Thematic analysis of factors affecting auditors’ professional identity based on the perspectives of Iranian association of certified public accountants' audits

Psychology and auditing are considered two scientific domains, having crossed each other’s borders and overlapping in many aspects. An awareness of psychological biases, as a factor influencing the success of financial decisions, as well as a study on the impact of emotions, feelings, and auditors’ personal traits, have gained significance in making financial decisions. This significance is to the extent that the interdisciplinary scholars in both accounting and psychology fields have increasingly acknowledged the role of personality traits, temperament, and emotions in making decisions. In any auditing task, the audits are to employ their own personal characteristics, i.e. the kind of traits rooted in internal elements (e.g. thoughts, values, and hereditary traits) and external elements, being influential in the development of individual audit professional identity. Conducting quality auditing requires human resources to possess identity. Possession of professional identity leads to heightened auditing quality as well as higher auditor success in a highly competitive environment. The main purpose of this study is to identify factors influencing auditors’ professional identity from the viewpoint of audits who are a member of the Iranian Association of Certified Public Accountants (IACPA hereafter). Under a qualitative approach and with the help of interview protocol, this study collected the required data from ۲۷ members of IACPA who are acting as partners and technical managers of auditing institutes. Based on the study findings, the factors influencing auditors’ professional identity have been categorized under four main themes including superior mental capabilities, psychological traits, personality traits, and features of the auditing institutes, expectations and challenges, and eventually promotion of audits’ professional identity status. The results of this study may contribute to the expansion of the study’s thematic literature and may result in the promotion of the audit profession’s status. Moreover, the results can be applied for the elimination of the contemporary challenges evident in the audit profession nationwide.

کلیدواژه ها:

auditors’ professional identity ، Iranian Association of Certified Public Accountants (IACPA) ، the auditing profession