title: A comprehensive survey of government auditors' self-efficacy and professional development for improving audit quality.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Government audit authorities supervise the implementation of government budgets and evaluate the use of administrative resources to ensure that funding is used wisely, economically, and effectively. A quality audit involves reviewing policies according to international standards and perspectives, and provides insight, predictions, and warnings to related organizations. Such practice can reflect the effectiveness of a government.
  
  
  METHODS
  Professional development and self-efficacy have strong influence upon the performance of auditors. To further understand the factors that may enhance their performance and to ultimately provide practical recommendations for the audit authorities, we have surveyed about 50 % of all the governmental auditors in Taiwan using the stratified random sampling method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The result showed that any auditing experience and professionalization can positively influence the professional awareness. Also, acquired knowledge and skillset of an auditor can effectively improve ones professional judgment. We also found that professional development (including organizational culture and training opportunities) and self-efficacy (including profession and experience as well as trends and performance) may significantly impact audit quality.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We concluded that to retain auditors, audit authorities must develop an attractive future outlook emphasizing feedback and learning within an organization. Our study provides a workable management guidelines for strengthening the professional development and self-efficacy of audit authorities in Taiwan.
authors.affiliation: Genomic Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 115 Taiwan ; Ph.D. Program of Technology Management, Chung Hua University, 707, Sec.2, WuFu Rd., Hsinchu, Hsinchu, 300 Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Shue-Ching
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Transportation Technology and Logistics Management, Chung Hua University, 707, Sec.2, WuFu Rd., Hsinchu, 300 Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Jau-Ming
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Zhongshan Institute, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Zhongshan, 528402 China ; School of Economics and Management, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, 201306 China ; Law School, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071 China ; School of Business, Dalian University of Technology, Panjin, 124221 China.
authors.forename: Sang-Bing
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.affiliation: Department of International Trade, Takming University of Science and Technology, Taipei, 114 Taiwan.
authors.forename: Tzu-Li
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: School of Economics and Management, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai, 201418 China.
authors.forename: Weiwei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Dong
keywords: Audit quality; Government auditing; Knowledge sharing; Management; Mentoring; Professional development; Self-efficacy