Management and Leadership Paper

Controlling is a function of management that really brings the whole company together. Controlling is defined as any mechanical (or others) system used to keep one or more variable parameters constant, or within specified bounds (Wikipedia, 2008)... The process of controlling is very important aspect of Wal-Mart’s goal of maintaining ethical accounting practices. The most important part of the control mechanism is Wal-Mart accounting and the way it’s practiced everyday at the store level and also at the corporate level. It is set forth that documents in accordance with all applicable laws, regulations, or court orders and in compliance with all internal retention policies and directives, as well as all complaints received regarding accounting, internal audits controls or auditing matters shall be controlled(Wal-Mart Audit Committee, 2007). Just as important, all employees, officers, directors, etc are instructed not to withhold or suppress any information relevant to financial accounting matters (Wal-Mart Audit Committee). Wal-Mart’s main objective is safeguarding against internal control

s, Wal-Mart tends to be alert to many attempts to circumvent the internal control. Any person or team that is trying to go around the policies and procedures that are meant to protect assets, business information, and information is reported to the internal control auditing team. Wal-Mart strongly believes in protocol so; the company has a clear process of handling accounting ethics concerns. The initial report by an associate is done by means of open door or ethics hotline. The open door is the most direct way to voice any concern to a supervisor. If an employee believes his immediate supervisor is involved in the misconduct, he is to report the misconduct to the next level of management believed not to be involved. Wal-Mart has an ethics Hotline, which allows associates to report a violation on a confidential and anonymous basis. The ethics hotline forwards report to the Ethics office; it is then forwarded to the Internal Audit Department. The Internal Audit Department overseas investigation and resolution of ethics report. Internal Audit Department maintains a log of all ethics matters and periodically provides reports to senior management and the Audit committee. With all of Wal-Mart ethical accounting procedures outlined so thoroughly, one would think that the company would never be suspected of dishonest financial reporting. Arguably, Wal-Mart has maintained a sound and flawless accounting system. However, in mid august of 2000 Wal-Mart decided to make a minor accounting change due to some questions that arose within the company. This seemingly minute change had a major effect on