The Role of Professional Commitment in the Relationship between Organizational Cynicism and Professional Skepticism: The Moderating Role of Professional Ethics and Auditor Size

One important means of improving audit quality is to strengthen and enhance auditors’ professional skepticism. Previous studies have shown that organizational factors and variables related to organizational culture can affect the components of auditor judgment and decision-making, including professional skepticism. The present research explores the relationship be-tween organizational cynicism and professional skepticism, the mediating role of professional commitment, and the moderating role of professional ethics and auditor size to help strengthen professional skepticism, enhance audit quality, and increase public trust in the auditing profession. This study is an applied survey, and the statistical sample consists of 449 audit professionals from the member firms of the Iranian Association of Certified Public Accountants (IACPA) and Iran Audit Organization (IAO). Non-probability sampling was used to select the participants. Data were collected in 2021 using a questionnaire and were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that organizational cynicism has a significant negative effect on professional skepticism, and acceptance of unethical behavior reinforces this effect. However, reporting of unethical behavior plays a moderating role. Moreover, auditor size has a moderating role in this relationship. How-ever, the mediating role of professional commitment is not significant. In general, the results indicate that organizational cynicism has a negative effect on auditors’ professional skepticism and, consequently, on audit quality. Therefore, it is necessary to build the appropriate organizational culture and promote professional ethics to improve the performance of audit professionals and increase public trust in the auditing profession.