Internal auditor reports a fraud: Courage and pressure

Abstract: The purpose of the study is to examine whether internal auditors have the courage to report audit findings and fraud when they are under pressure and unpleasant situations. We used the experiment with 107 participants who were internal auditors from various companies. Participants were divided randomly into two groups with different treatments. The first group was given the low-pressure treatment by giving information that the company’s top management has good integrity and is open to every aspiration, and organizational culture is clean and free of corruption. Meanwhile, the second group was given high-pressure treatment in the form of information that the company's top management is firm and happy when all subordinates carry out their instructions and directions. The results show that the pressure influences auditors' courage to report fraud findings. Internal auditors with a low pressure are more willing to report indications of fraud than internal auditors with high pressure. Furthermore, the pressure will not impact reporting issues other than fraud. We found no difference in the reporting number of audit findings under low- or high-pressure conditions.

How to cite this paper

 Rosdini, D., Mita, A & Setyaningrum, D. (2021). Internal auditor reports a fraud: Courage and pressure.Accounting, 7(7), 1813-1818.

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