IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/halshs-04246174.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The introduction of legal audit within French universities: The impact on the managerial latitude of managers
[L'introduction de l'audit légal au sein des universités françaises : l'impact sur la latitude managériale des dirigeants]

Author

Listed:
  • Hamza El Kaddouri

    (University of Bedfordshire)

  • Modar Ajeeb

    (ESPI2R - Laboratoire ESPI2R Research in Real Estate [Bordeaux] - ESPI - Ecole Supérieure des Professions Immobilières)

Abstract

The adoption of the Law relative to the Liberties and Responsibilities of Universities (LRU) in 2007 has sought to ―modernize‖ the governance system of French universities. Article 18 of this Law stipulated ―the accounts of the university are subject to an annual audit by a legal auditor‖ (Law no. 2007–1199 of 10 August 2007). This paper explores management teams‘ perceptions of the role of legal audit in the governance system of French universities and its impact on the managerial latitude of university managers. Based on twenty-five interviews carried out with members of the management teams in three universities, the results of this study are threefold. Firstly, legal audit plays a disciplinary role by reducing the information asymmetry and cognitive conflicts between university managers and the stakeholders involved in governance particularly the financial supervisory authorities and the accounting agency. Secondly, the audit report is used by university managers to reinforce the legitimacy and the objectivity of their decisions, in the face of internal and external political pressure coming mainly from the university council, faculties, and the supervisory authorities. Thirdly, legal audit plays a complementary role to the governance system in place, including the controls of the accounting agency, the Council, and the Rectorate. Therefore, the results of this research are part of an integrated governance approach (Wirtz, 2006) which is characterized by the complementarity between the disciplinary and cognitive dimensions (Williamson, 1991; Charreaux, 1997).

Suggested Citation

  • Hamza El Kaddouri & Modar Ajeeb, 2021. "The introduction of legal audit within French universities: The impact on the managerial latitude of managers [L'introduction de l'audit légal au sein des universités françaises : l'impact sur la l," Post-Print halshs-04246174, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-04246174
    DOI: 10.22495/cgsrv5i2p3
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04246174
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04246174/document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22495/cgsrv5i2p3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marie Boitier & Anne Rivière, 2013. "Are French universities under control?," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(2), pages 105-110, March.
    2. James G. March, 1991. "Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 71-87, February.
    3. Marie Boitier & Anne Rivière, 2013. "Freedom and responsibility for French universities: from global steering to local management," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 26(4), pages 616-649, May.
    4. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    5. Peter Wirtz, 2006. "Compétences, conflits et création de valeur:vers une approche intégrée de la gouvernance," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 9(2), pages 187-201, June.
    6. Gérard Charreaux, 2002. "Variation sur le thème:"À la recherche de nouvelles fondations pour la finance et la gouvernance d'entreprise"," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 5(3), pages 5-68, September.
    7. Williamson, Oliver E, 1991. "Economic Institutions: Spontaneous and Intentional Governance," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(0), pages 159-187, Special I.
    8. Céline Chatelin & Hamza El Kaddouri, 2017. "Mise en place de l’audit légal dans les universités : quelles légitimités ? ; ”Implementation of Legal Audit Within Universities: what types of legitimacy are involved ?," Post-Print halshs-03590454, HAL.
    9. Élisabeth Bertin & Christophe Godowski, 2012. "Le processus global d'audit : source de développement d'une gouvernance cognitive ?," Comptabilité - Contrôle - Audit, Association francophone de comptabilité, vol. 18(3), pages 145-184.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Corinne van Der Yeught & Line Bergery & Isabelle Dherment Férère, 2012. "Les compétences éthiques créent-elles de la valeur ?," Post-Print hal-00689805, HAL.
    2. Anne Stévenot-Guéry, 2007. "Capital-investissement en syndication:les enjeux en termes de gouvernance disciplinaire et cognitive à partir d’une étude de cas multi-sites," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 10(4), pages 141-178, December.
    3. Pascal Louvet & Ollivier Taramasco, 2004. "Gouvernement d’entreprise:un modèle de répartition de la valeur créée entre dirigeant et actionnaire," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 7(1), pages 81-116, March.
    4. Belhadi, Amine & Kamble, Sachin S. & Mani, Venkatesh & Venkatesh, V.G. & Shi, Yangyan, 2021. "Behavioral mechanisms influencing sustainable supply chain governance decision-making from a dyadic buyer-supplier perspective," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    5. Elizabeth J. Altman & Frank Nagle & Michael L. Tushman, 2013. "Innovating Without Information Constraints: Organizations, Communities, and Innovation When Information Costs Approach Zero," Harvard Business School Working Papers 14-043, Harvard Business School, revised Sep 2014.
    6. Wu, Jianfeng & Tu, Rungting, 2007. "CEO stock option pay and R&D spending: a behavioral agency explanation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(5), pages 482-492, May.
    7. Christine Pochet, 2001. "Le gouvernement de l'entreprise défaillante: étude de trente plans de continuation," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 4(2), pages 149-181, March.
    8. Sulu Zhu & Pengqun Gao & Zhen Tang & Ming Tian, 2022. "The Research Venation Analysis and Future Prospects of Organizational Slack," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-23, October.
    9. Matthieu MONTALBAN (, 2009. "How financialisation shapes productive models in pharmaceutical industry: the domination and contradictions of the blockbuster conception of control (In French)," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2009-01, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    10. Benoît Pigé, 2007. "ethic, market and corporate governance: discretionanry space and firms' social responsibility [Éthique, marché et gouvernance : espace discrétionnaire et responsabilité sociale des grandes entrepri," Post-Print hal-02175839, HAL.
    11. Gérard Charreaux, 2002. "Variation sur le thème:"À la recherche de nouvelles fondations pour la finance et la gouvernance d'entreprise"," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 5(3), pages 5-68, September.
    12. Peter Wirtz, 2006. "Compétences, conflits et création de valeur:vers une approche intégrée de la gouvernance," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 9(2), pages 187-201, June.
    13. Pierre Baret & Vincent Helfrich, 2019. "The “trilemma” of non-financial reporting and its pitfalls," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 23(2), pages 485-511, June.
    14. Andreas Kallmuenzer & Andreas Strobl & Mike Peters, 2018. "Tweaking the entrepreneurial orientation–performance relationship in family firms: the effect of control mechanisms and family-related goals," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 855-883, October.
    15. Mehmet Ali Köseoglu & John A. Parnell & Melissa Yan Yee Yick, 2021. "Identifying influential studies and maturity level in intellectual structure of fields: evidence from strategic management," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(2), pages 1271-1309, February.
    16. Bradley, Steven W. & Wiklund, Johan & Shepherd, Dean A., 2011. "Swinging a double-edged sword: The effect of slack on entrepreneurial management and growth," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 537-554, September.
    17. Céline Chatelin & Stéphane Trebucq, 2002. "Du processus d'élaboration du cadre conceptuel en gouvernance d'entreprise A development process Of a conceptual framework of corporate governance," Working Papers CREGO 1021201, Université de Bourgogne - CREGO EA7317 Centre de recherches en gestion des organisations.
    18. Johnson, William H.A., 2011. "Managing university technology development using organizational control theory," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 842-852, July.
    19. David Ngoungo, 2012. "The Practice of Corporate Governance in Companies Receiving Foreign Direct Investment in Cameroon," Research in World Economy, Research in World Economy, Sciedu Press, vol. 3(1), pages 2-19, March.
    20. Franck Aggeri & Aurélien Acquier, 2005. "La théorie des stakeholders permet-elle de rendre compte des pratiques d'entreprise en matière de RSE ?," Post-Print halshs-00645708, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-04246174. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.