Audit practice: A straightforward trade or a complex system?

Abstract

Auditors' skills and ways of working must adapt to constantly changing conditions in the workplace, and the COVID‐19 pandemic has brought further complexity. This paper uses a complexity theory lens to investigate changes in audit practice in recent years. A qualitative research method, using semi‐structured interviews, was applied: first to investigate how audit practice (skillsets and ways of working) needs to be reformed and second to suggest implications for audit practice stemming from a disruptive macro‐level event such as the current COVID‐19 pandemic. It was found that audit firms are framed as complex adaptive systems and new skillsets and ways of working in audit practice are well known for their adaptation, co‐evolution and emerging behaviours, which include virtual audits and remote working that have been brought about by the COVID‐19 pandemic.