Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pftt2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-02T08:11:19.949Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Identification and Categorization of Auditors’ Virtues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Theresa Libby  and
Linda Thorne
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

In this paper, we develop a typology of auditors’ virtues through in-depth interviews with nine exemplars of the audit community. We compare this typology with prescribed auditors’ virtues as represented in the applicable Code of Professional Conduct. Our comparison shows that the Code places a primary emphasis on mandatory virtues including the virtues of “independent,” “objective,” and “principled.” While the non-mandatory virtues, which involve “going beyond the minimum” and “putting the public interest foremost,” were identified by our exemplars as essential to the auditor’s role, they received little or no emphasis in the Rules of Professional Conduct. We find this particularly alarming, given that the exemplars interviewed for this study viewed these virtues are essential to the auditors’ role. If the audit profession wishes to uphold public confidence by encouraging the possession of non-mandatory auditors’ virtues, our research suggests that non-mandatory auditors’ virtues should be explicitly described and included in rules of professional conduct.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , July 2004 , pp. 479 - 498
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brown, D. A. 2000. “Building Markets Starts with Building Credibility.” Remarks made by David Brown, QC, Chair of the Ontario Securities Commission in a dialogue with the Ontario Securities Commission (October 31).Google Scholar
Denzin, N., and Lincoln, Y.. 1998. Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Gaa, J. 2001. “Doing a Good Job? The End of the Accounting Profession.” Working paper, University of Alberta.Google Scholar
Hirst, D. E., and Koonce, L.. 1996. “Auditors’ Analytical Procedures: A Field Investigation.” Contemporary Accounting Research 13(2), 457–86.Google Scholar
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario. 2000. ICAO Rules of Professional Conduct: Toronto.Google Scholar
Larson, M. S. 1977. The Rise of Professionalism: A Sociological Analysis. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Levitt, A. 1998. The Numbers Game. Remarks made by the Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission to the NYU Center for Law and Business, New York, N.Y. (September 28).Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 1984. After Virtue. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Mintz, S. M. 1995. “Virtue Ethics and Accounting Education.” Issues in Accounting Education 10 (2): 247–67.Google Scholar
Pincoffs, E. 1986. Quandaries and Virtues. Lawrence, Kans.: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Pitt, H. L. 2002. Remarks made to the SEC Speaks Conference, Feb 22.Google Scholar
Shaub, M. K. 1994. “Limits to the Effectiveness of Accounting Ethics Education.” Business and Professional Ethics Journal (Spring/Summer): 129–45.Google Scholar
Schilit, H., 2002. Financial Shenanigans: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks and Fraud in Financial Report, Second Edition; McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Thorne, L. 1998. “The Role of Virtue in Auditors’ Ethical Decision-Making: An Integration of Cognitive-Developmental and Virtue-Ethics Perspectives.” In Research on Accounting Ethics (4), ed. Ponemon, L.. Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press: 291–308.Google Scholar
Tsui, J., and Gul, F.. 1996. “Accountants’ Behavior in an Audit Conflict Situation: A Research Note on the Role of Locus of Control and Ethical Reasoning.” Accounting, Organizations and Society 21: 41–51.Google Scholar
Windsor, C., and Ashkanasy, N.. 1995. “The Effect of Client Management Bargaining Power, Moral Reasoning Development, and Belief in a Just World on Accountant Independence.” Accounting, Organizations and Society 20: 701–20.Google Scholar
Van Maanen, J. 1979. Qualitative Methodology. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage.Google Scholar