Study of Whistleblowing Intention of Independent Auditors about misconduct: An Application of Theory of Planned Behavior

In response to recent financial scandals around the world and also financial corruptions in Iran, researchers have been looking for a way to prevent recurring such events. Whistleblowing is proposed as one of the most important monitoring mechanisms in preventing corruption and financial scandals. Whistleblowing means reporting misconduct to responsible authorities. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the Whistleblowing about organizational misconduct by using the Theory of Planned Behavior between independent auditors working in the audit institutions and Audit organization. To achieve this goal, 372 questionnaires were collected in 2018 and tested and also Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses of the research. The results of the research showed that the variables of the Theory of Planned Behavior include attitude toward Whistleblowing, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control have direct and significant influence on the Whistleblowing. Therefore, the Theory of Planned Behavior is a suitable theory for explaining the Whistleblowing in independent auditors.