The Role of Ethical Leadership, Professional Identity and Organizational Identity in Whistleblowing Intention about Misconduct by Independent Auditors'

Ethical leadership is one of the new Approaches that has been considered after the moral scandal and bankruptcy of organizations in the present century. Ethical leadership as a demonstration of normative appropriate behavior through conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers and Also, professional and organizational identity as components that align the norms, objectives and values of auditors with the profession and organization, can be effective in Whistleblowing Intention auditors as a mechanism to prevent and detect unethical behaviors and wrongdoing in the audit profession. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of ethical leadership, professional identity and organizational identity on whistleblowing by independent auditors. The statistical population of the study includes independent auditors working in private and public sector audit firms in 2020, which 441 were selected as the final sample. Data were collected through a questionnaire and analyzed using structural equations using LISREL software. Findings of this study show that ethical leadership has a positive and significant effect on auditorsch whistleblowing intention directly and due to professional identity and organizational identity. According to the results of this study, the implementation of ethical leadership and strengthening professional identity and organizational identity increases whistleblowing intention in the audit profession, and this issue will reduce misconduct in auditing firms. The present study can lead to more attention to the issue of whistleblowing, the importance of ethics in managers, appropriate ethical behavior to whistleblowing and reduce misconduct in the auditing profession in Iran.