Measuring internal auditor’s intention to blow the whistle (a Quasi-experiment of internal auditors in the local government)

Abstract

This study measures the cognitive moral development and tests its interaction with antecedent variables of prosocial behaviour such as fraud level, the status of person committing fraud and cohesiveness in affecting the willingness of internal auditors of local government (APIPs) to be a whistleblower. Quasi-experiment between subject design using pattern of 3×2×2×2 and 2×2 full factorial was employed in this research. The participants involved were internal auditors of 24 local governments in South Sulawesi which were divided into 18 groups. The data were analysed using ANOVA and t-test. The results of this study showed that based on the Cognitive Moral Development (CMD), majority of the internal auditors were categorised as pragmatic, the least number were autonomous, while accommodation was in between of both. Moreover, the intention of APIP to whistleblow was found high though insignificantly different among the three categories of CMD. Similarly, the different was insignificant among the variance of fraud level, the status of person committing fraud, and cohesiveness. The interaction between CMD and treatment variables resulted insignificant figure, except for the interaction between CMD and the fraud level which indicated significant result. Generally, it can be concluded that APIPs have a high intention to blow, but the intention will differ when their CMD interact with the fraud level and cohesiveness.

Cognitive Moral Development, Organizational Situation and Ethical Decision Making in Business and Accounting

“…Bad apples will remain bad despite being in a good barrel, and vice versa. Consistently, Habbe et al, (2019) states that a cognitive morality would be rooted in a person as he/she grows up in terms of age, education, experience, social interaction, and cultural environment. Therefore, a cognitive morality tends to be a personal character (fundamental belief) which cannot easily change despite being in a contrary condition.…”

Analysis of Auditor Performance Through Professional Commitment and Whistle Blower.

“…The auditor performance variable uses the Kalbers and Fogarty (1995) instrument, organizational culture variables using the Hofstede (1990) instrument, ethical orientation variables using the instrument Forsyth (1990), professional commitment variables using the Aranya et. al (1981), and the whistleblower variable uses the instruments Brennan and Kelly (2007) and Habbe, et al (2018). The data collected is then processed using the SmartPLS 3 data processing application.…”

“…Thus, whistleblowing can contribute to improving the results of forensic audits. Referring to the use of questionnaires adapted from Brennan and Kelly (2007) and Habbe, et al (2018), researchers have redesigned the questionnaire used by selecting the right construct to represent the whistleblower variable. Where statements are used, such as -I will be able to resolve a difficult ethical dilemma as above if they arise in practice, if I am forced to "blow a whistle" I am sure that the current labor law will protect me, if I forced to report concerns to external authorities, my career prospects will not suffer, if I am forced to report concerns to external authorities, my career prospects will not suffer, if I report internal problems in my organization using a formal reporting structure, career prospects I will not be disturbed.…”

Audit Lag Criteria Report as a Determination of the Reliability and Quality of Auditor's Report in Indonesia

“…This is because the good news on the financial statements that will affect the value of the company in the eyes of the public, especially investors. Habbe, et al, (2019) and Cassel, et al, (2020) stated that companies that are experiencing losses tend to require auditors to start the auditing process more slowly than usual. Because of this, there will be a delay in delivering bad news to the public.…”