Reduced audit quality behaviours among junior auditors : Organisational Demands and Competing Expectations and Role of Coping Styles

Sammanfattning

Abstract Background: Audit quality is central to the credibility and reliability of financial reporting. Nevertheless, prior research indicates that audit quality may be compromised in practice through reduced audit quality behaviours, despite the comprehensive auditing standards. Such behaviours have been associated with organisational and professional conditions such as time constrains, tight deadlines, workload intensity and performance demands. Junior auditors may be particularly exposed to such pressures due to their position within the audit firm hierarchy. However, prior research has primarily focused on identifying these conditions that cause reduced audit quality behaviours, while giving less attention to how organisational conditions are interpreted and why auditors exposed to similar conditions may describe different behavioural responses. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how reduced audit quality behaviours emerge among junior auditors under specific audit work conditions. By drawing on institutional logics and organisational demands perspectives, the study aims to examine how organisational and professional expectations shape junior auditors work environments and create conditions that which may contribute to reduced audit quality behaviours. Furthermore, the study aims to examine how differences in coping responses may influences junior auditors’ interpretation and how they manage their work conditions and ultimately affecting audit quality outcomes. Method: To address the research question, this study adopts an abductive qualitative design. The theoretical framework is established though literature review and the empirical data was collected though a semi-structured interviews with junior auditors located in Sweden. Conclusion: This study concludes that reduced audit quality behaviours may emerge through the interaction of organisational and institutional demands and junior auditors cooping responses. Coping responses may therefore also help explain why similar work conditions can lead to different behavioural outcomes and have potentially different audit quality consequences.