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.
Author
Dr. Therese Grohnert
Prof. dr. Anna Gold
Anna Gold is Professor of Auditing at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Adjunct Professor at Norwegian School of Economics (NHH). She earned her PhD at the University of Amsterdam. Her research interests are in the judgment and decision-making area, primarily applied to the field of auditing. Her research has focused on the impact of regulatory changes (e.g., fraud consultation, audit firm rotation, and auditor reporting standard changes) on judgments and decisions of auditors, preparers, and financial statement users. She has also examined how auditors and audit firms manage errors and whether varying the error management climate affects auditors’ error reporting willingness and learning. Her current work focuses on how auditors use specialist advice, the communication between auditors and audit committees, and auditors’ use of audit technology.
She has published her research in outlets such as The Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research, Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, Accounting Horizons, Journal of Business Ethics, and International Journal of Auditing. Professor Gold currently serves as editor at The Accounting Review (2020-2023) and Maandblad voor Accountancy en Bedrijfseconomie (since 2018). She is a member of the editorial board of Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory.
Prof. dr. Olof Bik RA
Olof Bik is professor of Auditing & Assurance at the University of Groningen. In his research he takes a special interest in the study of culture, leadership, and behavior in the realm of the auditing and assurance profession, firms, and teams. Since its inception in 2015 until 2022, Bik was one of two managing directors and academic member of the Board of the Foundation for Auditing Research. He worked in the audit practice of PwC for 18 years, since 2002 always in combination with a university appointment (Groningen), and joined academia in full since 2012 (Nyenrode).
Prof. dr. Jan Bouwens
Academic board member and managing director FAR.
Jan Bouwens is full professor of accounting at the University of Amsterdam. His previous appointment was at the Cambridge Judge Business School and Tilburg University, where he was head of the accounting department for 7 years. He was visiting professor at Harvard business school in 2013/2014.
His teaching experience extends from bachelor programs to Ph.D. programs in business economics. During the academic year 2013-2014 he taught accounting in the MBA program at Harvard Business, School, 2017/2018 and in the Cambridge MBA programs. He now teaches Management accounting and control in the masters of accounting of the University of Cambridge and at The University of Amsterdam.
In his research Jan focuses on motivating employees with targets and selecting appropriate performance measures. He publishes in the top accounting journals (e.g., JAE, JAR, management science, AOS, TAR, CAR). He writes editorials for national news papers (e.g, Finacial Times, Financieele Dagblad)
Prof. dr. Marleen Willekens
Full Professor of Accounting and Auditing at KU Leuven
Prof. dr. Jeroen Suijs
Professor of Financial Accounting at Erasmus University Rotterdam
Prof. dr. Mark E. Peecher
Mark E. Peecher , CPA, is a professor of accountancy and a Deloitte Teaching Fellow at the University of Illinois, specializing in behavioral auditing and accounting research. He holds a bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees in accountancy from Illinois. Prior to returning to his alma mater, he was a faculty member at the University of Washington. An active member in the AAA’s Audit Section, Mark currently serves as the Audit Section’s past president.
Professor Peecher’s business-press writings about auditing have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, and his scholarly writings have appeared in Accounting, Organizations & Society, Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, Contemporary Accounting Research, International Journal of Auditing, Journal of Accounting Research, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and The Accounting Review. He has presented his research at numerous conferences, consortia, and universities, and he has served on the editorial boards at Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, The Accounting Review, and Issues in Accounting Education. Mark enjoys teaching both undergraduate courses and doctoral seminars related to auditing. He particularly likes helping to mentor doctoral students, three of whom have won outstanding doctoral dissertation awards.
Prof. dr. Joseph Gerakos
Associate Professor of Business Administration Tuck School of business
