Psychological Safety, AI-Enabled Anonymous Communication, and Speaking Up in Audit Teams

Abstract

Staff auditors are often reluctant to voice concerns due to the perceived negative consequences of speaking up. We investigate the role of psychological safety in auditors’ voice. We hypothesize and find that psychological safety is a crucial mediator that explains the effects of various contextual, issue, and individual factors on auditors’ decisions to speak up. We also study whether providing an AI-enabled anonymous communication channel improves auditors’ voice decisions through psychological safety. Contrary to findings in other team settings where enhanced anonymity increases employees’ voice, we do not observe such an effect in the audit team setting. We discuss the reasons for this unique result and its implications for designing interventions that enhance psychological safety to improve auditors’ voice.