The Effect of Auditor's Personal Characteristics on Professional Judgment and Ethics in Auditing

Abstract

In the turbulent environment of the current business world, making professional judgment and maintaining professional ethics is an essential requirement in the auditing profession. Besides technical and professional knowledge, the personal information of each individual auditor could affect the process of making judgments and maintaining the ethics of the auditor. This study aims to analyze the influences of auditor's personal information on professional judgment and ethics in external auditing process. The authors designed a survey and analyzed the responses, applied a linear regression model, and performed a t-test to measure the model. They found that the auditors who obtain the ACCA or CPA tend to use their professional judgment in the planning phase. Interestingly, the CPA certificate is a nearly significant factor affecting the professional judgment in the planning phase. For the ethics, the auditors who have an MBA degree tend to use ethical thinking in the planning phase. Surprisingly, only the auditors who are managers tend to use ethical thinking in the concluding and reporting phase.