Obedience Pressure, Professional Ethics, Attitude of Skepticism and Independence Towards Audit Judgment

Abstract

This study investigates the interaction effects of obedience pressure, professional ethics, skepticism attitude, and auditor independence towards audit judgment taken by auditors. Total samples of fifty-four Masters of Accounting and Professional Program in Accounting students were provided with a set of questionnaire to see their perceptions of audit judgments. The sample was conducted by convenience sampling method. Analyses of the data using multiple regression found that obedience pressure, professional ethics, and auditor independence significantly affect audit judgment taken by auditors. While, skepticism attitude was not significantly affect audit judgment. We argue that this was because many of our respondents were not having experience as a real auditor so that they did not have audit knowledge well enough that may affect their judgments.

Moderating Role of Audit Fees on the Effect of Task Complexity and Independence towards Audit Judgment

“…Conversely, auditors who are unable to maintain their independence tend to produce inaccurate audit judgments. The results of this study support the results of previous studies conducted by Hamdani et al (2014), Shintya et al (2016), and Pratama et al (2018. The results of this study indicate that independence has a positive influence on audit judgment.…”

“…It causes a decrease in auditor independence, which in turn affects the auditor in making a judgment (Farooq et al, 2018). Some of the previous researchers who have tested the effect of task complexity and auditor independence on audit judgment are Sanusi et al (2018), Putu et al (2018), Muslim et al (2018), Hamdani et al (2014), andPratama et al 2018). This study only examines the effect of task complexity and auditor independence variables on audit judgment and whether audit fees moderate the effect of task complexity and auditor independence on audit judgment.…”

Professional Skepticism in Moderating the Relationship between Auditors’ Knowledge, Obedience Pressure, and Auditors’ Experience on Audit Judgment

“…The pressure also demands the auditors to work more carefully that no errors are found in the data and they tend to perform their best which will improve the accuracy of their judgment. Prior studies also found similar findings (Wibhawa et al, 2020;Surya & Dewi, 2019;Pratama et al, 2018;Sari & Ruhiyat, 2017;Tanoto & Suputra, 2017;Parastika & Wirawati, 2017;Ainayah et al, 2017;Agustini & Merkusiwati, 2016) that Obedience Pressure significantly affects Audit Judgment.…”

“…Professional Skepticism has been indeitified to share a significant effect on Audit Judgment. However, Pratama et al, (2018) did not find any effect of Professional Skepticism on Audit Judgment. This study was conducted as an attempt to empirically confirm the role of Professional Skepticism in moderating the influences of Auditor Knowledge, Obedience Pressure, and Auditor Experience on Government Internal Auditors' Audit Judgment.…”

“…A competent auditor has strong comprehension of an entity or organization being audited, enabling them to make quality audit judgment (Gracea et al, 2017). The second factor influencing Audit Judgment is Obedience Pressure (Wibhawa et al, 2020;Abdillah et al, 2020;Surya & Dewi, 2019;Pratama et al, 2018;Sari & Ruhiyat, 2017;Tanoto & Suputra, 2017;Parastika & Wirawati, 2017;Ainayah et al, 2017). Obedience pressure creates clashes related to auditor's integrity and independence that determines whether or not the auditor decides to violate the norms and values within the professional standards.…”