Revisorer; strukturerade, noggranna och analytiska

: eller utövare av funktionellt dumma beteenden?

Abstract

The essay is about auditors and critical thinking. An auditor should perform his or her duties with professional skepticism and in accordance with good auditing practice. The purpose of the thesis is to study whether this critical thinking is consistent in behavior at the auditing firm. Through the case study, behaviors, and actions at an auditing firm in Kristianstad have been studied. The three respondents interviewed are chartered accountants and the interviews were conducted at their workplace. The theory of functional stupidity, which has been used as an analysis tool, is a relatively new concept that has been developed by Alvesson and Spicer (2012). Functionally stupid behavior includes uncritical and non-reflecting thinking in order to facilitate the existence of the individuals. There are many benefits to functional stupidity because it makes organizations work smoothly and conflict-free, but when used to much, there are long-term consequences. There are five types of functional stupidity which are also the categories from which the interview questions are designed. The five types are: leadership-, structure-, imitation-, brand- and culture-generated stupidity. An analysis of the respondents answers revealed that certain aspects are more relevant than others within the auditing firm. However, the scope of this study should be considered and the circumstance are of such a degree that no firm conclusions can be drawn. There are meanings of substance which require further studies to a greater extent in order give more reliability and validity to the claims.