statement and literature review hold their own significance, a research proposal is not complete without a mention of the methodology it plans to employ, as the methodology determines the success or failure of the research (Bernard, pp. 51-58, 2005). As apparent in the literature review, there are various sources of information about this topic available in journals and magazines, which makes it an essential part of the research to employ a secondary research methodology, in which all such material will be studied in detail, in order to derive the maximum recorded information about occupational fraud. This methodology will greatly aid the research in achieving its findings, since it will provide some already established grounds of research on the relevant topic, thus giving the proposed research a basis to stem from. Apart from this, the researcher will also employ the primary method for research, given the need for both primary and secondary methods in order to conduct an effective research (Babbie, pp. 23-25, 2000). This primary research will collect research through questionnaires, which accountants and related professionals or companies will fill out. The researchers will try to locate such professionals who are involved with forensic accounting and risk management. University students will also be contributing to this research by providing a theoretical perspective for the study. For this reason, the research will make use of both primary and secondary methodologies, in a balanced approach. Through secondary research, we will analyze the texts available on occupational fraud, which will help establish the already known facts, so that we are able to identify the relatively unknown or unconfirmed facts, so that we can then conduct a more effective primary research based on these things. This will ensure a high quality yield of information from the proposed research. Data Analysis In order to conduct the primary research, we will be using the following formula to calculate the sample size: “Formula: SS = Z 2 * (p) * (1-p) c 2 Where: SS= Sample Size Z = Z score (1.96 is taken for 95% confidence level according to normal distribution table) p = percentage (50%), expressed as decimal (0.5 used for required sample size) c = confidence interval, taken in decimal form (for ±5, = 0.05) (1.96)2 * (0.5) * (1-0.5) = 0.9604 = 384.16 (0.05)2 0.0025 Confidence Level: 95% Confidence Interval: 5 Sample Size 384” (Pickett, pp. 39-46, 2006) Timeline # Task Name Date Date Date Date Date Date Date Date Date Date 1 Theoretical Framework 1st week 2 Compliance of Proposal 2nd week 3 Secondary Research 3-4th week 4 Analysis of Data 5-6th week 5 Primary Research 7-9th week 6 Distribution of Questionnaires 10th week 7 Collection of Questionnaires 12th week 8 Analysis 13-15th week 9 Rough Draft of Dissertation 16-18th week 10 Final Submission 19th week Conclusion In conclusion, the proposed research will be a beneficial step to take and will serve the corporate world immensely with its findings. It will aim to conduct an in-depth analysis of the literature available on occupational fraud in the field of business and accounting, and then a further, confirmatory secondary research, which employs the aid of risk management professionals. The main objective will be to discover which factors enable fraud and make the company vulnerable to unethical and corrupt behavior. This proposed research aims to explore this growingly pertinent area of concern in the corporate world, as a successful yield of information will help generations of corporations in conducted and safeguarding their operations against corruption. References Beenen, G. & Pinto, J. 2009. “Resisting Organizational-Level Corruption: An Interview with Sherron Watkins.” Academy of Management Learning & Education. Volume 8, Issue 2, pp 275-289. Cipriani, Marco & Guarino, Antonio. 2006. Transaction Costs and Informational Cascades in Financial Markets. Retrieved on Sep 04, 2009: http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/financialcomputing/docs/TransactionCosts.pdf Ketz, J. Edward. 2006. Accounting Ethics. Routledge. Koletar, Joseph W. 2003. Fraud Exposed. John Wiley & Sons. Mohay, George M. 2003. Computer and Intrusion Forensics. Artech House. O’Gara, John D. 2004. Corporate Fraud. John Wiley & Sons. Pickett, K. H. Spencer. 2006. Enterprise Risk Management. John Wiley & Sons. Salinger, Lawrence M. 2005. Encyclopedia of White-collar & Corporate Crime. Sage Publications. Singleton, Tommie. 2006. Fraud Auditing and Forensic Accounting. John Wiley & Sons. UCL. 2009. “Financial Computing and Quantitative Finance.” Financial Computing at UCL. Retrieved on Sep 04, 2009: http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/financialcomputing/key_themes.htm Wells, Joseph T. 2007. Corporate Fraud Handbook. John Wiley & Sons. Read More