Presenting the competency model of audit committee based on grounded theory

In the last two decades, corporate governance has undergone many changes, including the role of the audit committee, which has changed from a passive state to an active state in companies. Audit committees are a valuable and complementary part of governance activities in organizations, and their existence is the title of a supervisory structure is considered an important element in good corporate governance, so the skills and competencies of the audit committee are vital for the effectiveness of the committee in performing its duties. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to provide a model for the competence of audit committee members according to the conditions prevailing in the country of Iran. The present research was conducted by using the interview with 15 experts in the auditing profession who were part of the academic faculty of the university and the society of official accountants of Iran, the audit committee of the partners of the auditing institutions, using the data-based snowball method. The collected research data were analyzed through three stages of open-centered and selective coding, and 174 conceptual codes, 18 sub-categories, 9 main categories and a conceptual model were extracted. Therefore, the most important achievement of this research can be the achievement of a paradigmatic model of audit committee competence. The results of this study showed that the competence of audit committee members in order to achieve the desired level of effectiveness requires a set of individual knowledge, skills, experience and environmental competences. Brought this study can be a good start to consider an index to achieve and evaluate the necessary competencies among members of the audit committee to be used by professional associations and organizations and board members.