HOW ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE AFFECTS INTERNAL CONTROL EFFECTIVENESS: THE ROLE PLAYED BY TOP MANAGEMENT : Case study: Uganda Revenue Authority

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine and understand the role played by top management towards aligning an organization’s culture to achieve effective internal controls, particularly for organizations operating in emerging economies prone to corruption. Methodology – The study applies both the empirical research approach and the theoretical research approach to examine and understand the major concepts of organisational culture, effectiveness of internal controls and the role played by top management to align the organisation’s culture to achieve effective internal controls. The empirical approach employs qualitative methods to collect data and the research findings are analysed using the deductive approach. A case study of URA is used to collect primary data through the use of a questionnaire. Findings – The study considers the role of top management in the context of the organization’s culture orientation and based on a hierarchical organizational culture background illustrated by the case study, the study concludes that managers in such an organizational culture orientation, play an influential role towards aligning an organization’s culture to achieve the desired “internal control” objective. Research limitations – There was limited time within which to conduct the research which limited the sample size for data collection. It was a huge gamble to determine the effectiveness of internal controls based on an organisation operating in an emerging corrupt economy since there is a chance that internal controls in such organisations are superficial in nature and may not be implemented in practice. Little research has been done on the concepts of organisational culture and effectiveness of internal control systems in emerging economies which limited extensive review of relevant research literature on the research problem. Research contribution – The research contributes additional literature on organizational culture in emerging economies since very little has been done in this area. The research provides practical recommendations on how top management can positively influence an organizational culture to aid the achievement of successful internal controls particularly for organizations operating in East Africa.