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Organizational identity, professional identity salience and internal auditors’ assessments of the severity of internal control concerns

Author

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  • Ian Burt
  • Theresa Libby

Abstract

Purpose - This paper aims to examine whether increasing the salience of the internal auditor’s professional identity, defined by the expectations of their professional group, increases internal auditors’ judgments of the severity of internal control concerns when their organizational identity is high. Design/methodology/approach - This paper tests the hypothesis using a laboratory experiment with internal auditors as participants. Findings - The results support the hypothesis that professional identity salience moderates the relation between organizational identity and the assessed severity of identified internal control weaknesses. Increasing the salience of professional identity results in a more severe assessment of identified internal control weaknesses when organizational identity is high than when it is low. Originality/value - Prior research in the lab and in the field provides mixed results about the impact of organizational identity on internal auditors’ judgments of the severity of identified internal control concerns. This paper contributes to the discussion on this issue. In addition, the results have implications for the debate about the benefits and costs of in-house versus out-sourced internal audit functions.

Suggested Citation

  • Ian Burt & Theresa Libby, 2021. "Organizational identity, professional identity salience and internal auditors’ assessments of the severity of internal control concerns," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 36(4), pages 513-534, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:eme:majpps:maj-02-2020-2566
    DOI: 10.1108/MAJ-02-2020-2566
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Professional identity; Internal audit; Organizational identity; Objectivity; Internal control assessment; M40;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M40 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - General

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