Locus Of Control And Dysfunctional Audit Behavior

Abstract

<p class="MsoBlockText" style="margin: 0in 34.2pt 0pt 0.5in; tab-stops: 441.0pt;"><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The Panel on Audit Effectiveness suggested that dysfunctional audit behavior (DAB) was associated with decreased audit quality (Public Oversight Board 2000).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Recent, notable audit failures have also rekindled criticisms of audit quality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The current study presents the results of a survey in which 134 auditors were asked to report their perceived levels of three widely-cited DABs in their firms: occurrence of premature sign-offs, altering/replacing audit procedures, and underreporting of time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Although the overall results can be characterized as positive for the auditing profession, a systematic pattern in the results was identified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Specifically, statistical analysis suggests that perceptions of DAB were associated with a common personality variable, locus of control.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Practical implications of this interesting finding are subsequently presented in the paper. </span></span></span></p>