The Triggers and Consequences of Audit Team Stress: Qualitative evidence from engagement teams

Abstract

This study investigates audit team stress, its triggers and consequences to providequalitative evidence about what audit team stress is and how its triggers and conse-quences can influence team stress and audit quality. Audit teams in three differentaudit firms, including different audit team ranks, discussed team stress experiencesfrom one specific engagement during group and individual interviews. Audit workcan be stressful, and its consequences can threaten audit quality. Additionally, sharedteam stress differs from individual personal stress. This research discusses how auditteam stress, its triggers and consequences can occur at an interteam stress level,when all team members experience the same stress, and at an intrateam stress level,when individuals feel stress from a team experience. Contributions are made to auditliterature and practitioners about audit experiences at a team level and its influenceon audit quality, including new insights about time budget pressures and auditoraffect.