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This paper analyses the internal auditor's role from a perspective which emphasises the pluralist nature of organisational life. The internal auditor operates in organisational contexts where norms and values are at best only partially shared, and where the auditor's formal concern for improved efficiency and control of resource use may be viewed with varying degrees of favour. The pluralist nature of organisational life reflects itself in day‐to‐day strains, tensions and conflicts between internal auditors and auditees, which cannot be eliminated through traditional “Human Relations” approaches to organisational problems. There are inherent conflicts between audit and other organisational roles, and also insofar as its modern conception is concerned, within the internal auditor's role itself.

This paper aims to examine the perceptions of auditor roles on the workpaper review process in current audit practice. Specifically, the paper investigates how an auditor’s defined role leads to perceived differences in what initiates the workpaper review process, the preferred methods for performing reviews and the stylization or framing of communicated review comments.

A survey was administered in which practicing auditors were asked about workpaper review process prompts, methods and preferences. The survey was completed by 215 auditors from each of the Big 4 accounting firms and one additional international firm. The final data set consists of quantitative and qualitative responses from 25 audit partners, 33 senior managers, 30 managers, 75 in-charge auditors/seniors and 52 staff auditors.

Findings indicate reviewers and preparers differ in their perceptions of the review process based on their defined roles. First, reviewers and preparers differ in their perspectives on which factors initiate the review process. Second, the majority of reviewers and preparers prefer face-to-face communication when discussing review notes. Reviewers, however, are more likely to believe the face-to-face method is an effective way to discuss review notes and to facilitate learning, whereas preparers prefer the method primarily because it reduces back-and-forth communication. Finally, reviewers believe they predominantly provide conclusion-based review notes, whereas preparers perceive review notes as having both conclusion- and documentation-based messages.

This paper advances the academic literature by providing a unique perspective on the review process. Instead of investigating a single staff level, it examines the workpaper review process on a broader scale. By obtaining views from professionals across all levels, this work intends to inspire future research directed at reconciling differences and filling gaps in the review process literature. The finding that reviewers and preparers engage in role conformity that leads to incongruent perceptions of the review process should encourage the consideration of mechanisms, with the potential to be tested experimentally, by which to reconcile the incongruities.

Results support recent regulator concerns that there are breakdowns in the workpaper review process, and the findings provide some insight into why these breakdowns are occurring. Incongruent perceptions of review process characteristics may be the drivers of these identified regulatory concerns.

This is the first study to examine current workpaper review processes at the largest accounting firms from the perspective of both preparers and reviewers. From this unique data set, one key interpretation of the findings is that workpaper preparers do not appear to recognize a primary goal of the review process: to ensure that subordinates receive appropriate coaching, learning and development. However, workpaper reviewers do, in fact, attempt to support preparers and work to create a supportive team environment.

This paper presents an account of a project which involved an analysis of the problems which were likely to be encountered in expanding the advisory aspect of the internal role within a large local authority. The project was conducted on behalf of Internal Audit by the Behavioural Science Unit, an internal consultancy group operating within the authority. The latter use concepts and frameworks taken from behavioural science for the conduct of their work. There were two main phases to the project. One was an examination of the role of the auditor within the authority. Particular emphasis was given to the elaboration of the policing and advisory aspects of the role in order to assess any difficulties in their compatibility. The second phase involved the collection of information from the auditor's clients, their potential clients, and from other service groups within the authority likely to be affected by an expanded audit role. The paper stresses the need to take account of the client's perceptions of the expanded role and emphasises their relevance in determining the extent to which the expansion will succeed.

This paper aims to investigate how the roles, characteristics, expectations and evaluation practices of audit committees have adapted to regulatory change and what practices are most conducive to effective audit committees.

This paper uses semi-structured interviews with audit committee chairs and chief audit executives.

While new regulation is a primary driver of changes in the roles of audit committees, the audit committee’s role has evolved beyond regulatory requirements. Audit committees are taking a more active role in organisational governance and performance in key areas such as risk management. However, while audit committees have a clear concept of what characteristics committee members require, conceptual frameworks and mechanisms for evaluating the performance of committees and their members remain underdeveloped.

The responses of audit committees in Australia to broader regulatory trends suggest that more research is required into how audit committees function in practice, and into developing new frameworks for evaluating the committees’ performance. This paper provides an in-depth exploration of key areas of audit committee performance, and identifies aspects that might be further investigated.

The paper identifies key attributes of effective audit committees and especially the characteristics of audit committee members. The paper also identifies a need to improve – and in many cases create – performance evaluation frameworks and mechanisms. Given the international regulatory trend towards greater reliance on audit committees to improve governance, more policy attention is required on developing guidelines and assessment processes that evaluate whether audit committees are fulfilling their legislative mandate in practice.

The paper contributes to the relatively new and more specific discussion on reviewing and evaluating the performance of the board and its subcommittees.

The purpose of this study is to explore the internal audit actors and stakeholders' perceptions of the IA status in Iranian companies, and those actors and stakeholders' roles in shaping the current situation of IA in Iran.

This paper uses the interpretive qualitative method. Data comprises of semi-structured interviews with board of directors, audit committees, chief executive officers and chief audit executives. The paper analyzes internal audit policy documents, reports and legislations.

The results illustrate that the internal audit in Iran is perceived as a “perfunctory” practice among its stakeholders due to being recognized as an inefficient process. The key actors and stakeholders in internal audit process–including executive and board managers, audit committee members and chief audit executives–play important roles in shaping the current status of internal audit via their perceptions and actions.

The fact that internal audit in Iran is perceived as an inefficient process and is used as a perfunctory practice highlights the importance of addressing this issue at the standardization and regulation level. The deficits in the roles of key actors and stakeholders need to be considered as the legislative guide in different levels.

Prior studies mostly focus on the role of internal audit in organizations. In contrast, this study focuses on the role of key actors and stakeholders of internal auditing process in shaping the current perceived role of internal audit in organizations. Also, the study examines an emerging economy, which differs from advanced economies in important ways, including regulations, organizational culture, internal control structure and internal audit.

Taking a cognitive perspective of internal auditor independence, the purpose of this study is to develop measures for the concepts of commitment to independence, role conflict and role ambiguity in the context of the internal auditor's work environment, in order to provide evidence of the effects of role conflict and ambiguity, and their sub‐dimensions, on the internal auditor's commitment to independence.

To measure these concepts, scales are developed for a questionnaire by drawing on measures established in the organizational behavior literature and adapting these to the internal auditor's context. The questionnaire is sent to a sample of internal auditors drawn from the database of the Institute of Internal Auditors Malaysia in which listed companies with an in‐house internal audit function are extracted. There are 101 useable responses.

The results reveal that both role ambiguity and role conflict are significantly negatively related to commitment to independence. The underlying dimensions found to have the greatest impact on commitment to independence are: first, ambiguity in both the exercise of authority by the internal auditor and time pressure faced by the internal auditor; and second, conflict between the internal auditor's personal values and both management's and their profession's expectations and requirements.

The results extend the literature on internal auditor independence and provide insights for auditing standards setters and corporate governance designers.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the silence of internal auditors. To this end, the impacts of the perceived climate of silence, professional commitment, independence commitment, role conflict and role ambiguity on internal auditor silence have been investigated. Furthermore, the effects of role conflict and role ambiguity through independence commitment on internal auditor silence were investigated.

The statistical population of the study consisted of Iranian internal auditors in 2021. The study used a self-administered survey of 217 internal auditors. In this research, a hierarchical component model in the partial least squares structural equation modeling analysis was used to examine the hypotheses.

The results of testing the hypotheses indicated that the perceived climate of silence and role ambiguity have positive effects, and professional commitment and independence commitment have negative effects on internal auditor silence. Furthermore, role conflict has an insignificant effect on internal auditor silence. In addition, role conflict and role ambiguity affect the internal auditor silence through the independence commitment.

This study examined the factors affecting the internal auditor silence by combining the construct of the perceived climate of silence that has been previously discussed in the field of management with the professional (professional commitment and independence commitment) and role (role conflict and role ambiguity) factors that are discussed in the internal audit profession. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that examines the factors affecting internal auditor silence behavior. The importance of conducting this study is that it investigates a phenomenon among internal auditors that conflicts with the mission and origin of internal audit.

This study aims to determine the direct and mediating effects of time pressure, work–family conflict, role ambiguity, work stress and audit quality reduction behavior.

The sample selection in this research is done by purposive sampling method based on the criteria specified by the researcher. In addition, random sample selection does not necessarily produce a sample that can represent auditors at all levels and types of Kantor Akuntan Publik (KAP). This research uses quantitative analysis with approach of structural equation modeling (SEM) method to analyze direct and indirect effect. The main method for data analysis is SEM.

Based on the results of the research note that time pressure, work–family conflict and role ambiguity each have a significant effect on work stress. In testing the direct effect on audit quality reduction behavior, only time pressure influential significant, while work–family conflict and role ambiguity not significant. However, in the test of indirect influence/influence of mediation, there is a significant influence on all tests that time pressure, work–family conflict and role ambiguity each have a significant effect on audit quality reduction behavior through work stress.

The originality of this paper is in SEM used by involving new variable which is work–family conflict. The research location is public accounting offices (KAP) in Indonesia.

Aims to examine the New Zealand internal auditor role and conceptualise on the auditor's influence over that role. At its heart lies the question of how an effective internal auditor can overcome the tension of working with management to improve performance while also remaining sufficiently distant from management in order to report on their performance.

An Eisenhardt‐inspired multiple case‐based approach in which the researcher made observations, examined documents and interviewed senior internal auditors in six New Zealand organisations.

Three concepts characteristic of those who best balanced their role: the internal auditor's external professional status, the presence of a formal and informal communication network, and the internal auditor's place in determining their own role. Informing these concepts is the auditor's ability to manage ambiguity.

Limitations of the research include those typical of qualitative study generally and that it is less objectively‐measured; however, compensating procedures suggested by Eisenhardt (1989) are employed. Further study could explore each source of influence in more detail and in different contexts, and examine the framework's application elsewhere. Gender studies may be of value.

Results reveal how independence dilemmas are addressed by those internal auditors who are most successful in balancing their sometimes conflicting professional role.

An original contribution is the conceptualisation of the internal auditor's role as both an independent evaluator of and consultant to management.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the current practices of internal auditors in banks in Jordan regarding risk management, especially the risks they are most involved in dealing with, the nature of their responses in the presence of these risks, and appropriateness (according to the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), 2009a) of these responses.

A questionnaire surveyed views of internal auditors about their roles in risk management. It asked about 20 different types of risks, and, for each individual risk, how internal auditors would respond in its presence.

The role of internal auditors in risk management in banks in Jordan was found to be limited. The risks that internal auditors were most involved in managing were those related to compliance, while the risks least dealt with by internal auditors included those related to the Jordanian economy and culture. Also, most of the respondents reported that they did undertake some inappropriate roles in dealing with the risks.

The findings suggest the possibility that internal auditors are not aware of the importance of several types of risks and of the appropriate roles for internal auditors in risk management. Therefore, increasing awareness of these issues is very important.

The research topic is relatively new and very under-researched in the Jordanian environment. This study is therefore likely to significantly contribute to the knowledge about how internal auditing operates in a developing country context that differs significantly from the contexts where professional internal auditing standards were issued.