The Role of Ethical Culture and Professional Identity on Strengthening Certified Accountants Objectivity in Iran

Objectivity is essential for the development and survival of the auditing profession. Audit quality is also a function of the auditorchr('39')s degree of objectivity in making judgments and disclosing audit findings. Auditorschr('39') impartiality can be affected by many issues, as professional auditing firms have sought to strengthen Objectivity by strengthening professional policies such as tenure or audit firm’s turnover. Recent crises highlight the need to strengthen the ethical culture in auditing firms. Strengthening the ethical foundations of auditing firms seems to be an effective factor in the survival of the profession, in addition to other mechanisms that reinforce Objectivity.The present study investigates the effect of ethical culture and professional identity on strengthening the objectivity of certified public accountants in Iran.The statistical population of the study includes certified public accountants working in auditing firms, members of the Iranian Society of Certified Public Accountants in 2019.The sampling method is available and the final sample size is 317 certified public accountants. Both archival and field methods have been used to collect theoretical foundations and data. Collecting research theorical framework is from both library and field methods and collecting data from the Trivino et al. (1998) questionnaire of ethical culture, auditor objectivity toward the Bamber and Layer questionnaire (2007) and the professional identity of the Meal and Ashforth questionnaire (1992) was used whose validity was confirmed by professional experts and their reliability was confirmed by Cronbachchr('39')s alpha coefficient test. Structural equation technique was used for data analysis using PLS statistical software and SPSS. The results show that ethical culture has a positive effect on strengthening the neutrality of certified public accountants. Also, the components of ethical culture including obedience to superiors has a negative relationship with the auditorchr('39')s objectivity and the ethical norms governing the institution and dealing with immoral actions have a positive relationship with the auditorchr('39')s objectivity. Our results showed that the importance of the client and the auditorchr('39')s identity of the client have a negative effect on the auditorchr('39')s objectivity and professional identity has a positive effect on the auditorchr('39')s objectivity. the results of additional testing showed that professional identity plays a mediator role on the relationship between ethical culture and auditor objectivity.