How Do Auditors Order Their Tasks, and How Does Task Ordering Affect Performance Under Time Pressure?

Abstract

I examine how the subjectivity of task criteria influences auditors' ordering and performance of audit tasks under time pressure. Tasks with more objective criteria provide little flexibility in how well they can be completed (i.e., they are either performed correctly or incorrectly). On the other hand, tasks with more subjective criteria have a wider range of performance levels that satisfy the "letter" of the criteria, but not necessarily the "spirit." I predict and find that auditors tend to work on a task with more objective criteria before a task with more subjective criteria. As time pressure increases, auditors ordering their tasks this way reduce performance on the subjective task, but not the objective task. By decreasing performance on tasks with more subjective criteria, auditors can address all the criteria for both tasks if only in letter, rather than in spirit.