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Probability Measures for Estimated Data.

William W. Thompson; Earl L. Kemper
The Accounting Review 1965 40(3), 574-578
In this article a general framework for converting subjective estimates into more significant data has been presented. The process of combining individual estimates into a more meaningful total has also been treated. Admittedly, results obtained through the use of this procedure are not highly sophisticated. Nevertheless, data obtained and presented in this manner are much more meaningful than those expressed as single-point estimates. In utilizing this approach, management is adding a new dimension to the data utilized in decision-making. It should be expected, then, that better decisions will be the result. In recent years considerable attention has been given to the problem of subjectivity as it relates to the estimated data for decision-making. Obviously, it is not possible to eliminate the subjective factor from estimated data. Yet, it is feasible and highly desirable to provide the decision maker with information relative to the statistical significance of these data. In effect, what is being suggested is that the traditional estimates of expected values be supplemented by corresponding estimates of variances.

A Field Study of Internal Auditing.

Neil C. Churchill; William W. Cooper
The Accounting Review 1965 40(4), 767-781
The article presents results of a field inquiry directed to ascertaining some of the perceptions of internal auditing held by persons who have been subjected to one or more phases of an audit process. It is part of an extensive research effort into the control functions of management, as distinguished from planning and decision making, and more particularly, into auditing as a major instrument of organizational control. The laboratory experiments on audit effects indicate that an audit can exert its influence through an audit report whose preparation is a focus toward which audits are customarily pointed, and through an auditor's actions as seen or heard about by those audited, for example, what the auditor looks at, what he ignores, what be pursues vigorously, how he behaves, etc. The interviews with 52 of the 54 individuals included in this study produced reports that allowed the content coder to classify the extent of each respondent's contact with internal auditors. Almost 75% of the respondents indicated either a neutral or a positive attitude toward the internal auditor and the internal audit.