The Effect of Professional Skepticism on Job Attitudes and Turnover Intentions within the Audit Profession

• In Event: Professional Skepticism

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of the two predominant perspectives of professional skepticism on critical job attitudes and turnover intentions within the auditing profession. Using a sample of 287 auditors, we find that the neutral perspective of professional skepticism is positively associated with both person-job fit and professional identification, which, in turn, lead to lower turnover intentions. In contrast, we find that the presumptive doubt perspective of professional skepticism is negatively associated with person-job fit and organizational trust, which, in turn, lead to higher turnover intentions. In total, our results suggest that the neutral perspective of professional skepticism has a positive effect on the career trajectory of audit professionals whereas the presumptive doubt perspective of professional skepticism has a negative effect on the career trajectory of audit professionals. Our results present a troubling dilemma for the auditing profession which has been criticized for lacking sufficient professional skepticism. That is, while presumptive doubt skeptics may help improve audit quality, especially in higher risk settings (Hurtt, Brown-Liburd, Earley, and Krishnamoorthy 2013; Quadackers, Groot, and Wright 2014), we find that presumptive doubt skeptics report lower levels of person-job fit, lower levels of organizational trust, and are less likely to remain within the auditing profession. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Authors

• Jeffrey R. Cohen, Boston College

• Derek W. Dalton, Clemson University

• Nancy Lee Harp, Clemson University