The Effect of Relationship and Reward on Reports of Wrongdoing.
通过实验和专家访谈，研究了审计师与客户人员的关系强度以及不当行为的受益者如何影响举报可能性，发现强关系增加举报，而受益者身份无显著影响。
Abstract Failure to detect fraud results in serious consequences for external auditors. Increasingly, professional guidance and evidence point to the importance that communication plays in detecting fraud. The research reported in this paper investigated several auditing experts' propositions about communication's role in detecting fraud: (1) communication from client personnel is important in detecting fraud; (2) the likelihood of receiving sensitive communications from client personnel is heavily dependent on the strength of the relationship between the auditor and the person knowledgeable of any wrongdoing; and (3) the willingness to communicate is influenced by the knowledge- able person's understanding of who might be benefited by the wrongful act-the perpetrator, the organization to which the perpetrator belongs, or both. This last matter is relevant to reporting on management fraud because the fraud often involves (at least) short-term benefit to the perpetrator, the company, and the knowledgeable observer. The experts' suggestions and previous research related to communication of wrong- doing resulted in our securing input from 20 highly experienced partners. Five partners served as expert consultants prior to execution of a controlled experiment which used auditing students. The other 15 participated in telephone interviews to establish a check on our experts' perceptions. The experiment examined two propositions: (1) strength of relationship between an observer of wrongdoing and a potential report recipient affects the likelihood that the wrongdoing will be reported, and (2) the likelihood of a report on the wrongdoing is impacted by who will benefit from the misdeed. The appropriateness of using a student setting is discussed. The experimental results, which came exclusively from students, indicated that stronger relationships between the observer of wrongdoing and the potential report recipient resulted in more reports. The results showed no relationship between the beneficiary of the wrongdoing and the frequency of reports. Partners' experiences and perceptions clearly support the experimental variables' relevance to the external audit environment and the importance of communication. In particular, their collective experiences and perceptions support the proposition that the stronger the relationship between the auditor and client personnel, the greater the likelihood of receiving a report about sensitive matters related to the financial statements.