Can Being Too Detail Focused be Detrimental?

• In Event: Audit I

Abstract

I investigate the impact that an individual’s level of action identification has on his or her level of professional skepticism. First, this study will determine whether a scale for measuring one’s inherent level of action identification, the Behavior Identification Form (BIF), is associated with assessments of professional skepticism obtained from a hypothetical auditing scenario. Specifically, this study will examine professional skepticism in the context of an auditor’s susceptibility to managerial influence. Second, a method established in the literature for enhancing one’s level of action identification will be explored in order to evaluate whether the associated techniques could also be effective in enhancing one’s level of professional skepticism. If measures of action identification level are positively correlated with measures of professional skepticism, then one would expect that a method for enhancing one’s action identification level should also be effective in enhancing one’s level of professional skepticism. Similarly, one would also expect that a method for decreasing one’s action identification level would also reduce one’s level of professional skepticism.

Author

• Michael N. Killey, University of Michigan Dearborn