Auditors’ Career Development and Personal Identity Crisis

Abstract

Purpose: The paper investigates the socially constructed experience of identity crisis of the former big 4 auditors from Brazil. Design/Methodology/Approach: Interpretatively guided by discourse analysis, the data base consists of results from interviewing five former senior managers and an active audit partner. Findings: Former auditors bear grudges for a less humanistic environment of the audit firm. Also, frustration is felt about levels of ethical misconduct in their new organization. Practical Implications: Auditors face barriers as they try to maintain their sense of integrity and their ethical values, thereby creating an identity crisis. Originality/Value: Analysis of the identity crisis posit the light at the end of the tunnel as audit firms now look at the career plans with care in as much as rethinking the benefits for them. © 2020 International Strategic Management Association. All rights reserved.