The purpose of this study was to examine, through the areas decisions making, accountability, variation in the work tasks, the organizations routines and job descriptions, the employee’s assessment of their current organizational structure. Furthermore, the study examined if the employee’s wanted bigger opportunities for decision making and accountability, more variation in the work tasks and clearer routines and job descriptions compared to their current organizational structure. A digital questionnaire was distributed to 110 employees. 73 of the employees chose to participate. A quantitative study was used, and the descriptive data was examined. Four separate paired sample t-tests were performed for the purpose of the two problem statements. The result was non-significant within all four tests. Individual items indicated that the employees assessed the organizational structure as both flat and hierarchic.

Tidigare forskning har visat på att kommunikation är betydelsefullt för alla organisationer, däribland även för den hierarkiska revisionsverksamheten. Kommunikation beskrivs vanligen som en nyckelfunktion för att utföra en god revision och skapa komfort mellan medarbetare och i sin tur till samhället. Forskning visar däremot på att den hierarkiska strukturen motarbetar god kommunikation, vilket resulterar i ett problematiskt dilemma. Samtidigt finns det annan forskning som menar att strukturen främjar god kommunikation vilket tyder på att den befintliga forskningen är motstridig. Ett fåtal studier har studerat den interna kommunikationen i revisionsverksamheten, men dessa har främst haft ett ledarskapsperspektiv eller syftat till att förklara underordnades svårigheter att tala ut. Denna studie syftar till att täcka dessa brister genom att beskriva vilken påverkan den hierarkiska organisationsstrukturen har på den interna kommunikationen inom revisionsverksamheten och i sin tur på revisionskomforten. För att besvara studiens forskningsfrågor har tio semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts med revisorer på olika hierarkiska nivåer i de fem största revisionsbolagen. Studiens resultat indikerar att den interna kommunikationen i revisionsverksamheten påverkas av den hierarkiska organisationsstrukturen i termer av dess medföljande auktoritet, destruktiva beteende och kunskapsgap. Den befintliga auktoriteten och tillkommande normer medför att den interna kommunikationen förväntas att följa den hierarkiska befälskedjan. Det befintliga kunskapsgapet, men även auktoriteten har resulterat i en respekt för seniora revisorer, vilket i sin tur medfört att underordnade blir återhållsamma med vad de väljer att kommunicera uppåt i organisationen. Det är främst den uppåtgående kommunikationen som påverkas av de ovannämnda faktorerna. Vidare har den horisontella kommunikationen påverkats i termer av att den ökat i mängd, främst bland underordnade då de vill minimera de sociala kostnaderna som tillkommer vid uppåtgående kommunikation. Slutligen indikerar studien på att intern kommunikation är av betydelse för komfortskapande. Det har dock framkommit att komfortskapande skiljer sig beroende på vilken hierarkisk nivå revisorerna är på. / Previous research has shown that communication is important for all organizations, including the hierarchical audit operations. Communication is often described as a key function for performing a good audit and for the creation of comfort between employees and in turn, comfort to the society. Research, on the other hand, shows that the hierarchical structure counteracts good communication, which results in a problematic dilemma. At the same time, there is other research that believes that the structure fosters good communication, which indicates that the existing research is contradictory. Few studies have studied internal communication in the auditing operation, but these have mainly had a leadership perspective or aimed at explaining subordinates’ difficulties in speaking out. This study thus aims to cover these shortcomings by describing the impact of the hierarchical organizational structure on the internal communication within the audit operations. Furthermore, the study aims to investigate the impact of internal communication on audit comfort. In order to answer the study’s research questions, semi-structured interviews were conducted with auditors at different hierarchical levels in the five largest auditing companies.  The results of the study indicate that the internal communication in the auditing operations is affected by the hierarchical organizational structure in terms of its accompanying authority, destructive behaviour and knowledge gap. The existing authority and additional norms entail that internal communication is expected to follow the hierarchical chain of command. The existing knowledge gap, but also the authority, has resulted in a respect for the senior auditors, which in turn has meant that subordinates become restrained with what they choose to communicate upwards in the organization. It is mainly the upward communication that is affected by the above-mentioned factors. Horizontal communication has also been affected in terms of the fact that it has increased in quantity, mainly among subordinates as they want to minimize social costs that fall upon upward communication. Finally, the study indicates that internal communication is important for comfort creation. However, it has emerged that comfort creation differs depending on the hierarchical level the auditors are at.

The aspiration of every organization is to collectively gather people in order to perform structured activities to fulfill its purpose. But what if there are circumstances within an organization that interferes with this? The thesis of this study is to scrutinize how employees experience their position in a hierarchical organizational structure, and what management strategies they use to direct and indirect protest against this structure. Through semi-structured interviews, employees have shared their experience of how they cope with being a part of an organization that has, against its own will, a hierarchical organizational structure. By analyzing their empiricism in the context of theories about hierarchy, organization culture and Hirschman’s theory about Exit, Voice and Loyalty, this study concludes that a hierarchical structure roots a barrier between management and its employees. This barrier has caused a lack of trust between these two much needed groups of the organization.                       The employees within the organization that the study is based on, use a varied amount of management strategies due to how they experience their position. These strategies include using their voice for the reason of feeling loyal to the organization, they use their ability to exit the organization for the lack of loyalty, and the employees experience the lack of both voice and exit, because they are finding themselves being dependent of the organization. To manage the rooted barrier and decrease the employees need to use management strategies, management should consider developing a strong organization culture, due to increase trust and motivation among its employees.