감사파트너의 업무과부하가 감사품질에 미치는 영향

[Purpose] PCAOB (2015) introduces 28 audit quality indicators and requests that suggestions for improving audit quality be made with reference to them. Among these indicators is the workload of the audit partner. This study assessed the workload of audit partners during the busy season, an issue of practical concern, by examining the timing of the issuance of the audit report. Subsequently, we analyzed the impact of this workload on the quality of the audit. [Methodology] Our analysis encompasses a dataset of 3,771 company－years, focusing on December－ending companies listed on KOSPI and KOSDAQ from 2018 to 2021. To quantify the audit partner's workload, the methodology outlined by Lopez and Peter (2012) and Ha et al. (2016) was employed. Audit quality was assessed using two metrics: discretionary accruals and performance－matched discretionary accruals (PMDA). [Findings] This study revealed that an increased workload for the audit partner is inversely related to the audit quality. This implies that the constraints of tight deadlines for audit report submission, coupled with a heavy workload, result in the audit partner not dedicating adequate effort and attention to the audit processes. [Implications] This study empirically confirmed the negative impact of audit partner workload on audit quality, a concern for supervisory agencies. We found that if the audit tasks that audit partners are required to perform during the busy season are not properly distributed and result in overload, this will negatively affect audit quality. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the personnel management and audit work distribution procedures within accounting firms to ensure appropriate distribution of work. Additionally, the study suggests that improvements in client management and human resource management at the audit partner level, rather than at the broader accounting firm level, could be effective in enhancing audit quality.