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This paper aims to propose and examine a pragmatic approach to minimizing auditors’ underreporting of time. Specifically, the study examines the effects of time budget pressure (TBP) and reported time use policy (RTUP) on time underreporting.

This paper uses a 2 × 2 between experimental design. The participants are 130 undergraduate accounting students and they completed a ratio-based task. The online experiment manipulated TBP and a RTUP.

This study shows a RTUP reduces time underreporting, especially when TBP is high.

This study is useful to audit firms because it provides a feasible solution to minimizing time underreporting.

Studies show that firm culture affects the dysfunctional behavior of time underreporting. Consequently, this study recommends that firms influence the culture around time reporting through an upfront communication of a use policy.

Studies on time underreporting exist, but formal studies on solutions to the issue are sparse. The authors propose a solution to the issue of time underreporting, which is a RTUP.

This study uses the ethical decision‐making model to examine underreporting and premature audit sign‐off in public accounting. Structural equation modelling results indicate that accountants view premature sign‐off activities differently from underreporting activities. For example, those accountants who use a teleological moral evaluation process, and who perceive a greater likelihood of reward are more likely to underreport. That these variables are not significantly related to the likelihood of premature sign‐off suggests that accountants may use a consequences‐based approach when making decisions having lesser ethical content (like underreporting), but employ a different decision process when faced with decisions having greater ethical content (like whether to prematurely sign‐off). The results also suggest that supervisors and managers are less likely to underreport, and to prematurely sign‐off, than senior and staff‐level accountants, and that accountants with an internal locus of control are less likely (than externals) to either underreport or prematurely sign‐off.

The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence on underreporting of time (URT) by audit partners and the factors that drive URT at their level. In particular the study tests the relationship between URT and the following variables: pressures perceived by auditors related to audit budgets, the ethical acceptability of URT, the influence of peers and superiors on the resolution of ethical conflicts, and organisational ethical culture. A deeper analysis of URT practices is necessary, as failing to correctly report the total hours worked by audit partners poses a threat to audit quality, and can have a detrimental effect on individual auditors, audit firms, and even the auditing profession itself.

A multiple regression data analysis was conducted, based on 84 responses from Spanish audit partners working in small- and medium-sized audit firms.

The results reveal that URT is affected by the pressures perceived by auditors related to audit budgets, the ethical acceptability of URT, and the influence of peers and superiors on the resolution of ethical conflicts.

This study contributes to international literature on the organisational context of audit firms by analysing URT from the perspective of audit partners. It also has practical implications, as it focuses on understanding the beliefs and behavioural patterns of audit partners, which is critical to proposing mechanisms for avoiding dysfunctional behaviour at all levels of audit firms.

The aim of the research is to investigate, using a field survey, the concept of underreporting of time (URT), from both an individual and organisational perspective as a defence mechanism for coping with time budget pressure.

Big Four audit partners and seniors are interviewed regarding the factors that motivate staff auditors to engage in manipulation of time records and the consequences of the behaviour for individual auditors and audit firms.

Findings indicate that time record manipulation is not a single type of activity as suggested previously, but includes a variety of behaviours, six of which are identified in the study. Each of these constitutes a very different type of defence mechanism, motivated by different influences and resulting in different outcomes for the individual and the organisation. The firms engage in a defence mechanism characterised by a series of mixed messages to avoid dealing with inherent cost/quality conflicts and elements of this mechanism become embedded in routine activities at different levels in the firms.

The implications for audit firms vary with the type of time record manipulation and future research therefore needs to concentrate on a closer examination of the various practices that make up URT as identified in this study.

The insights provided by the research are used to explain apparently conflicting arguments in the literature and to set out implications for research and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to address the impact of ethical culture on audit quality under conditions of time budget pressure. The study also tests the relationship between ethical culture and time budget pressure.

The study is based on a field survey of financial auditors employed by audit firms operating in Sweden.

The study finds relationships between three ethical culture factors and reduced audit quality acts. The ethical environment and the use of penalties to enforce ethical norms are negatively related to reduced audit quality acts, whereas the demand for obedience to authorities is positively related to reduced audit quality acts. Underreporting of time is not related to ethical culture, but is positively related to time budget pressure. Finally, the study finds a relationship between two ethical culture factors and time budget pressure, indicating a possible causal relationship, but ethical culture does not mediate an indirect effect of time budget pressure on reduced audit quality acts.

This is the first study to report the effect of ethical culture on dysfunctional auditor behavior using actual self‐reported frequencies of reduced audit quality acts and underreporting of time as data.

The research paper investigates auditors' dysfunctional behaviors in relation to performance appraisals. It explores the dysfunctional audit behavior (DAB) differences among experienced/inexperienced and male/female auditors when expecting performance appraisals, how their perception of DAB changes and how their reactive-outcomes vary.

The survey comprises statements pulled from performance appraisal templates used by the Big Four audit firms in the UK. The sample has been tested during two different periods to highlight variations in the perception of DAB.

Experienced auditors become more tolerant of DAB compared to their perception when they were inexperienced. Inexperienced male auditors are generally more accepting of DAB compared to their inexperienced female counterparts. Experienced female respondents continue to be less accepting of DAB.

The study associates performance appraisal procedures with DAB. The analysis examines the perception of dysfunctional behavior according to the level of experience auditors (males and females) accumulate over time.

This paper aims to identify differences in auditors’ behaviour who have undergone work-integrated learning (WIL) versus the classical accounting education.

In addition to the education factor, auditors’ perception is assessed in scenarios when facing time budget pressure and time deadline pressure. The gender factor is included to highlight any behavioural differences between male and female auditors. Senior auditors working at the Big Four firms in the UK have participated in this survey.

The results show, from an educational perspective, that traditional accounting program is perceived as a catalyst of dysfunctional audit behaviour in comparison to WIL program that demonstrated a higher degree of ethicality. Furthermore, the results identify male auditors as having more tendency to behaving dysfunctionally when compared to their female counterparts.

This paper goes beyond assessing auditors’ ethical actions under work-related stresses, to identifying the differences in their behaviour based on their academic background. It can be used as a tool for audit practitioners and accounting faculty by highlighting the factors leading to dysfunctional behaviour and trying to mitigate them.

The added value of the research paper is that it sheds light on one of the most issues faced by auditors and employees in general. Time pressures embedded in most businesses can harm organizations badly in relation to the behaviour of their employees.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the factors that may result in a high turnover rate of auditors in Macau. The factors considered include client importance, task complexity, time budget constraints, auditor independence and acceptance of dysfunctional behaviour by Macau's audit firms.

This study involved three stages. In the first stage, interviews were carried out with auditors from Big‐4 (seven interviewees) and local non‐Big‐4 firms (three interviewees) in Macau to investigate the reasons for the high turnover rate amongst auditors in Macau. They were asked to speculate about common explanatory factors. The second stage involved 141 auditors from Big‐4 and local non‐Big‐4 accounting firms who were asked to complete a questionnaire survey for the explanatory factors. A total of 135 usable questionnaires were included in the multiple regression data analysis. The third stage of research comprised follow‐up interviews aimed at learning more about the reasons for dysfunctional behaviour.

This research provides valuable information for audit firms in Macau and will potentially help them to reduce their turnover rate and identify the factors affecting dysfunctional behaviour amongst auditors. The results extend the literature by focusing on the effect of perceived responsibility on professional responses to time budget pressures, task complexity, pressure from clients, and professional and ethical issues.

The challenge facing auditors today is to expand their auditing practices and evolve standards for adequately monitoring the operations of business entities. The current high turnover rate alarms audit firms, which are concerned with training and the provision of sufficient resources to solve the problems that auditors face in the workplace.

This is the first paper to examine the reason for turnover intentions in Macau. This study sheds light on the factors that contribute to individual auditor differences in the acceptance of dysfunctional behaviour that may result from the stressful nature of their duties.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that aims to present a comprehensive view of the auditing ethics literature by unboxing 40 years of efforts in the field.

This study combined bibliometric, social network and content analysis by analyzing 114 articles published in accounting and top business ethics journals on the Web of Science database from 1980 to 2021.

The results show a rising interest in this topic and reveal auditors’ ethical decision-making and moral reasoning as the most discussed topics in the literature. The work also clusters the literature according to keywords and scopes, identifying literature gaps and suggesting new avenues for future research.

The research results assist provide an overarching image of the auditing ethics field. In addition, these results draw possible future avenues to bridge the void in the current auditing ethics literature by presenting indispensable directions for potential research. For example, future research could pay more attention to whistleblowing, fraud, personal auditor characteristics, auditor ethical sensitivity, auditor ethical conflict, ethical climate and underreporting of time. Moreover, the rapidly changing business environment necessitates the auditing ethics research to move to more practical implications to mitigate previous mistakes and avoid any future risks.

All crises are an ideal breeding ground to motivate fraud and audit failures. In fact, auditing ethics research has been subordinated to the different economic crises. However, despite increasing awareness of the topic’s relevance, no comprehensive study focuses on auditing ethics literature. Now, the devastating effects of the COVID-19 crisis are producing a new wave of financial distresses and avoiding former mistakes is timelier than ever. With this novel and integrated approach, this work goes one step forward, developing a comprehensive picture of the auditing ethics literature.

Financial reporting decisions are influenced by environmental and individual factors. One environmental factor is the example set by management. Research has shown that the tone at the top is related to financial reporting decisions. However, this does not take into consideration that ethical cues from an employee's supervisor might also be relevant. On an individual basis, people who make unethical financial reporting decisions do not appear to be bad or evil people. So, why do these seemingly “good” people make these decisions? The theory of self-concept maintenance (Mazar et al., 2008) posits that individuals balance the desire to gain by behaving unethically with the desire to maintain a positive self-image by behaving ethically. How one balances these is based on one's ability to rationalize an action as honest, with decisions seen as having an ethical component being more difficult to rationalize. Findings indicate that having one person in a leadership position demonstrate a commitment to ethical behavior is related to more ethical financial reporting decisions, whether that person is at the top or closer to the middle. Additionally, a strong tone at the top is related to perceiving a situation is an ethical dilemma while a strong tune in the middle is not. Last, the authors find that a stronger perception that a situation is an ethical dilemma is associated with more ethical financial reporting decisions when the tune in the middle is controlled for, but not when the tone at the top is controlled for.