Abstract The article examines several factors of the total social environment, which influence educational philosophy for accounting. To be sure, many changes have occurred in American education during the almost two hundred years of our national existence. But most of the significant changes in American education during the 20th Century have dealt with form and techniques rather than with primary purpose. In light of the continuing turmoil on college and university campuses, it is timely to note that more and more educators are questioning the validity of higher education for everyone. It is commonplace that the objectives of accounting education are interrelated and intertwined with the objectives of education for life in general and, in particular, with the objectives of education for involvement in business. One of the revered members of the accounting profession in addressing a group of accounting educators a few years ago pointed out that the greatest educational problem of the profession is that there are almost too many things that accountants should be taught. The concept of standardized curricula and uniform knowledge for the accounting graduate should be abandoned.

Abstract It is the purpose of this article to propose alternative paths for internal auditors in their quest for professional recognition. Antecedent to making recommendations, the writer briefly examines the key attributes of a profession and prepares an inventory of the plus and minus factors currently associated with the status of internal auditing. This article has been an inquiry into the current status of internal auditing. The writer has concluded that although internal auditors are not fully qualified as professionals they should be able to achieve such stature in the near future if they take certain adequately conceived and timely action. They need (1) to establish a uniform educational process, (2) to formulate and publish a code of professional standards, and (3) to develop a system of examination and accreditation of practitioners. There is a substantial body of preliminary data in these regards that has been developed over the years by individual internal auditors and by the Institute of Internal Auditors and its related chapters. This work needs to be synthesized and expanded as rapidly as possible.

Abstract The decade and a half since World War II has witnessed considerable activity by industrial managements and the professions serving them in sharpening and polishing management tools that have been in industry's tool sheds for years. However, refurbishing the old tools has been inadequate. During this era industrial products have been radically changed, principles once held inviolate have given way to new ones and the introduction of new industrial processes, techniques, and research methods have radically altered long standing skill requirements. In this environment, if a profession is to survive it can do so only by orienting itself rapidly to the changing circumstances. The accounting profession during the past 20 years has taken many actions in recognition of a changing business environment. During the decade of the 1940's there was for example, considerable activity in describing and codifying accounting principles, standards, guides for professional conduct and the like. During the 1950's there was substantial emphasis on publicizing an image of the professional accountant as an "independent contractor" expert in attesting to and adding credibility to the financial statements of economic organizations.

Abstract During the past decade, the Federal Government has made considerable progress in improving the management of its financial affairs. A substantial part of this progress is attributable to the professional caliber of the accounting and auditing personnel who have aided and counseled Federal executives during this decade of improvement. This paper has presented the highlights of the program of one governmental agency to further the professional training and development of its auditor staff. This Agency, the U. S. Army Audit Agency, has developed and strengthened a planned, purposeful program for developing personnel of a high professional stature. In the years ahead, it is expected that the Agency's training and development methods and programs will continually be sharpened and will be rightfully recognized by the accounting profession as a significant contribution to the totality of excellence that is the hallmark of the profession. The progress achieved by government internal auditors during the past decade attests to the fact that professional auditing has come of age as an instrument for furthering the cause of good management in Government. It is not too far fetched to suggest that the general approach and training program for auditors such as that followed by the U. S. Army Audit Agency might be useful to other organizations, public or private, in developing their staff.

Abstract An important attribute of any group aspiring to professional status is the voluntary assumption of codes or standards of professional conduct. These standards are established as a means toward assuring competency in the performance of the services offered by the group, individually and collectively. Internal auditors currently stand on the threshold of full professional recognition. The writer believes that one of the major conditions precedent to full recognition is formalization and acceptance of a code of professional standards by organized internal auditors. Even a casual review of the current scene will reveal that internal auditors are operating under a potpourri of standards applicable to the practice of public accounting, "best practices" of individual large scale internal audit organizations, and divergent local rules and practices. This paper has presented a suggested approach toward the formulation of professional standards for internal auditors. The proposed standards embody some of the fundamentals with respect to personal qualifications and quality of field work postulated by the national organization of certified public accountants. For the most part, however, the suggested standards focus upon requirements for the broad knowledge, training, and experience essential to a competent examination and evaluation of the complex of management systems and controls built into a modern enterprise. The day has doubtless arrived for internal auditors to proceed with deliberate speed to consolidate ideas gained during the past two decades and commence the application of standardized measures of professional competency. It can be argued persuasively that a codification of standards will contribute significantly toward facilitating the forward planning of organized internal auditors with regard to training, research, and other long range objectives.

Abstract The article highlights of the judgment forming process, some of the major non-accounting areas in which accountants have unparalleled opportunity for exercising broader and managerially useful judgments, and the outline of areas for increased emphasis by the accounting profession in training accountants for an enlarged judgmental role. Professional accountants have for many years furnished services to management with respect to opinions and advice on the reliability and fairness of historical financial data. Useful as this traditional service may be, it has less value to management as a planning and control device than many other mechanisms or techniques employed by business enterprise. The day is rapidly approaching when professional accountants can no longer afford the luxury of merely uncovering static facts and reporting them to management. The evolving nature of business enterprise over the past half century has been such that accountants who expect to occupy positions in or with respect to individual business enterprises must be prepared to exercise sound judgment in a variety of new, novel, and often perplexing situations confronting these enterprises.

Abstract Leaders in the accounting profession have become increasingly concerned about the supply of broadly trained persons for top positions in accounting firms. Notwithstanding, many firms have neglected to devise programs for systematic development of staff to assume the growing leadership responsibilities inherent in modem public accounting practice. Too often firms are made up of groups of specialists. This tends to narrow the individual staff member's experience so that by the time he has progressed in the firm to where he is a candidate for top management responsibilities, it may be too late to give him the broad experience requisite for the executive position. This paper has presented a broad format which might serve as a guide to a programmed appraisal and guidance by accounting firms of staff member development. A periodic and orderly appraisal of staff members eliminates the hit or miss subjective way in which staff progression is plotted in many firms. It has been well stated that in a professional service, "jobs are people." A planned program of staff appraisal and guidance will assure that able men be given opportunities to gain the sequential knowledge so necessary for progression to top decision-making positions. It will also assure a firm that its operational, training, and promotion policies will always be under adequate control.

Abstract A profession is characterized by the type of activity in which its members are required to possess a highly specialized knowledge and have the ability to apply it with skill and wisdom in the rendition of personal service. That a philosophical bent pervades modem thinking about the implementation of the methodology of each of the two professions, Law and Public Accounting, is evident to any reasonably informed person. This trend implies the existence and need of a dose interrelation and interdependence between the two professions. In the professional curricula for each of the subject fields there has been a tendency to supplement the basic offerings of theory with well chosen cases carefully integrated with the theory. With respect to coordinated training programs by organized practitioners and cooperating colleges and universities, the two professions are highly comparable. Each has a strong national society supported by well organized and integrated state societies or associations. The majority of practitioners in each profession will hold membership in either or both of the types of societies operating in the respective fields. It is to be noted in connection with the above comparison that a few states have, in recent years, been requiring or experimenting with short internship or probationary practice periods as requisites to final licensing for legal practice. It may be concluded that the training programs for each of highly specialized professions such as Law and Public Accounting tend to turn out products who possess trained abilities to render opinions and decisions that are free from illusion or personal desire, but instead are founded upon intellect and reason.

Abstract It is a commonplace of modem industrial living that accounting methodology may be applied to the economic aspects of any group of transactions which are important enough to be evaluated, classified, and summarized as the basis for guidance of some person or persons. While it is true that the economic aspects of living are not the only important phase of human effort and activity they are, nevertheless, present in practically all activities involving the provisions of goods and services, Hence, accounting technique is not something completely separate from the facts of every day existence. Broadly conceived, every entry made according to accounting methodology is the result of a human judgment based, primarily, on an attempt to arrange a heterogeneous mass of economic data item by item according to a logically consistent scheme. This judgment in the first instance centers around an administrative determination of whether a transaction or transactions should be undertaken and in the second instance on a refitting of the money facts regarding the transactions into the accounting pattern of the business entity concerned.

Abstract Reviews the book, "Independent Auditor's Guide to Operational Auditing," by Dale L. Flesher and Stewart Siewert.