SUMMARY: Accounting research finds that auditors perform better when they are required to account for their actions to a superior. However, this research assumes that the auditor is accountable to one superior, when in practice auditors are accountable to multiple parties who may have multiple performance preferences. In this study, I experimentally examine whether the multiple accountabilities inherent in the audit environment cause auditors to experience negative affect and how negative affect impacts performance on both a low- and high-complexity audit task. I find that when auditors are accountable to multiple superiors they experience significantly more negative affect than when accountable to one superior. In addition, I find that increased negative affect can harm low-complexity audit task performance.
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1 November 2010
Research Article|
November 01 2010
Negative Affect: A Consequence of Multiple Accountabilities in Auditing
Online ISSN: 1558-7991
Print ISSN: 0278-0380
American Accounting Association
2010
AUDITING: A Journal of Practice & Theory (2010) 29 (2): 141–157.
Citation
Penelope Lee Bagley; Negative Affect: A Consequence of Multiple Accountabilities in Auditing. AUDITING: A Journal of Practice & Theory 1 November 2010; 29 (2): 141–157. https://doi.org/10.2308/aud.2010.29.2.141
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