Auditor task prioritization - Hiérarchisation des tâches d'audit
Dierynck,Bart Peters,Christian P. H.
Dierynck,Bart
Peters,Christian P. H.
Abstract
We study how auditors prioritize tasks and how variations in task order influence auditors' performance. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we develop and test our hypotheses through three experiments involving over 350 professional auditors. The first two experiments assess the impact of task order on performance. Across two settings, we manipulate task order and find that prioritizing an easier task generally results in lower performance compared with prioritizing a difficult task. In the third experiment, auditors are given autonomy over task ordering. We observe a tendency to prioritize easier tasks, particularly under heightened time pressure. We do not find any evidence that psychological ownership weakens the effect of time pressure on easy task prioritization.
Description
Date
2026-02
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Auditing, Easy task prioritization, Psychological ownership, Task ordering, Time pressure, M42 - Auditing, C91 - Laboratory, Individual Behavior, M49 - Other, D02 - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
Citation
Dierynck, B & Peters, C P H 2026, 'Auditor task prioritization - Hiérarchisation des tâches d'audit', Contemporary Accounting Research. https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.70034
License
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess