Effects of the Personal Background of the Respondents on their Views
To test for the issue of effects of the personal background of the participants on their responses, the
data was split several times (each time according to a different personal background variable).
Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests7
were applied to compare means for different groups
related to each personal background variable. Variables of gender of respondent and audit
experience outside Jordan were omitted from this analysis due to the small size of some groups
(females and those who practised auditing outside Jordan), while for some variables some groups
were merged to perform the statistical tests. Due to the very large volume of data involved in these
tests (600 statements in six tables), detailed results are not reported.
As for the results, few statements per variable produced statistically significant results, and
many of these seemed relatively random. However there seems to be a tendency by older and more
experienced auditors with higher job ranks to favour a change in the timing of audit procedures.
This finding can arguably be interpreted as a result of their experience and understanding of the
importance of the timing of audit procedures in achieving a more effective financial statements
audit, since the existence of fraud risk factors may lead the auditor to reduce his/her reliance on
internal control of the client. This may make the auditor prefer to move many audit procedures to
around year-end rather than throughout the year.