PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS, PREFERENCES FOR REWARDS, AND THE PROPENSITY TO CHOOSE AN AUDITING JOB

This dissertation explores theoretical relationships among personality characteristics, preferences for different types of rewards and the propensity to choose a job in auditing. Specifically, we consider as personality characteristics - motivation, locus of control (internal and external), and self-efficacy – and as types of rewards - financial, extrinsic, support and intrinsic. In order to empirically test our proposed conceptual model, we collected data through a snowball sampling technique targeted at managementrelated higher education students. We applied Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) using Smart PLS 3.0 to analyse the data. Our findings show that extrinsic motivation is positively associated with preferences for financial and extrinsic rewards, whereas intrinsic motivation is positively associated with preferences for support and intrinsic rewards. We also find that external locus of control is positively associated with a preference for extrinsic rewards, and internal locus of control relates positively to preferences for all types of rewards, except financial rewards. Additionally, self-efficacy has a positive association with preferences for financial, extrinsic, and intrinsic rewards. Finally, we find a positive association between preferences for extrinsic rewards and the propensity to choose a job in auditing. Our study provides both theoretical and practical contributions. Regarding theoretical contributions, we are - to the best of our knowledge - the first to assess preferences for different types of rewards considering multiple personality characteristics and a full range of incentives. For practitioners, our study provides insights that can be used by auditing firms to develop more persuasive recruitment strategies based on one’s profile, which can help these companies to attract and retain auditor candidates.