Abstract Research has established that auditors' moral reasoning development and just world beliefs influence their independence behavior when in conflict with client management. The present study extends these findings by investigating the relationships between organizational culture in Big 6 accounting firms and the two personal constructs identified in an earlier work (Windsor and Ashkanasy 1995). Results supported hypotheses that personal constructs are related to organization culture values, although organizational culture dimensions did not separate auditors of differing independence decision-making style. Follow-up interviews with senior audit partners suggest that acculturation processes in accounting organizations result in aggressive and outcome-orientated values, which constrain the association between organizational culture and personal decision-making styles.
Windsor et al. (Sat,) studied this question.