The assessment of payroll internal control systems and auditors’ experience, tolerance of ambiguity, and dogmatism

Professional judgments, such as an auditor's assessment of an internal control system, require the exercise of discretion which is likely to reflect individual differences across auditors. Here significant effects are reported for dogmatism and tolerance of ambiguity in auditor's assessments of payroll internal control systems, and, supporting Joyce's early result (Joyce, 1976), a weak negative effect of experience on inter-auditor consensus. In contrast, existing research reports null findings for the effect of personality differences on financial judgments (Savich, 1977; McGhee, Shields, and Birnberg, 1978; Weber, 1978) and a weak positive effect for experience (Ashton and Kramer, 1980). The previous null findings with respect to personality differences are explained as a subject/task interaction. The subjects were 23 auditors who each assessed 32 internal control checklists.