Auditors’ Sensemaking During Crises: The Case of the COVID‐19 Pandemic in Italian Local Public Administrations
研究了新冠疫情如何促使意大利地方公共行政的审计师改变审计方式，从合规导向转向与市政合作，危机后又试图通过调整流程来重获独立性，对理解危机中审计角色演变有参考价值。
Crises such as COVID‐19 cause uncertainty that intensifies the pressure on public sector auditors, prompting them to question their established practices and routines. At the same time, stakeholders demand higher levels of assurance of public spending during crises. Using sensemaking as a theoretical framework, our paper explores how auditors changed the way they perform auditing activities in response to the uncertainty and instability stemming from the COVID‐19 crisis. Our qualitative survey of auditors of Italian municipalities shows that before the crisis auditors focused on compliance; however, in the face of time and information shortcomings as a result of the crisis, auditors collaborated more with municipalities. After the crisis, in an attempt to reclaim independence, auditors withdrew collaboration. At the same time, they imagined a different future in which they would implement auditing processes in a way that made clear their independence. The paper contributes to the literature on auditing by shedding light on how auditors make sense of their role and the activities performed during the main phases of crises. Moreover, it advances theoretical understanding by elucidating how sensemaking processes are developed throughout the main phases of a crisis. At a practical level, this study may help auditors envisage how to adjust their roles and activities at times of crisis in ways that maintain high audit quality levels.