(De)Motivating Employee Helping Behavior in Audit Teams

• In Event: Audit Firm Culture

Abstract

Due to the nature of an audit as a team activity, auditors are often expected to assist on activities beyond those assigned to themselves when they have the capacity and ability to do so. To encourage this behavior, audit firms employ recognition programs, however they are frequently not utilized as intended. Through the lens of the Dark Triad personality, we investigate how a non-utilized recognition program, compared to no recognition program, can impact helping behavior. Based on psychological contract theory, we predict inconsistent use of recognition programs will lead to a psychological contract breach for Dark Triad individuals leading to a decrease in helping behavior for these individuals, compared to when no recognition program in place. Contrarily, lower Dark Triad auditors are not expected to experience a breach by the non-utilization of a recognition program, and thus, we expect their behavior will not vary whether a firm employs a recognition program that is not utilized or does not employ a program. In support of our hypotheses, we find when a firm has a recognition program in place that is not consistently applied, compared to when no recognition program is in place, higher Dark Triad individuals decrease helping behavior, while no difference in helping behavior is observed for lower Dark Triad individuals. This evidence provides practical implications for firms who seek to encourage helping behavior for their employees by suggesting they ought to promote utilization when applying these programs so as to avoid demotivating higher Dark Triad employees.

Authors

• Kristen Thompson, University of South Carolina

• Sarah Judge, Indiana University