Chartered IIA warns boards to “get a grip” on unhealthy corporate cultures in the wake of a string of culture-related scandals

With the risks arising from an unhealthy corporate culture once again in the spotlight, today new research has revealed that boards are not taking culture seriously. This is despite the visible impact a culture crisis can have on reputation, public trust, and damage to long-term sustainability.

The Chartered Institute of Internal Auditor’s (Chartered IIA) latest report Cultivating a healthy culture: Why internal audit and boards must take corporate culture more seriously in a post-Covid world is based on a survey of over one hundred senior internal audit executives from the private, public, and third sectors across the UK and Ireland.

The survey found:

• Over half (52.4%) of senior internal audit executives have not been asked by the board or audit committee to provide reports on corporate culture or equality, diversity, and inclusion initiatives.
• Around a quarter (23.2%) said their board has not established and articulated what culture it wants, despite this being fundamental to the effective leadership, resilience, and governance of an organisation.
• 65.7% believe the Financial Reporting Council should act by further strengthening the UK Corporate Governance Code in regard to corporate culture, putting greater emphasis on the responsibility of company directors to promote, monitor, and assess the culture, and, if required, seek assurance that management has taken corrective action.

With organisations facing significant challenges in attracting and retaining talent, it has never been more important for boards to ensure they focus on cultivating and embedding a healthy corporate culture. This includes ensuring workplaces are more equal, diverse, and inclusive to boost productivity and enhance employee well-being. The survey also found that the top three risks that have the biggest impact on the corporate culture are: human resources, talent management, and recruitment and retention risk (64.5%); inclusion, equality, and diversity risk (34.1%); health, safety and staff wellbeing (31.6%).

However, this research highlights the risk of a post-Covid organisational culture crisis, exacerbated by a lack of leadership from the top, that now needs to be urgently addressed by boards. With large swaths of the workforce being forced to work remotely for much of the last two years, and the move towards ‘hybrid’ working in the longer term, many organisations are grappling with how to promote, embed, and sustain their culture going forwards.

The Chartered IIA’s report is therefore urging boards to be pro-active and use their internal audit function to provide assurance when it comes to corporate culture, and where necessary recommend management take corrective action to address cultural erosion and decay.

John Wood, Chief Executive Officer of the Chartered IIA said:

“Recent culture-related scandals have unfortunately shone a spotlight on the impacts associated with an unhealthy organisational culture – including catastrophic damage to reputation, public trust, and value. Yet as our research demonstrates those at the top do not appear to be taking the risks associated with corporate culture seriously. Urgent action is now required by leaders across all sectors to cultivate a healthy corporate culture to protect reputation and long-term sustainability. With organisations adopting new working models in a post-Covid world, now is the time for boards to get a grip on corporate culture, including seeking assurance from their internal audit functions.”

Sir Jon Thompson, Chief Executive, Financial Reporting Council said:

“Company directors must start taking corporate culture more seriously. A series of company collapses linked to unhealthy cultures, whether that be BHS, Carillion, Greensill or Patisserie Valerie, have demonstrated why cultivating a healthy culture, underpinned by the right tone from the top, is fundamental to business success. The UK Corporate Governance Code makes clear the board’s responsibility to promote, monitor, and assess the culture and I urge businesses to ensure they are compliant. As the audit regulator, we want to see progress accelerated in this area. Internal audit has a vital role to play in providing assurance and reports to the board that the culture is healthy.”

Vyla Rollins, Executive Director of the London Business School Leadership Institute said:

“It is clear the dramatic examples of governance breaches we are currently witnessing are facilitated by the mindsets, behaviours, and beliefs of those in the boardroom and C-Suite. Boards of directors, executives and non-executives alike, are ultimately responsible for overseeing the development of healthy corporate cultures, and feigning a lack of understanding of how to do this is no longer acceptable. The insights, practices, case studies, success stories, and recommendations showcased in this research report will make it even more difficult for boards to say to stakeholders and regulators that they have no control or influence over the cultivation of culture in their organisations.”

Richard Chambers, Senior Internal Audit Advisor of AuditBoard (and former President and CEO of the Global IIA) said:

“I applaud the Chartered IIA for its excellent thought-leadership on cultivating a healthy corporate culture and for raising the bar of the internal audit profession on this business-critical risk. I echo the call for boards to pay more attention to the corporate culture and ensure they are also walking the walk on ‘how we do things around here’. Internal auditors have an important role to play in supporting boards to embed, assess, and monitor the culture, and whilst there has been progress it is clear far more need to step up.”

The full report, Cultivating a healthy culture: Why boards and internal audit must take corporate culture more seriously in a post-Covid world, which has been published in partnership with Audit Board and with insights from the London Business School Leadership Institute, is available here.

For more information or further comment, please contact Gavin Hayes, our Head of Policy and External Affairs on 07900 195 591, or via email at gavin.hayes@iia.org.uk.

Notes to editors

• About the Chartered IIA: The Chartered IIA represents around 10,000 internal audit professionals in organisations spanning all sectors of the economy, across the UK and Ireland. It champions the contribution internal audit makes to good corporate governance, strong risk management and a rigorous control environment leading to the long-term success of organisations, including those in the public sector.
• About AuditBoard: AuditBoard is the leading cloud-based platform transforming audit, risk, and compliance management. More than 30% of the Fortune 500 leverage AuditBoard to move their businesses forward with greater clarity and agility. AuditBoard is top-rated by customers on G2 and Gartner Peer Insights, and was recently ranked for the third year in a row as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in North America by Deloitte.