Article

Predicting monitoring failures using the HEXACO framework: The effects of honesty-humility and agreeableness

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Abstract

An auditor’s ability to manage conflict in the monitoring process plays a key role in determining the quality of an audit. Auditors who are not willing to communicate disagreement with monitored parties risk compromising professional standards of integrity, resulting in monitoring failures. Organizations increasingly recognize the need to improve monitoring quality, however little research has focused on identifying individuals who can be relied upon to disclose infractions committed by others when they occur. In the present contribution, we examine whether personality traits under the HEXACO framework—namely, honesty-humility and agreeableness—predict decisions to flag misreporting. Although both honesty-humility and agreeableness are socially desirable characteristics associated with cooperative behavior, we suggest these traits will differentially predict decisions to disclose others’ misreporting. Across a simulated audit experiment (N = 263)and field survey (N = 201) of certified public accountants (CPAs),we find that auditors with higher levels of honesty-humility are most likely to value professional integrity in the monitoring process and to report others’ infractions. The same cannot be said for those with higher levels ofagreeableness. Our results provide the first empirical investigation of the HEXACO framework in the audit setting and imply that screening for HEXACO personality is likely to have a meaningful impact on monitoring quality.

Keywords: monitoring failures, HEXACO, honesty-humility, agreeableness, personality psychology, mixed methods

How to Cite:

Morse, L. & Cohen, T. R., (2024) “Predicting monitoring failures using the HEXACO framework: The effects of honesty-humility and agreeableness”, Negotiation and Conflict Management Research 17(3), 182-207. doi: https://doi.org/10.34891/qvpz-9a66

Funding

Center for Behavioral and Decision Research (CBDR), Carnegie Mellon University

Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership, University of Notre Dame