Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on individual auditors. Regulators and professional bodies around the world are aware of the importance of auditors’ individual characteristics and set different requirements that people should meet in order to become certified auditors. The book presents the literature on audit team composition and its effect on audit activity and also focus on professional practice and regulatory standards about audit teams. It concentrates on the forms of control, including auditing quality controls and clan controls, adopted by auditing firms at the team level and the importance of communication in socializing auditing staff, relevant to enhancing the auditing teams’ level of performance. The book describes the voice of practitioners involved in the audit process, mainly collected by means of interviews. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board inspectors have observed a wide variation in the quality of auditing by many engagement teams.