Audit quality threatening behaviours: perceptions of auditees

Abstract

Previous research has found that audit staff engage in audit quality threatening behaviours (QTB). Auditee personnel interact with audit staff during fieldwork, and their perceptions of QTB are reported in this paper. Interview findings reveal that auditees (particularly those with previous audit experience) perceive themselves as being in a position to detect some shortcomings in audit work; however, few consequences were perceived as arising from the behaviours and they reported a general reluctance to report the behaviours externally, should they be detected. Implications of the findings and areas for future research are discussed in the paper.