Rennie Exploring Trust and the Auditor-Client Relationship 2007 audit midyear

Exploring Trust and the Auditor-Client Relationship Morina D. Rennie University of Regina Lori S. Kopp University of Lethbridge W. Morley Lemon University of Waterloo November, 2006 The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants/Canadian Academic Accounting Association Research Grant Program and the helpful advice of Mike Gibbins, Steve Salterio, Bill Kinney, Jack Ito, Celeste Brotheridge, Jean-Marie Nkongolo-Bakenda, Glenys Sylvestre, Ron Camp, participants at workshops at the University of Regina, the University of Waterloo, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Auckland, and Victoria University of Wellington and anonymous reviewers. Exploring Trust and the Auditor-Client Relationship Abstract This research examines financial statement auditors’ trust of members of client management in the context of a disagreement with a member of audit client t. While auditor-client trust is essential to the efficient, effective conduct of an audit, the auditor must also act with professional scepticism. In this study we explore factors that can affect auditor trust of client management. In particular we look at attributes of the auditor that may influence the giving of trust, of the client representative that may attract trust, and of the auditor-client relationship. We find that trust-attracting behaviours on the part of ...