'Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM Press)'
Abstract
Audit quality is becoming a concern and a problematic issue due to corporate scandals in the business sector. The
auditors were accused of incompetence and lack of independence in detecting fake financial reporting, which led to the
company’s failure. The dysfunctional auditors’ behaviour has an impact on audit quality. As a result, this study aims to
scientifically investigate and analyse the elements that may lead to dysfunctional auditor conduct and decreased audit
quality. The factors addressed include time constraints, task complexity, and client importance on dysfunctional auditor
behaviour and audit quality in the Malaysian setting. A total of 133 respondents were involved in this survey, selected
by the snowball sampling method. The results reveal the propensity of individual auditors to accept dysfunctional
behaviour due to time, budget pressure, and task complexity. Surprisingly, client importance does not impair auditors’
independence. Auditors play an essential role in maintaining the quality of audit reports and restoring public trust in the
audit profession since auditors are granted credibility to assure financial accounts. As a result, this paper has important
implications. It provides valuable insight for Malaysian regulators and audit firms to identify factors influencing
dysfunctional auditor behaviour and deterioration of audit quality and develop various approaches to address these
issues while maintaining the value of an audit for external users