A Study of the Effect of the Audit Partner’s Perceived Support on the Neutrality-Oriented and Skepticism-Based Approaches in Professional Skepticism and the Auditor’s Behavioral Outcomes

Professional skepticism in auditing is a very important topic that refers to the application of a degree of auditors' professional care within the framework of the audit standards and based on an objective assessment of the evidence provided by their clients. Indeed, it facilitates high quality professional judgment and provides stakeholders with more reliable information. The present study is primarily concerned with scrutinizing the impact of the audit partner’s perceived support the neutrality-oriented and skepticism-based approaches in professional skepticism and the auditor’s behavioral outcomes. An audit partner’s perceived support accounts for the audit partners’ role in supporting auditors’ professional skepticism and promotes the quality of the information under investigation. The statistical population of the study includes the auditors of Audit Organization and private audit firms, which have been randomly selected. The research employs a questionnaire sent to 294 auditors. This research was carried out during the first 6 months of 2018 and The Partial Least Square model is adopted to test the research hypotheses. The results reveal that audit partner’s perceived support has a negative and significant effect on the auditors’ skepticism-based perspective, whereas it has a significantly positive effect on the auditors’ neutrality-oriented attitude. The findings also suggest that audit partner’s perceived support positively influences the professional skepticism with organizational perceived support. Finally, audit partner’s perceived support positively affects citizenship behavior and behavioral commitment, though it intensifies the negative impact of organizational perceived support with auditors’ substitution. These findings significantly enhance auditors’ technical and behavioral performances regarding both their perceptual or internal states and audit partners’ supports as this leads to better understanding of auditors’ internal needs as well as promoting the dynamic relationship between audit partners and auditors to improve audit quality.