The purpose of this article is to expand researcher Barry E. Cushing's discussion of the applicability of reliability engineering techniques to internal control systems analysis. In the January 1974 issue of journal "The Accounting Review," Cushing describes a means of modeling internal control systems using the concepts of reliability engineering. The basic methodology employed by Cushing involves mathematical techniques adapted from the field of reliability engineering. The first section of this article briefly traces the extension of reliability theory to problems involving a human element. The second section discusses some specific considerations in the application of reliability theory to internal control systems analysis. The last section discusses near-term implementation problems resulting from the use of such models. The straight forward extension of reliability techniques to human performance dates from the late 1950s. To ignore human performance in reliability estimates is to assume that operator performance is invariably perfect.

Behavior is primarily explained in terms of mental processes which are unobservable, and secondarily in terms of observable environmental factors. This approach seems to be generic to accounting research which utilizes an "expectancy theory" framework. Expectancy theory holds that behavior results from a decision-making process in which it is assumed that Individuals place different values (ordinal or cardinal) on different outcomes. Behavior results from decisions made by the individual after considering the relationship between the various decisions and the values of those decisions. In contrast, conditioning theory does not postulate metaphysical assumptions concerning the nature of the individual. Conditioning theory holds that all behavior may be pragmatically explained in terms of the history of interactions between an organism and its environment. Conditioning theory maintains that purposive connotations, such as needs or drives, add nothing to the scientific analysis of behavior.