Fostering Intrinsic Motivational Orientation: A Cost-Effective Method for Encouraging Audit Staff to Speak Up

This article summarizes and outlines practical implications from the findings of “It Goes Without Saying: The Effects of Intrinsic Motivational Orientation, Leadership Emphasis of Intrinsic Goals, and Audit Issue Ambiguity on Speaking Up” (Kadous, Proell, Rich, and Zhou 2019). Through a series of experiments and surveys, the initial paper tests the effect that leadership focus on intrinsic motivation of auditors can have on their willingness to “speak up” with audit issues. Furthermore, they introduce the effects that ambiguity and source of motivation have on their initial findings. We expand this original work by summarizing the empirical findings and elaborating on the practical implications for auditors, managers, academics, and regulators. Applying these findings in practice could be a cost effective and efficient way to operationalize PCAOB AS 1201 and improve audit quality.