RESEARCH GRANTS, PUBLICATIONS, AND PRESENTATIONS
University of Wisconsin–Madison Faculty Recognized by National Accounting Organizations—Award supports Wisconsin School of Business research to help improve audit practice. Wisconsin School of Business Accounting Professor Emily Griffith and Ph.D. student Patrick Hurley (with University of Georgia Professor and UW–Madison Alumna Jackie Hammersley [BBA ’86]) received the Access to Audit Personnel Program Award, sponsored by the Center for Audit Quality and the Auditing Section of the American Accounting Association. Griffith and Hurley are one of only four research teams in the U.S. to receive this prestigious award. Griffith and Hurley’s proposal, Ego Depletion and Evidence Integration While Auditing Complex Estimates, focuses on the role of ego depletion on job performance in auditors. A popular topic in social psychology, ego depletion argues that exercising self-control over a long period of time limits a person’s ability to do so in the near future. Griffith and Hurley’s research will examine ego depletion in auditors who work long hours during the busy season. “Auditors simply have too much work to do during the busy season, but the historical make-up of accounting firms doesn’t allow for workload reductions during those times,” says Hurley. “We want to focus on how auditors could structure their work to improve their judgment and performance.”
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EMILY GRIFFITH
PATRICK HURLEY
Griffith and Hurley believe their research topic was the right balance of theory and practical application, examining the academic question of how ego depletion affects the brain as well as the real solutions companies could use to combat the effects. The award gives the winning faculty and UW–Madison students access to auditors from several accounting firms for data collection and academic research. A committee of senior academics and audit practitioners considered several factors for the award, including the research’s ability to address questions relevant to the industry, its contribution to academic literature, and its methodological soundness.