Value creation in the midst of a fInance and accounting outsourcing decision: Did SOX come to save the day? Reflective action research

• Main Author: Teves, Mark Jason B.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2014
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/4715
• Institution: De La Salle University

This action research delves in the assessment of value creation among the employees of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company from Revenue Management and Cash Accounting-Finance through the performance of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Testing. This study was guided by the premise that such activity was performed in the midst of a company-wide manpower reduction program and outsourcing of certain departments, possibly including Finance. All of this was accomplished by utilizing the action research and case study approaches that Coghlan and Brannick presented in the book, Doing an action research in your own organization (Coghlan & Brannick, 2010). SOX Testing, as speculated among employees, is an intervention initiated by management in the face of an impending outsourcing decision. Such intervention therefore is seen to create value among employees and at the same time meet the companys legal requirements. To assess whether this is the case, personal interviews were conducted to determine occurrences during the testing that are incremental in creating value to the employees by being SOX testers. Data was collected from eighteen (18) employees belonging to the Cash Accounting and Assurance Division of said company who were implementers of such test. Information was also highly derived from the researchers input having been a member of the testing team. The research findings indicate that what adds value to the employees lies in the form of unique experiences and tacit knowledge that converts them into rare, inimitable, non-substitutable resources of the company. These include learnings in basic business process and systems audit, test of controls and process-flow analysis as well as the establishment of connections and relationships all over the company through testing coordination. This created a change not just in the mind-set of employees regarding their condition of being possibly outsourced but in the literal capabilities of employees as well. Many see SOX testing as a big boost not just career-wise for employees but resource-wise to the organization as well.