Audits in the Age of Interruptions: The Influence of Multitasking Behavior on Auditor Performance

• In Event: Auditor Judgment

Abstract

In an audit setting increasingly characterized by the need to multitask and deal with interruptions, research highlighting that multitasking is associated with poorer judgment performance is a cause for concern, Recognizing the importance of this issue, we examine whether auditors performing tasks in their professional domain are subject to the performance hindering consequences of multitasking that have been identified in other domains. Analyzing judgments made by practicing auditors in an experimental setting, we find that the requirement to multitask as a consequence of being interrupted leads to a deterioration in performance when assessing the risk of material misstatement. Encouragingly, we find that forewarning auditors of the impending interruption reverses most of the deterioration in performance associated with the requirement to multitask. Our results have important implications for audit firms in their attempts to deal with the challenges of an increasingly complex audit environment characterised by ongoing interruptions and the need to multitask.

Authors

• Sarah Yeonjeung Kim, The University of New South Wales

• Diane Michelle Mayorga, The University of New South Wales

• Noel James Harding, The University of New South Wales