Ranking individual factors on ethical behavior of auditors with interpretive structural approach

The position of ethics of any profession is vital for its acceptance in the society. Ethical behavior is defined as a good behavior that morally puts "right" against "bad" or "wrong" in certain groups. The recent scandals of some of the world's largest companies have increased the expectation of auditors for strict and comprehensive compliance with ethical guidelines. The main purpose of this research is to rank individual factors affecting auditors' ethical behavior with an interpretive structural approach. This research is practical in terms of classification based on the goal, and it is a descriptive analytical research in terms of classification based on the method. The statistical population of the research includes the Iranian Association of Certified Public Accountants and the sampling of this research was done in a targeted manner and 20 experts were selected. Individual factors affecting the ethical behavior of auditors were first extracted from the literature and then the identified factors were ranked with the help of interpretive structural approach. The results of the research showed that age, upbringing and religion are the most important individual factors affecting auditors' ethical behavior, and the auditor's expertise and peers' influence are ranked lower in terms of importance.