Olof Bik is Professor of Auditing & Assurance at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen. His research focuses on organizational culture, leadership, and governance within the auditing profession, exploring how these factors influence audit quality and professional behavior. He has extensive experience in practice-oriented research and collaborates closely with audit firms to strengthen evidence-based approaches to culture and leadership measurement.Before joining Groningen in 2022, Olof was Professor of Behavioral Research in Auditing at Nyenrode Business University, where he also directed the Accountancy programs and served as Managing Director of the Foundation for Auditing Research (FAR). He worked for 18 years in PwC’s assurance practice, combining professional work with academic research. Olof is a member of the Dutch Accountancy Education Standards Board and has published widely on audit firm culture, professional skepticism, and behavioral drivers in auditing.
KEY TAKE-AWAYS
Audit firm culture is viewed by regulators and inspectors as 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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