Linking Organizational Culture and Professional Ethics to Internal Audit Quality: Designing a Model to Enhance Process Effectiveness
Keywords:
Professional Ethics, Organizational Culture, Internal Audit QualityAbstract
This study was conducted with the aim of examining the linkage between organizational culture and professional ethics with internal audit quality and of designing a model to enhance process effectiveness. The data required for Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) were collected from a panel of experts consisting of 15 heads of audit committees of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. For the structural equation modeling (SEM) phase, data were collected using a researcher-developed questionnaire distributed among 384 accountants, internal auditors, senior managers, and executive staff of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. In this study, an internal audit quality model based on organizational culture and professional ethics was developed using ISM. Subsequently, based on the derived framework, the relationships among variables were re-examined using SEM. The results of the ISM analysis indicated that professional ethics, through the dimensions of adherence to professional standards, professional conduct and performance, competence, independence and objectivity, confidentiality, and integrity, leads to the enhancement of internal audit quality. Furthermore, organizational culture, through the dimensions of commitment to organizational regulations, acceptance of organizational values, adaptability and flexibility, and commitment to participation, contributes to improving internal audit quality. The MICMAC analysis revealed that adherence to professional standards, professional conduct and performance, competence, and independence and objectivity possess the highest driving power in the model influencing internal audit quality, while the greatest dependence on internal audit quality belongs to the components of commitment to organizational regulations, acceptance of organizational values, adaptability and flexibility, and commitment to participation. Finally, the results of structural equation modeling demonstrated that professional ethics and organizational culture have a positive and statistically significant effect on internal audit quality. Moreover, professional ethics exerts a positive effect on internal audit quality through the mediating role of organizational culture.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Mohammad Reza Ardestani Rostami (Author); Behnam Gilaniniay Soumehsaraei; Mahmoud Samadi Largani, Mohammad Reza Pourali (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
