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The Identification and Categorization of Auditors’ Virtues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Theresa Libby  and
Linda Thorne
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Abstract:

In this paper, we develop a typology of auditors’ virtues through in-depth interviews with nine exemplars of the audit community. We compare this typology with prescribed auditors’ virtues as represented in the applicable Code of Professional Conduct. Our comparison shows that the Code places a primary emphasis on mandatory virtues including the virtues of “independent,” “objective,” and “principled.” While the non-mandatory virtues, which involve “going beyond the minimum” and “putting the public interest foremost,” were identified by our exemplars as essential to the auditor’s role, they received little or no emphasis in the Rules of Professional Conduct. We find this particularly alarming, given that the exemplars interviewed for this study viewed these virtues are essential to the auditors’ role. If the audit profession wishes to uphold public confidence by encouraging the possession of non-mandatory auditors’ virtues, our research suggests that non-mandatory auditors’ virtues should be explicitly described and included in rules of professional conduct.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , July 2004 , pp. 479 - 498
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2004

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