The Role of Intrinsic Motivation in Mediating the Effect of Auditor Independence on Audit Quality in Indonesia

Abstract

This research aims toempirically testing the role of intrinsic motivation in mediating the relationship between the influence of independence on audit quality. The use of intrinsic motivation as a mediating variable is intended toclarify the influence of various individual characteristics of certain auditors on the quality of the auditor's work. This research was conducted on 110 auditors from various Public Accounting Firms using a snowballing survey approach and Partial Least Square (PLS) analysis with the help of SmartPLS 3.2.9. This research finds that intrinsic motivation is influenced by the auditor's independent attitude and influences audit quality. This research also succeeded in proving that the auditor's intrinsic motivation has moderate influence in mediating the relationship between independence and audit quality. Based on these findings, auditors and public accounting firms are advised to re-evaluate their audit quality through independence and intrinsic motivation. The results of this empirical research have succeeded in proving that audit quality becomes better as a result of the quality of auditor independence, mediated by intrinsic motivation, although the influence is still moderate. The findings support developing agency theory and self-determination theory in explaining the role of in improving audit quality.