Abstract

The present study was an attempt to investigate the effect of ethical standards including ethical environment (instrumental environment, favorite environment, independent environment, normative environment, efficiency-based environment and regulation-oriented environment), professional commitment, ethical values and ethical ideology (idealism and relativism) on performance of auditors. The population of this study consists of auditors of auditing firms affiliated with Iranian association of Certified Public Accountants and certified independent auditors. To calculate the number of samples and to take samples, coceran fornulation and the avilable sample methods have been respectively used. This study was conducted in 2020. 300 auditors participated in the present study and completed the questionnaires distributed among them. The partial least squares (PLS) method was used for modelling and hypothesis testing purposes. The results show that all the subsets of ethical environment (instrumental environment, favorite environment, independent environment, normative environment, efficiency-based environment and regulation-oriented environment) have a positive and significant correlation with auditor performance. As for the subsets of ethical ideology, idealism and relativism were found to have a significantly positive and a significantly negative correlation with the performance of auditors, respectively. The results also show that the main variables of the study (ethical environment, professional commitment, ethical values and ethical ideology) have a positive and significant effect on the occupational performance of auditors. Applying the results of this research can help to develop theoretical foundations in the field of the ethical behavior in auditors as well as to increase their level of awareness and ethical development. It also increases the understanding of auditorschr('39') behavior in the face of ethical conflicts.