What question did this study set out to answer?

To examine how senior auditors perceive the production of comfort during audit processes and interpret their experiences using the framework of comfort theory.

January 1, 2007European Accounting Review

Auditing Stories about Discomfort: Becoming Comfortable with Comfort Theory

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Authors

TCThomas CarringtonÅbo Akademi University BCBino CatasúsStockholm University

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Implication

Qualitative interview study uncovers how comfort and discomfort are negotiated in senior auditors, indicating that audit conclusions depend on socially shifting thresholds of professional relief.

Key Points

To examine how senior auditors perceive the production of comfort during audit processes and interpret their experiences using the framework of comfort theory.
Conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with senior auditors (N=20) focused on identifying sources of discomfort, allies, and obstacles throughout the audit lifecycle.
Categorized and analyzed interview narratives using comfort theory across three dimensions: comfort as state, comfort as relief, and comfort as renewal.
Auditors recognized that attaining a professional state of comfort is not an objective absolute, but rather a collective judgment that sufficient discomforts have been actively relieved.
Thresholds required to achieve an acceptable state of comfort shifted dynamically depending on which internal and external actors participated in the audit engagement.
Shifting definitions of comfort altered the amount of relief required to sign off on an engagement, continuously renewing the audit process itself.

Cite This Study

Carrington et al. (2007) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a1d549a10242160940533d5 https://doi.org/10.1080/09638180701265846

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Implication

Qualitative interview study uncovers how comfort and discomfort are negotiated in senior auditors, indicating that audit conclusions depend on socially shifting thresholds of professional relief.

Auditing Stories about Discomfort: Becoming Comfortable with Comfort Theory

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

Auditing Stories about Discomfort: Becoming Comfortable with Comfort Theory

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

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