IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rru/oapubs/10197-2901.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A study of whistleblowing among trainee auditors

Author

Listed:
  • Niamh Brennan
  • John Kelly

Abstract

Over the last number of years whistleblowers have been gaining prominence. This paper investigates some of the factors that influence the propensity or willingness to blow the whistle among trainee auditors. Three categories of factors are examined: audit firm organisational structures, personal characteristics of whistleblowers and situational variables. A survey of 240 final year students of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland was undertaken. Trainee auditors (just about to sit their finals) were asked about their confidence in internal and external reporting structures in their firms. Using four scenarios, audit trainees were questioned on their willingness to challenge an audit partner’s inappropriate response to concerns raised during the audit. Finally, audit trainees were asked about the influence of legal protection on their likelihood of whistleblowing. Results indicate that where firms have adequate formal structures for reporting wrongdoing, trainee auditors are more likely to report wrongdoing and have greater confidence that this will not adversely affect their careers. Training increases this confidence. Trainee auditors also express a willingness to challenge an audit partner’s unsatisfactory response to wrongdoing. Significant differences were found in attitudes depending on whether the reports of wrongdoing were internal or external. The willingness to report wrongdoing externally reduces for older (aged over 25) trainees.

Suggested Citation

  • Niamh Brennan & John Kelly, 2007. "A study of whistleblowing among trainee auditors," Open Access publications 10197/2901, Research Repository, University College Dublin.
    • Handle: RePEc:rru:oapubs:10197/2901
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10197/2901
    File Function: Open Access version, 2007
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Craswell, Allen T. & Francis, Jere R. & Taylor, Stephen L., 1995. "Auditor brand name reputations and industry specializations," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 297-322, December.
    2. Linda Thorne & Jon Hartwick, 2001. "The Directional Effects of Discussion on Auditors' Moral Reasoning," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(2), pages 337-361, June.
    3. B. Pierce & B. Sweeney, 2004. "Cost-quality conflict in audit firms: an empirical investigation," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 415-441.
    4. Tsui, Judy S. L., 1996. "Auditors' ethical reasoning: Some audit conflict and cross cultural evidence," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 121-133.
    5. Marcia P. Miceli & Janet P. Near & Charles R. Schwenk, 1991. "Who Blows the Whistle and Why?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 45(1), pages 113-130, October.
    6. Barrett, Michael & Cooper, David J. & Jamal, Karim, 2005. "Globalization and the coordinating of work in multinational audits," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 1-24, January.
    7. DeAngelo, Linda Elizabeth, 1981. "Auditor size and audit quality," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 183-199, December.
    8. Otley, David T. & Pierce, Bernard J., 1995. "The control problem in public accounting firms: An empirical study of the impact of leadership style," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 405-420, July.
    9. Dirsmith, Mark W. & Covaleski, Mark A., 1985. "Informal communications, nonformal communications and mentoring in public accounting firms," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 149-169, April.
    10. Pater, Alberic & Van Gils, Anita, 2003. "Stimulating Ethical Decision-making in a Business Context:: Effects of Ethical and Professional Codes," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 762-772, December.
    11. Conor O’Leary & Derry Cotter, 2000. "The ethics of final year accountancy students: an international comparison," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 15(3), pages 108-115, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pernilla Broberg & Torbjörn Tagesson & Daniela Argento & Niclas Gyllengahm & Ola Mårtensson, 2017. "Explaining the influence of time budget pressure on audit quality in Sweden," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 21(2), pages 331-350, June.
    2. Nurul Nazlia Jamil, 2020. "The Power of Political Connections: Review on the Impacts of Audit Committee and Corporate Governance," Journal of Public Administration and Governance, Macrothink Institute, vol. 10(1), pages 333347-3333, December.
    3. Chang, Yu-Shan & Chiang, Chia-Yu & Liu, Li-Lin (Sunny) & Xie, Xinmei (Lucy), 2019. "Audit partner independence and business affiliation: evidence from Taiwan," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-1.
    4. Astrid Rudyanto, 2017. "Audit Firm Reputation versus Auditor Capability: Their Effect on Audit Quality in Indonesia," GATR Journals afr147, Global Academy of Training and Research (GATR) Enterprise.
    5. Hye‐Jeong Nam, 2018. "The Impact of Mandatory IFRS Transition on Audit Effort and Audit Fees: Evidence from Korea," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 28(4), pages 512-524, December.
    6. Viator, Ralph E., 2001. "The association of formal and informal public accounting mentoring with role stress and related job outcomes," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 73-93, January.
    7. Seif Obeid Al-Shbiel, 2016. "An Examination the Factors Influence on Unethical Behaviour among Jordanian external auditors: Job Satisfaction as a mediator," International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, vol. 6(3), pages 285-296, July.
    8. Aaron Saiewitz & Elaine (Ying) Wang, 2020. "Using Cultural Mindsets to Reduce Cross‐National Auditor Judgment Differences," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(3), pages 1854-1881, September.
    9. Mahdi Salehi & Ali Mansoury, 2009. "Firm Size, Audit Regulation and Fraud Detection: Empirical Evidence from Iran," Management, University of Primorska, Faculty of Management Koper, vol. 4(1), pages 5-19.
    10. Angela Hecimovic & Nonna Martinov-Bennie, 2011. "The Differential Impact of the Force of Law Australian Auditing Standards," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 21(2), pages 183-192, June.
    11. Ray Ball, 2009. "Market and Political/Regulatory Perspectives on the Recent Accounting Scandals," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 277-323, May.
    12. Johnson, Marilyn F. & Nelson, Karen K. & Frankel, Richard M., 2002. "The Relation Between Auditor's Fees for Non-audit Services and Earnings Quality," Research Papers 1696r, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    13. Shokrollah Khajavi & Akbar Zare, 2016. "The Effect of Audit Quality on Stock Crash Risk in Tehran Stock Exchange," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 6(1), pages 20-25.
    14. Andrew B. Jackson & Michael Moldrich & Peter Roebuck, 2008. "Mandatory audit firm rotation and audit quality," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 23(5), pages 420-437, May.
    15. Rita Lamboglia & Daniela Mancini, 2021. "The relationship between auditors’ human capital attributes and the assessment of the control environment," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 25(4), pages 1211-1239, December.
    16. Benoît Pigé, 2000. "Audit quality and Corporate governance : an analysis of French audit regulations [Qualité de l'audit et gouvernement d'entreprise : le rôle et les limites de la concurrence sur le marché de l'audit," Post-Print halshs-03425760, HAL.
    17. Camelia-Daniela Hategan, 2019. "Factors Influencing The Quality Of Financial Audit," Oradea Journal of Business and Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 4(2), pages 7-15, September.
    18. Chantal Mangion & Norbert Tabone & Peter J. Baldacchino & Simon Grima, 2021. "Audit Quality and Resilience beyond the Role Stress Model: A Maltese Perspective," International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, vol. 11(3), pages 37-56.
    19. Elaine Doyle & Jane Frecknall-Hughes & Barbara Summers, 2014. "Ethics in Tax Practice: A Study of the Effect of Practitioner Firm Size," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 122(4), pages 623-641, July.
    20. Hsiang-Tsai Chiang & Shu-Lin Lin, 2012. "Effect Of Auditor’S Judgment And Specialization On Their Differential Opinion Between Semiannual And Annual Financial Reports," Global Journal of Business Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 6(4), pages 1-22.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rru:oapubs:10197/2901. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joseph Greene (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://researchrepository.ucd.ie .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.