Coaching Today’s Auditors: What Causes Reviewers to Adopt a more Developmental Approach

Abstract

Audit workpaper review is a quality control mechanism intended to detect preparer errors in the short-term and professionally develop preparers in the long-term. In this study, we investigate two contextual factors that may motivate the reviewer’s review approach: the preparer’s office affiliation (local versus international) and the likelihood of preparer recurrence. We find that reviewers adopt a less developmental approach when reviewing workpapers completed by international preparers. We also observe that, regardless of office affiliation, reviewers are apt to adopt a more developmental approach when preparers are likely to recur. Results indicate that reviewers who adopt a more developmental approach exhibit greater coaching in their review comments, and that such efforts complement error detection in that reviewers are more likely to detect preparers’ errors. Taken together, our findings highlight the susceptibility of quality control efforts in the global audit environment and identifies recurrence as a potential intervention.

Keywords: global audit teams, international office, professional development, recur, review quality, workpaper review

JEL Classification: M40, M42