Effective Factors on Ethical Decision Making in Internal Audit

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Ehsan Rahmaninia 1
Ahmad Yaghobnezhad 2
1 Ph.D. Student of Accounting, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran
2 Department of Accounting , Central Tehran Branch ,Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran (Corresponding Author)
Abstract
Internal Audit is recognized as a value-added activity for organizations that, with an independent and impartial assessment of the governance system, risk management and internal controls, ensures a reasonable degree of effectiveness for the board of directors. Therefore, considering the decision-making process of internal auditors and especially the adoption of ethical decisions by them, it is important to consider the great effects that it has on its organization and management. Therefore, considering the importance of the issue and the need to pay attention to the ethical decisions of internal auditors, the present study addresses this issue.
The statistical population of the study is all internal auditors of the country. According to the amount of access to these individuals, 300 internal auditors were identified, 220 of them did not respond to questionnaires. Therefore, the final sample of the study consists of 80 internal auditors. In order to analyze the data obtained from the distribution of questionnaires among the members of the research sample, binary logistic regression analysis was used in EViews software.
The results of the research showed that the age of the internal auditor, the internal auditor's membership in the Iranian public accountants community, the gender of the internal auditor, the degree of ethics of the internal auditor's (ethical environment) and the organizational culture that is the field of internal auditor's activity can be empirically determined and the ethical implications of internal auditors are affected. Also, the findings indicate that those internal auditors who are more likely to think ahead and decide on future outcomes when they make decisions are more moral and ethical is the fact for them. As long as the internal auditors enjoy more freedom (less constraint) in their duties, they will have a more regrettable anticipation, and thus, in their decision-making they will pay more attention to ethical standards. Also, in examining the behavioral model of internal auditors, the results showed that internal auditors whose purposeful personality is targeted to ethical issues are more attention.
 
Keywords
Professional code of ethics
Ethical Decision Making
Internal Auditor
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