Examining the effect of role conflict and role ambiguity on the silence of internal auditors, considering the mediating variable of independence commitment

The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of role conflict and role ambiguity on the silence of internal auditors, considering the role of independence commitment as a mediating variable. The statistical population of this research consists of internal auditors who are members of the Iranian Internal Auditors Association working in the internal audit units of companies or independent auditors working in audit firms who have experience in the profession of internal audit or providing internal audit outsourcing services and the required data has been collected from 212 auditors in the year 2021 using the available sampling method through standard questionnaires. In this research, the structural equation modeling partial least squares method and SmartPLS has been used for data analysis. The results of the hypothesis test indicate that constructs of independence commitment and role conflict have a negative and significant effect on the silence of internal auditors. In addition, the constructs of role conflict and role ambiguity have a negative and significant effect on independence commitment. Also, the construct of independence commitment plays a mediating role in the causal relationship between role conflict and role ambiguity with the internal auditor’s silence. The results of this research indicate that attention to reducing the role ambiguity and role conflict of internal auditors by the internal audit standards development committee and the board of directors of companies can lead to an increase in audit quality.