Dysfunctional audit behaviour: an exploratory study in Malaysia

Abstract

Purpose The quality of the opinion provided by audit firms is an important determinant of their long‐term survival, but audit quality is difficult to gauge, which makes it particularly sensitive to the behaviour of the individuals who carry on audit work. This paper seeks to identify the incidence of dysfunctional audit behaviours and audit quality reduction behaviours, actions taken by an auditor during engagement that reduce evidence‐gathering effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a survey of 244 auditors working in small/medium and big audit firms in Malaysia. Findings The paper identifies key variables leading to dysfunctional audit behaviour. Research limitations/implications The paper is subject to the normal limitations associated with survey research. Practical implications The paper provides basic empirical evidence of a potentially serious risk of dysfunctional behaviours that may impair audit quality. Originality/value The paper provides empirical evidence to address the concerns of the Malaysian regulatory authorities regarding audit quality.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 57 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.