Ann Vanstraelen

Professor

Ann Vanstraelen is Full Professor of Accounting and Assurance Services at Maastricht University and serves as Head of the department of Accounting and Information Management. She is member of the KNAW (Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences). Membership is for life.Ann Vanstraelen is recognized as one of the leading researchers and key innovators in the fields of auditing and accountancy. Over the past decades, these disciplines have evolved into vibrant international research areas, responding to the growing demand for reliable data and assurance in both the corporate and public sectors. Vanstraelen’s work spans financial reporting and governance issues, as well as the reliability of sustainability reporting, an area in which she has pioneered new research directions. Her contributions have not only advanced academic understanding but also influenced practice, shaping how organizations approach transparency and accountability in an increasingly complex business environment.She coordinates the multidisciplinary research theme “Culture, Ethics and Leadership”. She earned her PhD at the University of Antwerp. Her research interests relate to the broad field of auditing and assurance services, governance, corporate reporting and disclosure, with a specific focus on the quality of accounting and auditing practices.

Audit Firm Culture: Recent Developments and Trends in the Literature
This paper synthesizes research on audit firm culture (AFC) over the past decade, reviewing recent developments in research on factors instilling culture in audit firms, and how culture influences audit quality and auditors’ work attitudes. We develop and apply a three-phase model based on prior research and  professional  guidance  (IAASB,  2014),  which  maps  cultural  embedding  mechanisms  (EMs,  visible manifestations and organizational conditions to establish culture), perceptions of existing culture, and consequences of culture. Our synthesis shows that the culture of an audit firm is most oriented toward quality if leadership emphasizes professionalism over commercialism, promotes ethical judgments, and facilitates learning  through  systems,  integration  of  specialists,  and  interpersonal  interactions  among  auditors. The research cited shows strong influence on AFC of tone at the top set by leadership, as well as incentives in performance/reward systems. Studies we review generally imply continued concern for the influence of commercialism on AFC, but future research should investigate whether recent forces (i.e. pressure from regulators and efforts by the firms) have caused a cultural shift toward professionalism. We close by suggesting opportunities for future research that can strengthen understanding how AFC can be better managed by firms.
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Understanding Audit Firm Culture through the Lens of the Competing Values Framework
the means to enhance audit quality. This study uses the Competing Values Framework (CVF) to explore the culture of large audit firms, and their attempts to change their cultures. We find that these firms predominantly emphasize a culture characterized by collaboration and control, which is consistent with an inward focus. We also find that audit firms struggle to implement a consistent understanding of culture across their offices and function levels, and there is a gap in how partners perceive culture compared to that of non-partner staff. This “culture gap” has negative consequences on auditors, as larger culture gaps are associated with lower psychological safety and poorer person-organization fit. Embedding mechanisms can lower the culture gap, but having adequate resources is far more important of an embedding mechanism than “tone at the top.” The findings underscore the importance of actively communicating and reinforcing stated cultural values, and provide audit firms with a practical tool to diagnose problems in achieving culture change.
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Audit Partner-Manager Dyadic Fit and Team Functioning
This study investigates the formation of audit partner-manager pairings (called dyads) on audit engagements, and the consequences of this dyad formation on the functioning of the engagement team. Prior studies mainly focus on the role of a single team leader, while in practice, an audit team is usually led by two senior individuals, the manager and the engagement partner. This dual-leadership structure and its potential effect on the team are largely unexplored topics. We draw on the theory of homophily to develop and test predictions using data from 221 Dutch engagement teams. The analyses suggest that partners and managers that form a dyad are more similar in terms of their skills and leadership behaviors than would be the case for randomly matched partners and managers. However, dyad similarity is not always beneficial for the functioning of the engagement team. In fact, dyad similarity generally has a negative effect on team climate and team performance. The exception is when the partner and manager are both highly skilled and demonstrate strong leadership behaviors. Otherwise, a complementary matching of skills and leadership behaviors of the partner and manager is superior and leads to better team climate and team performance. Team performance is self-assessed: how well the audit engagement team performed. Team climate is measured as the team’s assessment of psychological safety, team commitment, and team identity. Our findings on partner-manager dyads can inform audit firms on how to better assign and manage their audit teams, particularly since the audit partner chooses the manager most of the time (68 percent of the engagements in our study)
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Leadership behaviors by partners and managers, and audit team performance
Leadership research in the organizational behavior (OB) literature has generally focused on single-leader teams. Yet many organization, including audit firms, have more complex dual leader structures in which leadership duties are shared between two team leaders. We study this in the context of audit teams in which the dual leaders are the audit partner and the audit manager. We find some evidence that division of labor in leadership behaviors is effective. However, the most effective audit teams are those in which both the partner and manager have what are called “consideration” behaviors that exhibit a concern for the welfare of team members. We call this “the power of consideration.” This finding makes sense given that audit teams come together for short periods of time, and there is a need for the audit team to feel confident in order to be effective. The other condition in which audit teams perform well is when the partner exhibits strong leadership behaviors for both initiating structure (defining goals, communication channels, time-lines) and consideration, irrespective of the manager’s leadership behaviors. We call this the “super partner” effect. Overall, the results point to active engagement by partners and managers with the audit team as being the most effective leadership behaviors. While initiating structure behaviors are important, consideration behaviors are far more important in audit teams, a finding which differs from prior OB research. Finally, the results underscore the importance of training partners and managers in the effective use of consideration behaviors to build team confidence and to ensure the best audit team performance.
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