An Empirical Study on the Relationship Between Auditor Workload and Quality of Audit Opinions Issued
Posted: Feb 07, 2022
Abstract
The relationship between auditor workload and the quality of audit opinions represents a critical intersection of professional practice, regulatory concern, and academic inquiry. While extensive literature has examined various determinants of audit quality, the specific mechanisms through which workload influences the formulation and expression of audit opinions remain inadequately understood. Traditional approaches have predominantly focused on quantitative metrics such as hours worked, client portfolio size, and seasonal compression effects. However, these methods often overlook the qualitative dimensions of audit opinion quality, particularly the linguistic and structural characteristics that convey professional judgment and analytical rigor. This study introduces a novel methodological framework that integrates computational linguistics with traditional audit quality metrics to provide a more comprehensive assessment of how workload pressures manifest in audit opinions. We posit that the quality of an audit opinion extends beyond mere technical accuracy to encompass clarity, coherence, and communicative effectiveness. By examining both the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of audit opinions across varying workload conditions, this research addresses a significant gap in the auditing literature. Our investigation is guided by three primary research questions that have received limited attention in existing scholarship. First, how does auditor workload quantitatively and qualitatively affect the structural complexity of audit opinions? Second, what is the nature of the relationship between workload intensity and the semantic coherence of audit reporting? Third, to what extent do workload management strategies moderate the impact of workload on opinion quality.
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