Emotional intelligence as a key driver of the formation of professional scepticism in auditors

South African Journal of Business Management

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Emotional intelligence as a key driver of the formation of professional scepticism in auditors
 
Creator Cilliers, Sonja
 
Subject — professional scepticism; auditor emotional intelligence; audit failure; auditor behaviour; auditor performance; auditor communication; auditor independence; corporate failure
Description Purpose: Litigation against auditors has augmented as the number of corporate failures increased over the past decades. A failure to exercise professional scepticism has been cited as one of the main contributing factors to audit failure. This research establishes a link between professional scepticism and emotional intelligence (EI). Credence is given to the design of interventions promoting the development of auditor EI with the view of combating the incidence of audit failure.Design/methodology/approach: A sample of United States (US) judicial opinions was examined where professional scepticism of auditors was considered. A dual coding system was applied where process elements of professional scepticism and components of emotional intelligence were identified and linked.Findings/results: A significant overlap between elements of professional scepticism and facets of emotional intelligence was indicated, especially those of self-assessment, conscientiousness, organisational awareness, communication skills, leadership and managing influence.Practical implications: Emotional intelligence competencies become part of the resources available to the auditor, which may be used to exercise their professional scepticism. Interventions designed to enhance auditor emotional intelligence may positively impact the levels of professional scepticism demonstrated, ultimately aiding in lowering the incidence of audit failure.Originality/value: This research offers a new process perspective of professional scepticism which has been adapted from the works of seminal authors in the field. Using the data sample, the incidences of overlap between emotional intelligence and the process steps of professional scepticism are identified and categorised within this framework. This research contributes to the body of empirical research on emotional intelligence in the auditing field.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2023-05-23
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajbm.v54i1.3654
 
Source South African Journal of Business Management; Vol 54, No 1 (2023); 15 pages 2078-5976 2078-5585
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/3654/2488 https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/3654/2489 https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/3654/2490 https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/3654/2491
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2023 Sonja Cilliers https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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