Moral Courage and Internal Auditors

Moral courage bridges the gap between making judgments and acting on them. According to the philosopher Aristotle, courage is the golden mean between cowardice and recklessness, and where that golden mean lies, depends on the specific circumstances. How do you determine that golden mean? How can you act courageously? What does acting courageously look like? And what can help you to do it?

In this report we will look for answers to these questions. Our research for this report is based on insights gained in the field of philosophy and from the practice of internal auditors. In addition, we studied literature in the field of internal auditing, including the aforementioned studies conducted by the IIA Research Foundation. We also conducted empirical research in collaboration with IIA Netherlands. As part of our preparations for the IIA Netherlands Conference in June 2017, we also conducted a survey among the members of IIA Netherlands. In this report we present the findings of our research.