Can culture controls improve audit quality? Well, according to Jasmijn Bol and her co-authors they can!

In this FARview, Professor Jasmijn Bol (Tulane University) talks about her paper ‘Can culture controls improve audit quality’. This is joint work together with Isabella Grabner (WU Vienna), Katlijn Haesebrouck (Maastricht University) and Mark E. Peecher (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).

They investigated how cultural controls can improve audit quality.

It is key to build in the internalization of audit quality as a core value.

First, that requires socialization. There should be a focus on supportive leadership, by building an audit voice culture. That means that there's open communication, that people are tolerant of making mistakes and that there's a lot of appreciation for learning. Another part of supportive leadership is resource facilitation: make sure that there is a budget that allows for action-oriented skepticism.

Second, selection is important. When hiring, retaining, and promoting auditors, the personal values of these people should be closely aligned to the values that you're trying to socialize and internalize. The personal values of importance are care about societal interests (wanting to contribute to society) and ‘being a true seeker’ (wanting to get to the bottom of things).

Full version on Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKINm9L0VA4

Pitch-version on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcatd-wDJNg