Audit practice: A straightforward trade or a complex system?

2021 
Auditors' skills and ways of working must adapt to constantly changing conditions in the workplace, and the COVID-19 pandemic has brought further complexity. This paper uses a complexity theory lens to investigate changes in audit practice in recent years. A qualitative research method, using semi-structured interviews, was applied: first to investigate how audit practice (skillsets and ways of working) needs to be reformed and second to suggest implications for audit practice stemming from a disruptive macro-level event such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. It was found that audit firms are framed as complex adaptive systems and new skillsets and ways of working in audit practice are well known for their adaptation, co-evolution and emerging behaviours, which include virtual audits and remote working that have been brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
    • Correction
    • Source
    • Cite
    • Save
    • Machine Reading By IdeaReader
    41
    References
    0
    Citations
    NaN
    KQI
    []