Audit Leadership Bundle

Culture and conduct play a pivotal role in the well-being of an organization. Organizations with a culture based on strong values have a higher probability of successfully achieving their business objectives and retaining high-performance employees. One of internal audit’s key responsibilities is to assess the adequacy and effectiveness of the internal control environment directly impacted by culture, as well as the conduct that arises from employees acting out and exhibiting their interpretation of the values of that culture. Internal audit, as the third line of defense in an organization’s governance framework, is uniquely positioned to assist an organization in establishing a strong tone-at-the-top by evaluating and reporting on its culture and conduct.

This course is intended to assist internal auditors in understanding and evaluating the overarching culture of an organization and using their knowledge to provide value-added insight to various stakeholders.

Internal auditors are expected to behave ethically and in conformance with The IIA’s Global Internal Audit Standards. Domain II: Ethics and Professionalism includes two essential components. The principles — which internal auditors are expected to apply and uphold — are relevant to the profession and practice of internal auditing, and the standards that describe behavior expected of internal auditors. The Standards apply to both parties and entities that provide internal audit services, and its purpose is to promote an ethical culture in the global profession of internal auditing.

This course describes the importance of a code of ethics for internal auditors and identifies the principles of Domain II of the IIA’s Global Internal Audit Standards. Further, this course expresses how to demonstrate individual conformance.

Organizations are, by definition, political. They are comprised of people and those people have different goals, objectives, value systems, approaches to accomplishing objectives, and motivating reward systems. All of these things can impact internal audit if you are not careful and aware of the existence of the pressures involved.

This course was developed utilizing data collected from the book, Politics of Internal Auditing, and will provide information about what political pressure looks like, how to deal with it, and share with you lessons learned by others who have experienced political pressure.

Life is full of uncertainty. If you stop to think about it, there are many day-to-day activities about which you simply do not know what the outcome will be in advance. How you deal with those uncertainties determines what kind of success you will have in life. Operating a business is no different. Organizations face uncertainties in all aspects of conducting business, and their success is dependent on how well they manage those uncertainties. Internal auditing can be a key enabler to that success.

Risk management is depicted as the middle layer in the governance structure. Risk management is intended to identify and mitigate the risks that may adversely affect the organization’s success and exploit the opportunities that enable that success. Management develops strategies regarding how to best manage the key risks and opportunities. Risk management activities should operate within the overall direction of the governance structure.

This course describes risk management in detail, discussing key risk management elements and principles, as well as the various roles and responsibilities. Other illustrations will be provided to depict, in greater detail, how one might envision the key elements of risk management. The course ends with discussions about how the internal audit function can play an integral role in risk management. The specific roles of the internal audit function are discussed, as is the impact risk management may have on the internal audit plan.

*This course references the 2017 International Professional Practices Framework