Investigating the Effect of Auditors’ Work Stress on Audit Quality by Emphasizing the Moderating Role of Initial Audit Engagement for New Clients

Abstract

Introduction: An audit is a tense process associated with emotional reactions and mental states toward work environment, weather conditions, time pressure, workload, etc., expecting to impact the professional performance of the auditors and the quality of financial statements examination of companies. Method: This study is a quasi-experimental and it is considered as an analytical and applied study regarding its purpose and implications. The statistical population of the research consisted of the companies listed on Tehran stock exchange and the sample included 104 companies selected over 2012-2016 due to considering the limitations. Regression is used to test the research hypotheses. Results: Auditors’ work stress has a negative and significant effect on audit quality. Also, the moderating role of initial audit engagement of a new client’s financial statementsreinforces the impact of auditors’ work stress on audit quality negatively. Conclusion: The results of this research indicate the impact of auditor's stress as an internal measure of each auditor on the quality of examining the financial statements by auditors. As a result, reviewing and focusing on the auditors’ internal stresses as a code of conduct should be addressed by regulatory bodies to increase the ability to rely on the financial statements for investors and shareholders.

Keywords

• audit quality
• auditors’ work stress
• initial audit engagement for a new client