The dramaturgy of the audit process : challenges in the social interaction between the auditor and client

Abstract: Audit is a bilateral task where the auditors are required to socially interact with their clients during the audit process. The auditor and client may encounter different expectations that could lead to challenges in their social interaction. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore the challenges in the social interaction between the auditor and client during the audit process. Prior literature has applied versions of agency that are implicitly based on classic contract law and virtually ignored clients as a research object. The original value of this study lies in the adoption of the dramaturgical analysis into the context of audit. This study employs a qualitative research method. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven real auditor-client dyads in Scania, Sweden. The findings suggest that clients are fixated on the price tag of an audit and do not consider the person delivering the audit service. This puts the auditor and client at risk as the findings suggest that the social interaction is important whereby a similarity attraction in sociodemographic space facilities the social interaction. Asset evaluations can create challenges in the social interaction which are solved with residual control stemming from ownership as well as social status. The seven auditor-client dyads in this study deals with their own unique challenges that resulted in seven prototypes. This study fills in a gap in the literature by interviewing and analyzing the auditors’ respective client expectations on one another. To fulfil each other’s diverse expectations, both must embody different roles.