Multi-Auditor Judgment and Decision-Making: Some Evidence on the Impact of Gender

24 Pages Posted: 26 Aug 2009 Last revised: 13 Dec 2012

See all articles by Kris Hardies

Kris Hardies

University of Antwerp

Diane Breesch

Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Joël Branson

Vrije Universiteit Brussel VUB

Date Written: December 10, 2012

Abstract

Most audit fieldwork is not conducted by a single auditor but by a team of auditors. Researchers have, however, focused heavily on the judgment and decision-making of individual auditors, ignoring the multi-person reality in which auditors have to make judgments and decisions. This study contributes to the literature by examining the performances of mixed and same-sex dyads on a group assignment for a course ‘Financial Statement Analysis and Auditing’. In this quasi-experimental setting, we found a significant association between group performances and sex composition with mixed dyads performing best, followed by all-male dyads, and then all-female dyads. It is suggested that these findings are the result of the prescriptive nature of gender stereotypes activated by the masculine nature of auditing/accounting in general and the task at hand in particular.

Keywords: Multi-Auditor Judgment, Audit Teams, Audit Groups, Group Research, Sex, Gender

JEL Classification: C92, J16, M42

Suggested Citation

Hardies, Kris and Breesch, Diane and Branson, Joël, Multi-Auditor Judgment and Decision-Making: Some Evidence on the Impact of Gender (December 10, 2012). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1461465 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1461465

Kris Hardies (Contact Author)

University of Antwerp ( email )

Department of Accounting and Finance
Pleinlaan 13
Antwerp, 2000
Belgium

Diane Breesch

Vrije Universiteit Brussel ( email )

Pleinlaan 2
Brussels, Brussels 1050
Belgium

Joël Branson

Vrije Universiteit Brussel VUB ( email )

Pleinlaan 2
Brussels, 1050
Belgium

HOME PAGE: http://www.vub.ac.be/es

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