Organizational and Professional Identification in Audit Firms: An Affective Approach

Alice Garcia-Falieres and Olivier Herrbach
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Alice Garcia-Falieres: UT3 - Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier - UT - Université de Toulouse
Olivier Herrbach: UB - Université de Bordeaux

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Abstract: The literature has long noted the ethical challenges related to auditors' dual affiliations with both a profession and an organization that practices the profession. The notion of organizational/professional conflict, in particular, was introduced to capture the potential problems involved in this situation, such as when an auditor engages in behaviors aimed at pleasing the client rather than safeguarding the public interest. However, inconsistent findings leave open the debate about how auditors manage their dual affiliation and question the underlying mechanisms by which auditors structure their identity and experience their work life. To advance understanding of this issue, this research investigates the relationships between auditors' organizational identification, professional identification, and emotions at work, using a questionnaire survey of 126 French Big 4 auditors and a two-step split-sampling design. The results show that the two forms of identification have a different relationship with emotions: positive for organizational identification but ambivalent for professional identification. These findings contribute to our understanding of professionals' work experiences in large organizations.

Keywords: Audit firms; Organizational identification; Professional identification; Emotions at work (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-08-31
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Published in Journal of Business Ethics, 2014, 132 (4), pp.753-763. ⟨10.1007/s10551-014-2341-2⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03261893

DOI: 10.1007/s10551-014-2341-2

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