| Generally accepted auditing standards and a number of auditing standard-setting agencies have repeatedly emphasized the importance of proper planning and adequate supervision to the audit process. Planning and supervision, or more broadly, control and coordination, have become increasingly important since the scope of auditing has expanded to include evaluation of an organization's operations.;Empirical verification of these relationships was examined through a two-phase field study, during which the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) was the main research site. In phase one of the research, preliminary interviews were conducted with several GAO management and staff members to gain a better understanding of the processes involved in an operational audit. Based on the results of phase one, phase two concentrated on developing a questionnaire and administering it to 355 GAO audit supervisors and staff auditors.;Research results indicate that planning and supervision, or control and coordination, in an audit team are indeed shaped by the various independent variables. The bureaucratic and group modes of control are significantly affected by changes in audit task complexity and the cognitive style of auditors. As the size of the audit team increases, the audit team moves more towards the bureaucratic mode of control, but does not change its use of the group mode. The personal mode of control is largely unaffected by changes in these variables and, therefore, is considered a pivotal coordination mechanism. The sociopolitical environment surrounding an audit does not lead to changes in the bureaucratic and group modes of control. However, further analysis on the components of bureaucratic mode of control reveals that increased visibility of an audit leads to increased reliance on the formal policies and procedures but not on the predetermined audit programs.;The present study hypothesizes that planning and supervision or control and coordination in an operational audit are a function of four independent variables: audit task characteristics, or audit task complexity; size of the audit team; sociopolitical environment surrounding an audit, or visibility and political sensitivity of an audit; and cognitive style or tolerance-intolerance of ambiguity of audit team members. To study the impact of these variables on the planning and supervision processes contingency theory framework is used. |
