Planning an international audit : an empirical investigation of internal auditor judgment

Abstract

Previous research on auditor judgment has concentrated on the judgments made by external (independent) auditors in a variety of settings. In contrast to those studies, the research reported in this dissertation investigates the judgments made by internal auditors during the preliminary planning process for an international internal audit assignment. Specifically, this research examines judgments regarding estimations of the time budgets necessary to satisfactorily complete various international internal audit assignments (cases). Initially, the information factors perceived by internal auditors as most important to the preliminary audit planning process for an international assignment are identified. Next, the usage of these information factors by professional internal audit managers is empirically examined. This examination is performed by analyzing the auditors' responses to several representative assignments (cases). Three measures of auditor judgment consistency are examined in this dissertation. First, the degree of judgment consensus among auditors is evaluated. Second, each auditor's self-insight into his judgment process is evaluated. This concerns the consistency between the auditors' perceptions of the importance of information factors and their actual utilizations of the information factors. Third, the stability of each auditor's judgments is examined. This dissertation shows that there are substantial differences in the ways various internal auditors use information in planning international internal audit assignments.