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

01 March 2022

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.”

IIA

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