The Changing Role and Responsibilities of Audit Committees in the United States Metadata

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Title

  • Main Title The Changing Role and Responsibilities of Audit Committees in the United States

Creator

  • Author: Teed, Dan Graham
    Creator Type: Personal

Contributor

  • Chair: Merino, Barbara Dubis
    Contributor Type: Personal
    Contributor Info: Major Professor
  • Committee Member: Pickens, Donald K.
    Contributor Type: Personal
    Contributor Info: Minor Professor
  • Committee Member: Mayper, Alan G., 1952-
    Contributor Type: Personal
  • Committee Member: Prybutok, Victor R.
    Contributor Type: Personal

Publisher

  • Name: University of North Texas
    Place of Publication: Denton, Texas

Date

  • Creation: 2010-08

Language

  • English

Description

  • Content Description: The corporate form that developed in the early 20th century created enormous pressure for corporate governance mechanisms to curb the power of corporate managers. Berle and Means, legal pluralists, warned about concentrating economic power in the hands of a small but powerful class of professional managers. They claimed this "new form of absolutism" required governmental oversight and viewed boards of directors as part of management, rather than monitors for shareholders. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed that corporations establish a special board committee, made up of "nonofficer members" in response to the McKesson & Robbins scandal of the late 1930s. My dissertation examines the evolution of the U.S. corporate audit committee through three specific time periods: (1) 1920-1954; (2) 1955-1986; and (3) 1987 to the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. My purpose is to determine if evolution of the audit committee throughout these periods has been a reform continually couched in symbolism or whether the audit committee concept has evolved into real reform, allowing proper corporate governance and mitigation of unchecked corporate power. My analysis is a traditional empirical analysis, relying on both primary and secondary sources to develop a coherent ordering of facts. I use narrative in a narrow sense as my historical methodology, examining patterns that emerge and interpreting facts to develop a clear understanding of demands for and uses of audit committees. I use a holistic approach in studying the data, using narrative to show how these patterns ensue from the historical data.
  • Physical Description: vi, 147 p.

Subject

  • Keyword: Audit committee
  • Keyword: ethics
  • Keyword: fiduciary concept
  • Keyword: power
  • Keyword: symbolism
  • Library of Congress Subject Headings: Audit committees -- United States.
  • Library of Congress Subject Headings: Corporations -- United States -- Auditing.

Coverage

  • Place Name: United States

Collection

  • Name: UNT Theses and Dissertations
    Code: UNTETD

Institution

  • Name: UNT Libraries
    Code: UNT

Rights

  • Rights Access: public
  • Rights License: copyright
  • Rights Holder: Teed, Dan Graham
  • Rights Statement: Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

Resource Type

  • Thesis or Dissertation

Format

  • Text

Identifier

  • OCLC: 697791983
  • UNT Catalog No.: b3911674
  • Archival Resource Key: ark:/67531/metadc30519

Degree

  • Degree Name: Doctor of Philosophy
  • Degree Level: Doctoral
  • Degree Discipline: Accounting
  • Academic Department: Department of Accounting
  • Degree Grantor: University of North Texas

Note

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