The Influence of Segregation of Duties on Internal Control Judgments

Abstract

Auditors make judgments based on their assessment of internal control strengths and weaknesses. Auditing practice and research have recognized that the segregation of duties plays an important role in this assessment process. However, research on how the segregation of duties affects auditors' judgments has been limited because of the wide variety of duty segregation patterns possible in accounting systems.

This paper identifies a scheme for classifying duty combinations and measures its effectiveness. Auditors' judgments in both the presence and the absence of various duty combinations were recorded in a controlled laboratory environment. The responses were then analyzed both directly and after classification according to the scheme. A comparison of the classified responses to the unclassified responses is used to measure the effectiveness of the classification scheme.

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