FARview #11 with professor Jasmijn Bol (podcast in Dutch)

11 December 2020

In business, employees are one of the most important drivers of success. Audit firms, in particular, rely greatly on employee cooperation and know-how to achieve organizational objectives. As a result, smart audit firms motivate and guide staff members to organizational goals. Without proper motivation and guidance, employees take actions that may not enhance organizational value or may even take actions that destroy value. Importantly, this does not necessarily suggest that they engage in fraud or intentional negative behavior, because value also evaporates, for example, when employees simply prioritize the wrong actions on a busy day. To mitigate these motivation and direction concerns, effective audit firms use a management control system. In this research study, the project team examines how Dutch audit firms use their management control system to motivate and direct auditors’ efforts towards audit quality.