An Analysis of The Control Environment Practices of Private Catholic Schools: Towards Crafting of A Comprehensive Operations Management System
An Analysis of The Control Environment Practices of Private Catholic Schools: Towards Crafting of A Comprehensive Operations Management System
An Analysis of The Control Environment Practices of Private Catholic Schools: Towards Crafting of A Comprehensive Operations Management System
research design where the researcher described the of internal controls along the five areas. The
focus schools’ level of implementation of internal respondents’ recommendations for actions or programs
controls under the control environment, its best of the personnel for better operations were also taken
practices, issues and challenges in the implementation captured.
of control environment. Recommendations of
programs and action plans from the respondents were Procedure
further sought relative to their shared experiences
along internal controls of their respective schools. The Phase 1. The researcher prepared a comprehensive
results of the study were the basis of the researcher in questionnaire to gather data and requested list of
identifying the internal control practices existent in the names of the employees per school from the office of
focus schools or locale, to provide insights to the the system’s superintendent or from the human
educational system for considerations to revisit their resource staff of the schools.
policies and recommend for crafting a unified policy Phase 2. After being given with the go-signal by
for all schools under its supervision. authorities, the researcher reproduced the
questionnaire and gave them to a reliable emissary per
Participants school-respondents who distributed to personnel of the
different diocesan schools the instrument used for
The respondents were the personnel which includes gathering data.
faculty and staff of the private catholic schools who Phase 3. Compliant to the set timeline, the floated
are in the school for not less than three years of questionnaires were retrieved, encoded and subjected
continued service. In selecting participants, purposive to the SPSS software and analyzed thematically.
sampling technique was used while achieving the Phase 4. After the data was tabulated and analyzed
criteria set above. quantitatively, document scanning and analysis were
done. Due to the restrictions brought by the pandemic,
Instruments of the Study the researcher, was furnished with the work in
progress manual of operation of the system. This was
Questionnaire. An adopted-modified questionnaire reviewed as the related relevant documents that
was used for data gathering, lifted from Albany State substantiated the result of the quantitative data. Further
University’s list of practices an educational institution validations on the data gathered through phone calls
should have which were also validated and anchored were done to some respondents.
with the internal control standards set by the COSO Phase 5. Analysis and interpretation of data were done
Framework. The questionnaire was modified as the after all the information has been assured of
researcher added qualitative questions to suit the needs completeness.
of this study.
Ethical Considerations
The questionnaire was composed of four (4) parts
namely: Part I is the profile of the respondents as to This study employed utmost ethical consideration
school, age, years of service, educational attainment particularly on the participation of the faculty and staff
and position; Part II is the self-assessment of the level in the study. Their participation is purely voluntary,
of internal control implementation; Part III is the rest assured that all information shared with the
written interview centered on the best practices and researcher was treated with utmost confidentiality and
issues and challenges in the operations of the DBES will be used solely for academic purposes. Any record
schools that the respondents have experienced and of their participation will be handled with extreme
observed; and Part IV is the recommended programs caution and anonymity. Communication of seeking
or actions that the respondents opined for permission will be observed before the conduct of
recommendations to the administrators of the schools. study. Moreover, this study is not after any financial
gain nor any other personal purpose such as self-
The instrument is composed of the assessment of the glorification and the like except the fact that the
level of implementation of the control environment information they will share willingly particularly on
assessing the school’s performance. Qualitative parts the innovations on how to improve their academic
were included where the respondents wrote the performance through various suggested instructional
practices they are carrying out in their day-to-day materials and strategies for teachers.
transactions in their respective schools. Another part
was provided for the respondents to write the issues The respondents’ participation is expected to
and challenges they have faced in the implementation contribute to the larger community as it tries to
understand the complexity of the situation. Finally, if sustenance of academic integrity within the
by their personal goodwill, this study shall become a organization.
full blast paper qualified for future research
convocations and for publication, the researcher The lowest among the components is the commitment
considers seeking approval from the participants for to competence with an average mean of 3.76. Though
the said endeavor. it is moderately strong in its level of implementation, it
still implies they value competence of their employees
but still, the schools should make this higher as the
Results and Discussion quality of the education lies on the competence of the
employees towards development, innovation, and
excellence.
The overall level of internal control implementation
of DBES Schools. Commitment to competence of the schools is at
moderately strong level which means that the schools
Overall Control Environment have controls regarding competence of employees but
not fully implemented but still, they value and promote
Table 1. The Overall Level of Internal Control competence among employees. It can be implied that
Implementation of DBES Schools as to Control employees understand the knowledge and skills
Environment required to accomplish tasks. This also means that
employees were equipped with appropriate and
relevant capabilities to do their job and their
responsibilities with utmost competence.
Lastly, human resource policies and practices of the for the size and activities of the entity.
schools posted a moderately strong level of internal
control implementation which means that schools have Moreover, on the human resource policies and
existing controls over human resource policies and practices, issues arose on selection of personnel which
practices but not fully implemented. This implies that implies that the hiring process is informal, and
there is a careful hiring process that is in place and the sometimes proceeds without adequate involvement by
Human Resources Department is involved in higher-level supervisors; dealing with inappropriate
identifying potential employees based on job behavior which suggests that reprimands are not
requirements. timely, direct, or are not consistently applied (climate
of favoritism); and evaluation of personnel which
The best practices of schools in their control implies that evaluation process is ad hoc and
environment implementation. inconsistent which paved way that performance issues
are not formally addressed.
According to Lightle et al. (2007), the Control
Environment “may be the most critical” element of an The recommendations to be forwarded to the
internal control system as this is the “Ethical Culture” DBES Schools.
of the school which is the foundation of the school’s
ethics initiatives, and it must be established at the top Addressing the issues on overwork or overload of
level of the institution. work assignments and too much paperwork, it could
be recommended that a review on the legal policies on
Under the control environment, the data revealed that workload and the number of staff/teachers required be
schools have an established and observed practices on put in place. Moreover, a streamline work process may
integrity and ethical values, management’s philosophy be proposed, and the management consider aligning
and operating style, organizational structure, these patterns with work descriptions to avoid
assignment of authority and responsibility and human duplication of work and over staff. And lastly, a
resource practices, there is an evident practice on review on the possibility of maximizing the
codes of conduct and integrity of employees, a practice technology available by digitizing some work or of
of communication with the employees and an using the virtual space be evident. With the mentioned
established practice of an approach to decision recommendations, the schools could provide an
making. opportunity to delegate work responsibilities
commensurate to the size of the organization and that
Moreover, when it comes to organizational structure, a every member of the working environment could be
clear view and understanding of the organizational given a limited or bound only by his or her job
charts is very evident among the schools, as to responsibilities in which in this case, no overwork
assignment of authority and responsibility, the could be experienced by an employee since his or her
delegation of authority and assignment of concern only falls of the written job responsibilities he
responsibility for operating and financial functions is is expected to deliver.
also an evident practice and a commendable human
resource policies and practices as evident by the In like manner, to address the unclear line of
trainings that employees are associated with or communication, the management is recommended to
participated in. define the organizational framework and discuss the
same at the start of school year then review the same
The issues and challenges experienced by the every meeting and/or as the need arises. Anent this,
s c h o o l s in t heir c o n t r o l e n v i r o n m e n t streamlined flow of communication must be
implementation. established and stated in the Faculty and Staff manual
so as all employees would be knowledgeable about the
The data revealed that the said schools had issues and flow of reporting and the immediate reporting
challenges on their controls. Under management’s authority. Lastly, administrators and middle managers
philosophy and operating style, employees had a like subject group heads or other department heads
challenge in how their jobs get done which implies must always stick to the standard operating procedures
that management is willing to get the job done without agreed during the meeting or as stated in the
adequate regard to quality. On organizational structure, handbook.
schools are challenged by the complexity of the
organizational structure which implies that lines of It is also recommended that the management, together
responsibility are unclear or unnecessarily complicated with the employees review the policies on hiring as
References
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https://www.imanet.org/-/media/73ec8a64f1b64b7f9460c1e24958cf
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