We observe that accountants working outside of public accounting have a higher commitment to independence than do accountants working in the context of public accounting firms.
We further observe that accountants in large international accounting firms (i.e. the “Big Four”) report lower commitment to auditor independence than do others in public accounting. And we observe that older accountants report stronger commitment to auditor independence.
One finding, however, contradicts our general thesis.
We find that commitment to one’s client does not necessarily result in a loss of commitment to the core professional value of independence.
We conclude that changes in the context of work have contributed to the demise of ethics among professional accountants and suggest that further research be done to elaborate the relationship between client commitment and independence commitment.