The Effect of Moral Reasoning, Exposure to Ethics and Perceived Ethical Climate on Auditors' Ethical Judgment

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of ethical reasoning, exposure to ethics, and the perceived ethical climate on auditors' ethical judgment. The statistical population of this research includes the partners of audit institutions that are members of the Certified Public Accountants Society (independent auditors working as partners), and to investigate the issue, 88 people were selected as a sample from among the members of the society using Cochran's formula. Structural equation modeling has been used to test the research hypotheses. The results of the hypothesis test showed that ethical reasoning, exposure to ethics, and the perceived ethical climate have a positive and significant effect on auditors' ethical judgment. Among the investigated factors, moral reasoning has the greatest impact, and the perceived moral atmosphere has the least effect on the ethical judgment of auditors. People can provide moral arguments according to their knowledge of moral principles and processes. On the other hand, the development of ethics as well as how to teach it can help auditors make ethical decisions when choosing different options. Also, the more ethically auditors perceive their organization's atmosphere, the more ethically they act in applying professional judgments. By examining ethical orientation as an imperative element of judgment and decision-making in the auditor's profession, this research can contribute to expanding the theoretical foundations of behavioral research in auditing as well as provide useful information for auditing policymakers to formulate auditing strategies based on.