Organizational culture, personnel characteristics and dysfunctional audit behavior

Abstract

This paper analyzes the incidence and impact of Dysfunctional Audit Behavior (DAB) within audit firms. It investigates the impact of organizational culture and individual audit personnel characteristics on the acceptance of dysfunctional practices among audit staff. A mixed methods approach is employed. A questionnaire is distributed among the audit personnel of 40 audit firms in the European Island-State of Malta. This is complemented by eight semi-structured interviews with audit partners from different firms. The perceived reinforcement of under-reporting of chargeable time, inappropriate behaviors by superiors and the individual’s locus of control are found to be significant predictors of the acceptance of dysfunctional practices. The study also indicates that audit experience leads to a reduction of such behavior and that Big Four auditors are less accepting of dysfunctional practices than those in smaller firms. Furthermore, the organizational culture within audit firms and an individual’s perception of control exhibit significant influence on the acceptance of dysfunctional practices. The study thus seeks to help in enhancing audit quality by raising awareness on the impact of dysfunctional practices and sheds new light on the factors contributing to such behavior, and thus seeks to help by indicating the ways to enhance audit quality.