The effect of Internal locus of control on the relationship between psychological empowerment auditor and audit quality

Abstract The high quality of auditing increases investor confidence in financial statements and improves the transparency of financial markets and is seen as an effective regulatory mechanism to prevent managerial opportunistic behavior to reduce representation costs between manager and owner. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of locus of control on the relationship between psychological empowerment and audit quality. Using standard questionnaires, the required data were collected by all professional staff of auditing firms member of Iranian Society of Certified Accountants in 2018 and 2019 and analyzed using SPSS software and macro process.  The results show that the psychological empowerment of auditors has a positive and significant relationship with audit quality. Also, the results show that by increasing the internal locus of control of auditors, the positive relationship between psychological empowerment and audit quality improves. In other words, employees with high psychological empowerment and internal locus of control perform the audit with the highest quality. According to the research findings, it is better for auditing firms to use the capabilities, skills and initiative of their employees and to implement and implement ethical leadership that increases the empowerment of employees in their institutions.