ABSTRACT

This study identifies the ethical pathways of chief audit executive reporting lines that describe internal auditing relationships with different authorities in the organization (e.g. the board of directors, audit committee, chief executive officer, and chief financial officer). The literature has placed importance of these lines as determinants for the objectivity and independence of internal auditing. Recent studies have reported inconsistent findings regarding whether reporting to high authority is the optimal reporting line compared to reporting to low authority. For this reason, there is a need for further investigation. Thus, this study harnesses the strengths and weaknesses of three ethical pathways in a decision-making model (described as the Ethical Process Thinking Model). In this way, we provide an explanation of the complex situations of internal audit reporting line in reality. The findings highlight that individuals’ different perceptions and judgments, as well as information signals can lead to different reporting lines (decision choices). The three dominant ethical pathways (i.e. preference-based, rule-based and principle-based) advance the literature by providing a clearer picture for practitioners, researchers and regulators to facilitate independence and objectivity requirements.

摘要

这项研究确定了首席审计执行官报告路线的道德路径，这些路线描述了与组织中不同机构（例如董事会，审计委员会，首席执行官和首席财务官）之间的内部审计关系。文献已经将这些思路作为内部审计的客观性和独立性的决定因素。最近的研究报告了与向低权限报告相比，向高权限报告是否是最佳报告路线的不一致发现。因此，有必要进行进一步的研究。因此，本研究在决策模型（称为“道德过程思维模型”）中利用了三种道德途径的优缺点。通过这种方式，我们对现实中内部审计报告线的复杂情况进行了解释。调查结果突出表明，个人的不同看法和判断以及信息信号可能导致不同的报告方向（决策选择）。三种主要的道德途径（即基于偏好，基于规则和基于原则）通过为从业者，研究人员和监管者提供更清晰的图片以促进独立性和客观性要求而推动了文献的发展。