ABSTRACT
Corporate culture refers to the shared system, values, beliefs, and traditions that influence and govern how individuals behave within organizations. Corporate culture is seldom defined expressly, but rather implied. It develops over time based on the words and leadership style, the hiring practices and treatment of others, and the individuals who are hired and assimilated into the organization. Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) Internal Control-Integrated Framework (IC-IF) refers to the control environment as its first component and emphasizes the importance of soft and entity-level controls. Internal auditors are increasingly recognizing the importance of auditing the organization's corporate culture because it is a very powerful influence on the quality of internal control. It is a key ingredient in the COSO IC-IF control environment component. There are elements of the corporate culture that are auditable at all phases of an employee's work life-cycle within the organization: Recruitment, Hiring, Training, Management, Performance Evaluation, Promotion, Disciplinary Actions, and Termination.
