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Further reading suggestions for Applying Professional Judgment in Audit

Enhance your understanding with suggested reading from business and management journals to complement the Applying Professional Judgment in Audit elearning programme.

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Cognitive biases in general

The ICAEW Library & Information Service provides access to leading business, finance and management journals. These journals are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users subject to suppliers' terms of use.

Bias Busters Collection
  • Website
  • Nov 2023
  • McKinsey & Company
  • McKinsey & Company

Series of articles on common cognitive and organisational biases. Each article sets out a dilemma, then outlines the research on the type of bias being encountered and puts forward a remedy.

Exclusive Outsmart Your Own Biases: Eleven ways to refine your intuition
  • Article
  • Oct 2023
  • Jack B Soll, Katherine L Milkman, John W Payne
  • Harvard Business School Publication Corp
Article providing strategies for overcoming biases, enabling individuals to make better decisions and broaden their thinking.
Exclusive Data visualization and cognitive biases in audits
  • Article
  • Aug 2019
  • Chengyee Janie Chang, Yan Luo
  • Emerald Publishing
This study examines how cognitive biases can be triggered or aggravated by data visualisation and proposes practical solutions to address adverse effects on auditors’ judgment and decision-making.
Identifying common judgement traps and biases
  • Website
  • Aug 2019
  • Daniel Butcher
  • Institute of Management Accountants
An accessible overview of the habits and ethical blind spots that can affect decision-making in management accounting.
Exclusive Cognitive Biases in Audit Engagements: Errors in Judgment and Strategies for Prevention
  • Article
  • Jun 2012
  • Michael C Knapp, Carol A Knapp
  • New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants
The article discusses confirmation bias, availability bias, familiarity bias, anchoring and adjustment bias, uncertainty aversion, framing bias, halo bias, irrational escalation, and false consensus bias in the context of audit work.

Groupthink

The ICAEW Library & Information Service provides access to leading business, finance and management journals. These journals are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users subject to suppliers' terms of use.

Exclusive How to Steer Clear of Groupthink
  • Article
  • Oct 2023
  • Jennifer Mueller, Sarah Harvey, Alec Levenson
  • Harvard Business School Publication Corp
This brief article outlines three methods for avoiding groupthink and encouraging innovation and creativity in teams.
Exclusive How diversity defeats groupthink
  • Article
  • Oct 2020
  • Khalil Smith
  • Joseph L Rotman School of Management
The article describes the history of groupthink as a concept and research on why diversity in teams can combat groupthink. It gives tips on how to ensure all perspectives are heard in decision-making.

Motivated reasoning

The ICAEW Library & Information Service provides access to leading business, finance and management journals. These journals are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users subject to suppliers' terms of use.

Four Ways to Avoid the Pitfalls of Motivated Moral Reasoning
  • Website
  • May 2024
  • Brett Beasley
  • Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership

The article defines motivated reasoning, offering example from the business world, and offers strategies to mitigate its effects.

Exclusive The stupidity trap
  • Article
  • Feb 2019
  • David Robson
  • New Scientist
This article discusses ways in which intelligence and expertise can increase the risk of poor decision-making. It looks at dysrationalia, Solomon’s paradox, motivated reasoning, earned dogmatism, and corporate meeting syndrome.

Psychological safety

How Leaders Fake Psychological Safety
  • Website
  • Dec 2023
  • Ron Carucci
  • Harvard Business Review

Article describing misguided methods that leaders use to fake psychological safety within their teams. It provides strategies for fostering work environments that encourage dissent.

What is psychological safety?
  • Website
  • Jul 2023
  • McKinsey & Company
  • McKinsey & Company

Detailed explainer with step-by-step breakdowns and links to further case studies and research.

Into all problem-solving, a little dissent must fall
  • Website
  • Feb 2023
  • McKinsey & Company
  • McKinsey & Company

This article discusses the role of psychological safety and contributory dissent in fostering innovation and effective problem-solving in the workplace. It highlights the role of leadership in promoting these practices.

What Psychological Safety Looks Like in a Hybrid Workplace
  • Website
  • Apr 2021
  • Amy C Edmondson, Mark Mortensen
  • Harvard Business Review

The article explores how hybrid working affects psychological safety in teams and offers five strategies for managers to foster openness about work-life challenges.

Information

Some of the content on this web page was provided by the Chartered Accountants’ Trust for Education and Research, a registered charity, which owns the library and operates it for ICAEW.