Identifying Factors Influencing the Internal Control System Deployment (Multi-Grounded Theory Approach)

Organizations seek to adapt to their environment through mechanisms that help them achieve their goals. Internal control provides reasonable assurance of an organization's goals. Implementation of internal control affects its conduct and the number of weaknesses identified in the evaluation of the system. Therefore the purpose of this study is to identify factors influencing the internal control system deployment.

This research is qualitative and was done using the Multi-Grounded Theory. Therefore, the data was analyzed using experimental and theoretical grounding. Experimental data was obtained from theoretical sampling; 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts with successful experiences in implementing the internal control system from the Iranian calendar year of 2019 to 2020. The theoretical data was derived from reviewing the extant literature.

The results of this study showed that inefficiency and effectiveness of procedures, lack of proper segregation of duties, and lack of proper documentation of procedures make deployment inevitable. It was also proved that the implementation process is influenced by audit quality, organizational structure, quality of computer systems, management characteristics, and the quality of the knowledge of the group responsible for the establishment, quality of the board, and external rules.

By building trust, training, proper scheduling, continuous monitoring, system recognition, and identifying the needs of the organization, the internal control system can be established according to the size of the company, industry type, time constraints, management support, and employee support.