| Date | Venue | Fees | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Nov - 04 Dec 2026 | London - UK | $ 7,500 | |
| 05 - 09 Apr 2027 | Dubai - UAE | $ 7,500 | |
| 23 - 27 Aug 2027 | London - UK | $ 7,500 | |
| 29 Nov - 03 Dec 2027 | London - UK | $ 7,500 |
Introduction
This Auditing Organisational Behaviour & Culture training course equips internal audit and assurance professionals with a structured, risk-based approach to evaluating how behaviour, leadership, incentives and organisational culture influence governance, risk and control effectiveness. Traditional audit approaches often focus on policies, processes and documented controls. However, control failures frequently arise from how people make decisions, respond to pressure, exercise authority, challenge management and apply controls in practice.
The training course moves beyond broad assessments of organisational culture by focusing on observable behaviours and evidence that can be evaluated through internal audit. Participants will examine behavioural risk, leadership conduct, incentive structures, speak-up culture, psychological safety and behavioural indicators before developing the skills required to plan and perform behavioural audit engagements. The course addresses interviews, focus groups, organisational data, evidence triangulation and root-cause analysis, before progressing to sensitive audit findings, board assurance, remediation and continuous monitoring.
This GLOMACS Auditing Organisational Behaviour & Culture training course will highlight:
- Translating organisational culture into observable and auditable behaviours
- Identifying behavioural risks that can undermine governance and internal controls
- Assessing leadership, incentives, conduct and psychological safety
- Applying risk-based techniques to behavioural audit planning and fieldwork
- Triangulating qualitative and quantitative evidence to develop defensible conclusions
- Reporting behavioural risk to senior management, boards and audit committees
Objectives
By the end of this training course, participants will be able to:
- Identify behavioural risks and incorporate them into risk-based internal audit planning.
- Evaluate the influence of leadership, incentives and organisational pressures on behaviour and controls.
- Assess speak-up culture, psychological safety and behavioural risk indicators.
- Plan and perform behavioural audit engagements using appropriate evidence-gathering techniques.
- Triangulate behavioural evidence and develop defensible audit findings and assurance conclusions.
- Evaluate remediation and provide meaningful assurance over sustainable behavioural change.
Training Methodology
This training course combines expert-led presentations, facilitated discussions, behavioural risk case studies, audit scenarios, evidence-assessment exercises and practical applications. Participants will examine behavioural indicators, interview evidence, organisational data and management explanations to develop a disciplined approach to auditing sensitive and complex behavioural risks.
Organisational Impact
Organisations will benefit from:
- Stronger internal audit coverage of behavioural and cultural risks.
- Earlier identification of behaviours that may undermine controls and organisational objectives.
- Improved assurance over leadership conduct, incentives and accountability.
- Greater insight from speak-up, workforce, conduct and compliance information.
- More credible reporting of systemic behavioural issues to boards and audit committees.
- Stronger monitoring of remediation and sustainable behavioural change.
Personal Impact
Participants will develop:
- Greater confidence in auditing organisational behaviour and culture.
- Stronger understanding of behavioural risk and control effectiveness.
- Improved behavioural audit planning and evidence-gathering capabilities.
- Greater ability to analyse qualitative and quantitative behavioural information.
- Enhanced judgement when developing sensitive and evidence-based audit findings.
- Stronger capability to communicate behavioural assurance to senior stakeholders.
Who should Attend?
This GLOMACS Auditing Organisational Behaviour & Culture training course is suitable for professionals involved in internal audit, assurance, governance and organisational risk, including:
- Chief Audit Executives
- Heads of Internal Audit
- Internal Audit Managers
- Senior Internal Auditors
- Internal Auditors
- Governance Professionals
- Risk Managers
- Compliance Professionals
- Internal Control Professionals
- Ethics and Conduct Professionals
- HR Audit and Assurance Professionals
- Professionals responsible for organisational culture and behavioural risk
Organisational Behaviour, Culture & Behavioural Risk
Understanding Organisational Behaviour
- Moving from organisational culture to observable behaviour
- Understanding how actions, decisions and interactions shape outcomes
- Distinguishing individual incidents from systemic behavioural patterns
- Identifying formal and informal behavioural drivers
- Connecting behaviour with governance, risk and internal control
Understanding Behavioural Risk
- Defining behavioural risk in an organisational context
- Identifying behaviour misaligned with organisational objectives
- Understanding the impact of pressure on decision-making
- Recognising behavioural warning signs and red flags
- Incorporating behavioural risk into the audit universe
Behaviour & the Control Environment
- Understanding why well-designed controls may fail
- Management override and informal workarounds
- Normalisation of control deviations
- Behavioural drivers behind recurring audit findings
- Identifying gaps between documented policies and actual practice
Defining Internal Audit's Role
- Responsibilities of management, HR, risk, compliance and internal audit
- Determining when organisational behaviour should be audited
- Standalone behavioural audits versus integrated behavioural testing
- Establishing engagement objectives and scope
- Maintaining independence and objectivity in sensitive engagements
Governance, Leadership, Incentives & Conduct
Governance of Organisational Behaviour
- Board oversight of organisational behaviour and culture
- Senior management accountability
- Roles and responsibilities across the Three Lines
- Connecting organisational values with behavioural expectations
- Escalation and reporting of significant behavioural risks
Tone at the Top & Tone in the Middle
- Evaluating leadership messages and actions
- Testing consistency between stated values and actual behaviour
- Assessing management response to challenge and bad news
- Understanding middle-management influence
- Identifying inconsistencies across management levels
Incentives & Performance Pressures
- Financial and non-financial incentives
- Targets and unintended behavioural consequences
- Reward and recognition systems
- Promotion and career incentives
- Excessive performance pressure and risk-taking behaviour
Ethics, Conduct & Accountability
- Codes of ethics and conduct
- Translating policy into day-to-day behaviour
- Conflicts of interest and ethical decision-making
- Consistency of disciplinary action
- Accountability for behavioural standards
Speak-Up Culture, Psychological Safety & Behavioural Indicators
Speak-Up & Escalation
- Formal and informal reporting channels
- Whistleblowing arrangements
- Escalation of risk and control concerns
- Confidentiality and protection against retaliation
- Management response to reported concerns
Psychological Safety & Constructive Challenge
- Employee willingness to challenge decisions
- Confidence in raising concerns
- Fear, silence and avoidance behaviours
- Leadership response to dissent
- Identifying environments where problems may remain hidden
Behavioural Risk Indicators
- Whistleblowing trends
- Employee turnover and absenteeism
- Grievances and disciplinary cases
- Customer complaints and conduct events
- Performance, incentive and compliance data
Behavioural Assurance Dashboards
- Leading and lagging indicators
- Driver, behaviour and outcome measures
- Comparing teams, functions and locations
- Establishing thresholds and escalation triggers
- Avoiding misleading conclusions from individual metrics
Planning & Performing the Behavioural Audit
Planning the Engagement
- Conducting behavioural risk assessment
- Developing engagement objectives
- Establishing appropriate evaluation criteria
- Determining scope and audit populations
- Developing a behavioural audit work plan
Interviews & Focus Groups
- Designing effective behavioural audit questions
- Structured and semi-structured interviews
- Conducting focus groups effectively
- Identifying recurring patterns and contradictions
- Managing confidentiality and sensitive disclosures
Surveys & Organisational Data
- Using employee and culture surveys
- Analysing HR, compliance and conduct information
- Evaluating whistleblowing and incident data
- Comparing information across organisational populations
- Recognising bias, limitations and data-quality issues
Evidence Triangulation
- Combining interviews, surveys and organisational data
- Separating perception from audit evidence
- Corroborating management explanations
- Evaluating evidence sufficiency and reliability
- Documenting professional judgement
Behavioural Root-Cause Analysis
- Moving beyond individual misconduct
- Identifying systemic behavioural drivers
- Connecting leadership, incentives and control design
- Recognising recurring behavioural patterns
- Distinguishing symptoms from underlying causes
Findings, Remediation & Board Assurance
Developing Behavioural Audit Findings
- Distinguishing isolated incidents from systemic issues
- Connecting behavioural findings with organisational risk
- Establishing condition, cause and consequence
- Assessing significance and potential impact
- Developing defensible assurance conclusions
Reporting Sensitive Behavioural Issues
- Using neutral and evidence-based language
- Avoiding subjective or judgemental conclusions
- Presenting qualitative findings credibly
- Managing disagreement with senior management
- Escalating significant behavioural concerns
Board & Audit Committee Assurance
- What boards need to understand about behavioural risk
- Reporting emerging patterns and systemic themes
- Combining behavioural indicators with audit evidence
- Communicating uncertainty appropriately
- Providing assurance over governance and control effectiveness
Remediation & Sustainable Change
- Addressing policies, incentives and governance structures
- Addressing leadership and management behaviour
- Developing measurable corrective actions
- Assigning accountability for improvement
- Coordinating remediation across organisational functions
Follow-Up & Continuous Monitoring
- Developing follow-up indicators
- Testing whether behaviour has changed
- Monitoring recurring behavioural patterns
- Evaluating the sustainability of corrective action
- Determining when further escalation is required
- Upon successful completion of this training course, GLOMACS Certificate will be awarded to the delegates. Continuing Professional Education credits (CPE): In accordance with the standards of the National Registry of CPE Sponsors, one CPE credit is granted per 50 minutes of attendance
