Ethical Leadership and Auditor’s Underreporting of Audit Time: Mediating Role of Work Engagement

Abstract

Considering the subsiding credibility of audit profession by recurring accounting scandals, this study investigates the impact of audit team leaders’ ethical leadership on staff auditors’ propensity to accept underreporting of audit time through mediating effect of staff auditors’ work engagement. This study collects primary data from 397 staff auditors working for the registered audit firms conducting audit of limited liability companies of Pakistan. The results provide that audit team leaders’ ethical leadership significantly reduces staff auditors’ engagement into underreporting of audit time through partial mediating role of staff auditors’ work engagement. Findings of current study are expected to uphold public confidence in the audit profession by indicating the mechanism of improving audit quality through decreasing dysfunctional audit behaviors.