The influence of culture on accounting

The influence of culture on accounting Introduction Many studies have demonstrated that culture diversity had influenced accounting practice within national and international borders. Accounting can therefore be said to have been influenced by its environment, which includes the culture of the country in which it is being operated (Nobes Parker, 2008) Mueller et al. (1994), cited in Alexander.et al, also stipulate that each accounting system is a product of its specific culture and environment, and that different patterns of accounting are associated with a range of cultural factors such as societal values, religion, political systems and historical values. It is however no thought that those countries with same or similar cultural values or background are practicing accounting similarly. The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the extent to which these cultural values influence the practice of accounting and how the understanding of the role of culture in accounting can help us understand international accounting standards. The work of Hofstedes cultural value differences and Grays accounting values will be the major focal point of this paper. The relationship that exists between cultural values, accounting values and financial reporting will be examined as well. Key words: Cultural values; Accounting Values; Financial Reporting DIFFERENCES IN CULTURAL VALUES Culture is a way of life of a group of people, which includes the behaviours, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next. The position that the ideas, meanings, beliefs and values people learn as members of society determine human nature. To support this definition, Hofstede, one of the greatest researchers of culture differences, defined culture as the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes members of one human group from another,( cited in Nobes parker 2008. p 25) For the purpose of comparability, this paper will base its analysis on Hofstedes work on cultural value difference and grays work on accounting values to see their impact on accounting practice and reporting. (Hofstede, 1984 p. 83, 84) defined and summarized four Cultural dimensions as, individualism and Collectivism, Large versus small power distance, Strong versus weak uncertainty avoidance, masculinity versus femininity. He also stipulates that there exist specific relationship in these cultural dimensions. Individualism versus collectivism is how in a society one group will prefer a much closed family system while the other group prefer belonging to an expanded family system. This cultural dimension looks at how society handles interdependence among individuals. The second cultural dimension, large versus small power distance seeks to divide a society between those few powerful groups of people who prefer power to be distributed unequally through institutions and organizations and those who feel that power should be distributed equally. This dimension addressed how a society handles inequalities amongst a people when they occur. The third cultural dimension by Hofstede, is the strong versus weak uncertainty avoidance which is, the extent to which members of a society feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity .This feelings leads them to believing in promising certainty and to maintain institutions protecting conformity. He explained that a society with strong uncertainty avoidance maintained rigid codes of belief and behaviour and are intolerant of deviant people and ideas. The weak uncertainty maintain a more relaxed atmosphere in which practice counts more than principles and deviance is more tolerated. Masculinity and femininity, which is the last but not the least of the four cultural dimensions, describes masculinity as the preference, in a Society for achievements, heroism, assertiveness, and material success. Femininity on the other hand was said to represent a society where preference for relationships, modesty, caring for the weak and the quality of life is high. ACCOUNTING VALUES AND CULTURAL VALUES It is based on these Hofstedes classification of cultural dimensional differences that Gray (1988) also proposed a connection between those cultural dimensions and accounting values by specifically identifying four accounting values which includes; professionalism(implies self-regulation by the accounting profession itself) versus statutory (implies control by the government), uniformity (adherence to consistency and detailed regulations) versus flexibility (implies able to amend or adjust to suite a situation), conservatism (implies the tendency to under state profit and assets) versus optimism and secrecy (implies a preference for confidentiality) versus transparency ( implies disclosure of true state of affairs). The first two relates to authority and enforcement of accounting practice at a country level while the second two relates to the measurement and disclosure of accounting information at a country level as (cited in Nobes and Parker, 2008). Grays accounting values and Hofstedes cultural difference can be group into two categories. This paper will like to refer to these two groups as the collectivism category and the individualism category. The individualism category is made up of Professionalism, flexibility, transparency, optimism, individualism, small power distance, weak uncertainty avoidance and femininity. This category has the characteristic of self-reliance or self-interest and therefore in a society where individualism, small power distance, weak uncertainty and femininity dominate, accounting practice and financial reporting is likely to be professional, flexible, transparent and optimistic. Secondly the individuals quest for information to make decision on investments to satisfy his/her personal needs will prefer detailed report of a financial statement. This paper will like to associate this category to that of a capitalist society where the accounting regulations are not part of the common law but rather are in the hands of professional organisations of the private sector as stipulated in Alexander et al. (2009 p. 28). For instance in the UK, accounting laws and regulations are control by professional bodies such as the ACCA, CA, CIMA, and IASB. It can again be said that countries that practice the common law are also likely to practice accounting the same way. They are considered to be capitalism countries since they raises funds from the capital. They include, United Kingdom, Ireland Canada, Australia and the United States of America The second category of Hofstede cultural value difference and that of grays accounting values The collectivism category is made up of collectivism, large power distance, strong uncertainty avoidance masculinity and grays accounting values of statutory control, uniformity, conservatism and secrecy. This category has the characteristics of being control from a common source or being centrally planned. Countries or societies found to be dominant with these cultural and accounting values are more likely to practice accounting in the same way. The practice of accounting in this society or country is control by statutory institutions with detailed rules and regulations. The practice of accounting and reporting in these societies or countries will be geared towards the dictates of those in powers or in control. No detailed accounting is required and secrecy and conservatism dominates in the financial reporting (Kosmala-Maclullich, 2003). Here again this paper will associate this category of a society or a country to that of a socialist country where accounting laws and regulations are enshrine in the coded laws of the country. Governments in these countries use financial reports for their own purpose. The Democratic Republic of Germany adopted the Soviet Unions socialist ideologies after the Second World War. This adaptation included a methodological guidance in designing accounting information systems (Berry, 1982: 1890). Bailey (1990) also stipulates that the Marxism Theoreticians view the western-style accounting as an instrument for the exploitation of workers by the capitalists, accounting and financial reporting was therefore geared towards the dictates of those in authority. Young and David (1999) argued that Accounting activities at the enterprise level were focused exclusively on the preparation of reports required by the planning bureaucracy, and during this period, accounting was only seen as a primary source of information for the provision of financial statistics for the use in the preparation of budget; it was therefore a list of quantities instead of values. Accounting was more or less reduced to a clerical job; there was no professionalism in the practice. Judgemen t of reports (true and fair) was not entertained; standardisation was non-existence and so was the concept of profit, in short accounting standards and procedures were not in existence. Accounting in China Another country worth looking at is china which has a long history of cultural value which is characterise with collectivism, high in power distance, strong uncertainty avoidance and femininity. The Chinese will not mind sacrificing himself for the good collectivism or country (Yao F. 2007). The practice of accounting and reporting is control by the state under the auspices of the ministry of finance and the aim of this control is to gear the practice towards the general benefit of the planned economy. The user of accounting information is mainly the government, because most enterprises in china are owed by the state. The few individual who try to do some investments do not know much about accounting and finance. (Yao F. 2007). Although the state had accounting standards for Business Enterprises, they were just mere basic rules which were issued in conjunction with basic standards, as argued by Lin et al. (2001). There where however restrictions on some important accounting principles such as making provision for bad debts and obsolete inventories, recognition of impairments of assets, disclosure of financial information and many more. Secrecy and conservatism was dominant in financial reporting. Professionalism, transparency and flexibility were non-existence. Accountin g profession was reduced to a very low status. The dynamics of cultural values brought about a change in financial reporting by these countries with strong cultural values. As a result of the world becoming a small village and the growing of Multinational companies across the world, there is the need for comparability of financial Reports since its purpose is to help investors make informed and sound decisions. Based on the fact that the world is becoming a small place and countries need each other for their survival, most of the socialists countries like the East Germany, Portugal, Poland, Italy, and France have all adopted the capitalism system of financial reporting. The Chinese government, also have realise the need for adopting the international financial reporting standard (IFRS) which is being champion by the International Accounting Standard Board (IASB), but yet it only talked about the convergence of the accounting standard and not a totally acceptance. (Yao F. 2001) Conclusion It is quite obvious that cultural values have influenced the practice and reporting of accounting and countries with similar cultural values practicing accounting similarly. With the world becoming a global village and the fast cultural changes across the world, the need for harmonization and convergence of accounting standards was given a serious consideration by centrally planned countries, but a country like China, although have made efforts to embrace international financial reporting system, is still holding on to some of its cultural accounting practices. This is an indication that so far as cultural values remain different, accounting practice will be affected and the only way out is the harmonization and convergence of accounting standards.

Patient Satisfaction

Patient satisfaction is critically important to the health care industry today due to the competitive nature of the field. Patients have many choices when it comes to seeking medical attention, and hospitals are dependent on return business to stay operational. Hospitals have traditionally utilized the semi-private room model in order to increase profitability. A semi-private room is a room shared by two patients. Each patient is given their own bed, but they usually share a single bathroom. Unfortunately the financial practice of using semi-private rooms comes at the expense of patient satisfaction. Research has shown that private rooms increase patient satisfaction, because of the decreased likelihood of nosocomial infection, a quieter environment, and the inherent privacy afforded when conducting patient care. Nosocomial Infection Perhaps the biggest challenge facing healthcare today is the epidemic of hospital acquired (nosocomial) infection. Patients come to the hospital for varying degrees of injury, or illness with the expectation of receiving medical treatment. What they are not expecting is exposure to potentially life threatening infections during their stay. According to a joint study by Jimma University and Addis Ababa University the most common causative agent found in nosocomial infection is Staphylococcus aureus. This harmful pathogen can be transmitted via direct or indirect contact. This means the pathogen can be transmitted by patient to patient contact, staff to patient contact, or the sharing of a common surface like a toilet seat (Bereket et al. , 2012). Patients in private rooms are far less likely to come into contact with each other, shared surfaces, or shared medical equipment all of which can harbor infectious microorganisms (Skocynska et al. , 2012). Standardizing the practice of private rooms can greatly reduce nosocomial infection rates within patient populations. Patient's who contract nosocomial infection are bound to have lower satisfaction rates. By reducing the nosocomial infection rate hospitals can ensure increased patient satisfaction. To make matters worse strains of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) are becoming commonplace. MRSA is easily transmittable and resistant to most commonly used antimicrobial agents (Bereket et al. , 2012). Nosocomial infections such as MRSA result in increased length of stay, higher morbidity rates, and increased cost of hospitalization. Recent studies have shown that each exposure to a new roommate in the hospital setting results in a 10% increase in the risk of acquiring MRSA (Stall, 2012). Private rooms eliminate the possibility of exposure to MRSA infection related to roommates in the hospital setting, which vastly reduces the rate of hospital acquired MRSA infections amongst all patient populations. Reducing the spread of MRSA can result in decreased length of stay, lower morbidity rates, and decreased cost of hospitalization. A hospital concerned about patient satisfaction can see the value that private rooms have to offer when it comes to reducing MRSA exposure. Proper hygiene is also of major concern where nosocomial infection is concerned. Unfortunately staff members are usually to blame for spreading infectious microorganisms from one patient to the next. Studies have shown healthcare professionals are more likely to perform hand hygiene between patient rooms rather than between beds in the same room (Bereket et al. , 2012). This is not necessarily due to a failing on the part of healthcare professionals, but a failing of healthcare systems utilizing semi private rooms. Take this scenario for instance: a nurse is working with a patient in a semiprivate room when suddenly the bed alarm goes off on the neighboring bed. The roommate is an elderly female with Alzheimer's-dementia who recently fell at home and suffered a fractured hip. The nurse has already been in physical contact with one patient and now has to take action in order to prevent the roommate from falling. The nurse must act quickly to prevent a fall-related injury and does not have time to perform hand hygiene before assisting the roommate back to bed. This nurse would not have been put in such a position had her patients been placed in private rooms to begin with. Standardizing the use of private rooms prevents situations such as the above from occurring, promotes proper hand hygiene amongst healthcare professionals, and protects patients from unnecessary exposure to nosocomial infection. Peace and Quiet Nosocomial infection is not the only issue having a devastating effect on patient satisfaction. In fact the most common complaints in hospitals today are noise related (Eggertson, 2012). With patient satisfaction being of paramount importance hospital systems should be paying close attention to what bothers their patients. Loud roommates, visitors, medical alarms, and television sets can worsen an already noisy environment for a patient trying to get some much needed rest. Some patients need more frequent monitoring than others. A post-operative patient may need to have their vital signs checked hourly, a diabetic may need to have their blood sugars checked regularly, and a patient on a high risk infusion may need constant monitoring. This can be extremely disrupting for the patient in the neighboring bed. Some patient's may also have numerous visitors, watch TV late at night, or be just generally disruptive to their neighbor. Private rooms may not address all noise complaints in the hospital, but will at the very least resolve those related to roommates. Considering this issue is the number one patient complaint in hospitals today it is guaranteed to increase patient satisfaction. In addition to being the number one patient complaint excessive noise has been proven to cause sleep disturbances in hospitalized patients. Sleep disturbances result in increased lengths of stay, increased morbidity, and higher costs of care (Buxton et al. , 2012). Patients recovering from surgery or acute illness need undisturbed rest periods for proper healing. An unnecessarily extended, complicated, and expensive hospital stay caused by sleep deprivation is extremely detrimental to patient satisfaction. Private rooms increase the quality of sleep, reduce lengths of stay, decrease morbidity, and result in a lower cost of care. These factors result in increased patient satisfaction. Noise-related issues in hospitals not only affect the adult population, but can have deleterious effects on the infant population as well. The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) often places infants in nurseries where multiple babies are cared for in the same room. NICUs consist of high risk infants with varying degrees of illness. Some of the infants being cared for require constant monitoring and intervention. This can result in a very ill infant receiving care that involves noisy alarms, life saving machinery, and ongoing care-related activity. The result is sleep disturbances, increased tress levels, and compromised healing processes for all infants in the room. Placing infants in private rooms eliminates the noise concerns created by the delivery of care for other infants and facilitates family interaction with the ill infant (Feldman, 2009). This results in better outcomes for the infants and happier parents. Considering the fact that infants are not old enough to make decisio ns regarding where to seek medical treatment, it is necessary for hospitals to recognize that parental perception of infant care is of paramount importance to patient satisfaction. Respecting Privacy Another large concern affecting patient satisfaction is related to patient privacy. In 1996 the U. S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) instituted the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in order to protect patient privacy (HHS, 2013). HIPAA violations can have a devastating effect on a hospital's financial health, with each violation resulting in up to $1. 5 million in penalties annually (AMA, 2012). In a financially unstable economy with reimbursement rates at an all time low these penalties can add to existing budget deficits. Budget deficits in a healthcare system result in understaffing, which leads to disgruntled employees and higher patient-to-staff ratios. Understaffing leads to the degradation of patient care. A prime example of this is call bell response time. Patients do not appreciate having to wait twenty minutes for a staff member to respond to a call button. When there is a high patient to staff ratio the time it takes for staff to respond to each patient call lengthens. Unfortunately when hospital administrators make budget cuts, cutting staffing is usually where they begin. Private rooms can help prevent HIPAA violations from occurring during the delivery of care, which can save a hospital millions of dollars in penalties, and allow greater financial resources for staffing needs. A financially healthy hospital can afford to keep a reasonable patient-to-staff ratio, which allows for staff members to deliver quality care in a timely fashion, and results in greater patient satisfaction. The financial repercussions of HIPAA violations are not the only concern when it comes to patient privacy. Patient perception of measures taken to protect privacy during hospitalization has a great impact on patient satisfaction. Performing patient care while maintaining a patient's right to privacy is nearly impossible in a semi-private room. A study conducted by Juliet Whitehead and Dr. Herman Wheeler shows that patients define and conceptualize privacy by the following criteria: â€Å"Privacy of information, e. g. having one's conversation being not over heard. Privacy of person and body, e. g. not being viewed during one's private moments. Having one's own personal space. † (Whitehead & Wheeler, 2008). The very concept of sharing a room with another person makes it extremely difficult to conceptualize having personal space. The delivery of care almost always involves private bodily functions and the sharing of private information. Privacy cannot be reasonably protected in the delivery of care when two patients share a room with nothing but a curtain separating them. Private rooms increase a patient's perception of the privacy they experience during their stay, which is of great importance in increasing patient satisfaction levels. The most common form of HIPAA violations occur when healthcare is being delivered to a patient in the presence of others without obtaining the patient's informed consent (Ziel, 2004). In a semi-private room a nurse has to ask her patient if it is OK to discuss details of the patient's care in front of anyone who happens to be present at the moment. If the patient does not agree the nurse is required to provide a private setting in which to discuss, or deliver care. This means that if a patient is in a semi-private room the nurse is required to move her patient to a private area, or ask the roommate to leave while care is performed. In reality it does not happen this way in the hospital setting. Care is delivered regardless of whether or not there is a roommate present. Nurses do ask visitors to leave the room while delivering care if a patient requests, but do not ask other patients to do so. This means that privacy violations occur multiple times a day to patients in semi-private rooms. The use of private rooms makes it much easier to deliver care while protecting patient privacy and thereby increases patient satisfaction. Conclusion With the ever growing research indicating that private rooms increase patient satisfaction it is truly a wonder why some hospital systems continue to argue against the switch to private patient rooms. Whether by decreasing nosocomial infection rates, providing quieter environments, or increasing patient privacy the use of private rooms clearly has a positive impact on patient satisfaction. In an extremely competitive economy where patients have a choice where they will seek medical attention it seems only logical that patient satisfaction should be a top priority when considering the choice between private or semi-private rooms. Hospitals that chose to listen to their patient population will soon realize that private rooms result in greater patient satisfaction and return business. References American Medical Association (2013). HIPAA Violations and Enforcement. Retrieved from https://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/solutions-managing-your-practice/coding-billing-insurance/hipaahealth-insurance-portability-accountability-act/hipaa-violations-enforcement.page Bereket, W., Hemalatha, K., Getenet, B., Wondwossen, T., Solomon, A., Zeynudin, A., & Kannan, S. (2012). Update on bacterial nosocomial infections.  European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences,  16(8), 1039-1044. Buxton, O., Ellenbogen, J., Wang, W., Carballeira, A., O'Connor, S., Cooper, D., & †¦ Solet, J. (2012). Sleep disruption due to hospital noises: a prospective evaluation.  Annals of Internal Medicine,  157(3), 170-179. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-157-3-201208070-00472 Eggertson, L. (2012). Hospital noise.  The Canadian Nurse,  108(4), 28-31. Feldman, L. (2009). Patient safety. Private rooms becoming the standard in NICUs. Hospitals & Health Networks/AHA, 83(11), 10. Lorenz , S., & Dreher, H. (2011). Hospital room design and health outcomes of the aging adult.  Herd,  4(2), 23-35. SkoczyÅ„ska, A., Sadowy, E., Krawiecka, D., Czajkowska-Malinowska, M., Ciesielska, A., Przybylski, G., & †¦ Hryniewicz, W. (2012). Nosocomial outbreak of Streptococcus pneumoniae Spain9VST15614 clone in a pulmonary diseases ward.  Polskie Archiwum Medycyny WewnÄ™trznej,  122(7-8), 361-366. Stall, N. (2012). Private rooms: a choice between infection and profit. CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal = Journal De L'association

Psychology Paper Essay

In this paper I am going to be talking about the philosophy of psychology in the 19th century. I am going to be discussing the roots in early philosophy leading into the 19th century that influenced the development of modern psychology, identify philosophers that historically relate to the beginnings of psychology as a formal discipline, identify major philosophers in the western tradition that were primary contributors to the formation of psychology as a discipline and explore the development of the science of psychology during the 19th century. There were several philosophers that historically relate to the beginnings psychology as a formal discipline. John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume and John Stuart Mill are just a few to mention. John Locke made a distinction between simple and complex. â€Å"Simple ideas resulted from experiencing basic sensory qualities such as yellow, white, heat and so on, and from making simple reflections such as â€Å"pleasant.† A complex idea includes sever ideas, which can be a combination of simple and other complex ideas. Complex ideas are compounds and can be ultimately reduced to simple ones, much as chemical compounds are composed of simple elements.† (Goodwin, 2008). George Berkeley’s work on vision was the first systematic example of how empiricist thinking could be applied to the study of perception. Berkeley tried to show that our perceptions of the distance, size, and locations of objects are judgments that depend entirely on experience. We do not see objects directly; rather we make judgments about them based on visual information and our experiences. Davie Hume came up with the rules of association, that ideas that are similar or happen simultaneously are associated. He proposed three laws: resemblance, contiguity, and cause and effect. David Hartley, another dualist, believed that although the mind and body operated separately but also parallel to each other. He used association in his theory of memories. He believed the â€Å"strength of association relies on repetition† (Goodwin, 2008). John Stuart Mill, known as the â€Å"key transition figure in the shift from the philosophy of the mind to the science of the mind† (Goodwin, 2008), used a chemical rather than mechanical description in our complex ideas are made from simple ones. He believed that the mind was much more active than passive. Mill’s logic consists of the Method of Agreement, Method of Difference, and Joint Method.

Sexuality Is An Omnipresent Factor That Affects Everyone

Sexuality is an omnipresent factor that affects everyone individually in society today. It is a term that can be labeled as different things or meanings. Sexuality is a topic that is understood by all, yet talked by few. Sexuality can be seen as ones capacity for sexual feelings, and their sexual orientation or preference. It is a defining characteristic that is attributed to everyone, and has the power to set aside one from another. When looking at sexuality it is important to understand what it truly means and how it comes about in someone’s life. Sigmund Freud, known as the father of psychoanalysis, seems to be keen on what sexuality truly is. In his passage, Infantile Sexuality, he attributes ones sexuality coming from the development in the first stages of life. He avoids the simple definition of sexuality as whole, genital intercourse between two people, and delves deeper into how sexuality has its roots in the first stages of life. Freud disagrees with sexuality being absent from a child’s life until puberty, and attributes this sexual instinct to the earlier stages of life. Sigmund states that sexuality cannot truly be understood without looking back at the infantile stage. During this stage, although never remembered due to amnesia, sexual life is developed, and one’s true sexuality comes into form. To fully grasp the meaning of sexuality one must first delve into the origins of where sexuality starts. Freud keys on the fact the sexuality does not come aboutShow MoreRelatedHow Does Media Affects a Childs D evelopment3153 Words   |  13 PagesPsychology, Saint Francis College Correspondence concerning this sample paper should be addressed to Maureen Guillaume Department of Psychology, Saint Francis College 180 Remsen St. Brooklyn Heights, NY 11201 E-mail: mguillaume@sfc.edu The media affects the lives of children daily. Children imitate things whether they are positive or negative because of the fact that they are not aware of the consequences. Parents need to be more attentive in their child’s life. They need to pay attention to whatRead MoreWomen, Hair, And Cancer10628 Words   |  43 Pagespsychotherapist in private practice in Teaneck, N.J., and New York, N.Y., in a time so perverted by television and movies, we have only to watch a thirty-second advertisement to understand the power of hair: â€Å"[H]air is something that enhances one’s sexuality and attractiveness. [†¦]. It’s meant to be seductive† (Cooper 17). Because hair is such a central part of female’s attractiveness, it is hard to imagine the impact chemotherapy induced alopecia may have on a woman’s social life. As Douglas notes: