Examining Climate and Culture in Audit Firms: Insights, Practice Implications, and Future Research Directions

April 15, 2021 - Lindsay Andiola

Citation: Andiola, L. M., D. H. Downey, K. D. Westermann. 2020. Examining Climate and Culture in Audit Firms: Insights, Practice Implications, and Future Research Directions. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory 39 (4): 1-29. doi: 10.2308/AJPT-19-107

Research Summary:

Although organizational climate and culture critically impact the effective functioning of any business enterprise, these concepts carry particular weight in auditing because of the unique tensions created by the audit firm’s status as both a regulated profession, and a for-profit organization that performs independent audits on behalf of the public interest. This paper applies the concepts of organizational climate and culture to auditing firms.  We also identify and synthesize organizational climate and culture findings in the current academic audit literature. Through our synthesis, we identify different ways that both firm climate and firm culture influence auditor behavior and audit quality in ways that have important implications for both audit firms and regulators.