AUDITORS MORAL PHILOSOPHIES AND ETHICAL BELIEF

Onwuchekwa, John Chika, Ikhatua, Ohiorenuan Jude and Tedjere, Victor
Keywords: Independence, Deontology, Teleology, Agriology
Clifford University International Journal of Development Studies (CLUIJODS) 2023 3(1), 97 - 110. Published: December 2023

Abstract

The study examines the relationship between Auditors' moral philosophies (proxied by teleology, deontology and agriology) and their ethical beliefs (proxied by independence) in Bayelsa state. The population of the study consists of thirty auditors from five audit firms in Bayelsa state. The entire population of the study was used for the study. Data used in this study was gathered through the instrument of structured questionnaire and the multinomial logistic regression was used for the data analysis. The results from the regression reveals that auditors' teleology has a positive and significant relationship with their independence, auditors' deontology has a positive and significant relationship with their independence and also auditors' agriology has a positive and significant relationship with their independence. The study concludes that auditor’s moral philosophies can influence their ethical beliefs. Following the findings, it was recommended that in the bid to place emphasis on professional ethics in auditing as a strategy to restore and retain public trust in the auditing profession, the moral philosophies of auditors should be taken into cognizance in order to determine where focus should be placed on in the bid to improve auditors' ethical judgement.