Relationship between the Conflict of Interest and Ethical Decision Making in Auditors with Moderate role of Ethical Judgment: A Combination of Social Cognitive Theory and Throughput Model of Decision-Making

The purpose of this study is to survey the relationship between the conflict of interest and ethical decision making in auditors with the moderate role of ethical judgment with a combination of social cognitive theory and throughput model of decision-making. Social cognition theory refers to environmental effects on individuals. The throughput model of decision-making also examines the factors influencing decision-making.

In this study, by combining the mentioned approaches and using the "stimulus-organism-response" model, the research topic was investigated. This research is an applied and descriptive-correlational study and its population include various auditors in the country, 170 of whom were selected using simple random sampling in 2020. Structural equation analysis and Smart PLS software were used to test the hypotheses.

Findings showed that there is a negative and significant relationship (40%) between the conflict of interest and moral decision making. Also, increasing conflict of interest reduces moral judgment (50%) and decreasing moral judgment reduces the level of moral decision-making (51%). In general, there is a negative relationship between conflict of interest and moral decision-making, which is reduced in the presence of moral judgment, due to its positive effect on moral decision-making.

 Research findings confirm the importance of psychological and behavioral factors should be given more attention.