AUDITORS BEHAVIOR IN AN AUDIT CONFLICT SITUATION - A RESEARCH NOTE ONTHE ROLE OF LOCUS OF CONTROL AND ETHICAL REASONING

This study investigates the interaction effects of locus of control, a personality variable, and ethical reasoning on the behaviour of audit ors in an audit conflict situation. Eighty experienced auditors from a sample of Big Six and Non-Big Six CPA firms in Hong Kong were provide d with a case study involving an audit conflict situation and were ask ed to state the extent to which they would accede to the client's requ est. Subjects were also administered Rotter's Locus of Control Scale a nd the Defining Issues Test (DIT) to measure ethical reasoning. Analys es of the data using multiple regression found that ethical reasoning moderated the relationship between locus of control and the auditors' responses to accede to client's request in an audit conflict situation . An implication of these results is that the explicit recognition of both locus of control and ethical reasoning provides a better explanat ion for differences in auditors' ethical decision making.