Internal auditors can gain valuable insight on culture by developing an employee survey, administering it, and analyzing the results.
Executives and board members want to understand their organization's culture. But where does culture exist? Codes of ethics and value statements express the desired culture, but they may or may not reflect the real culture. And while executives and boards have some insight into the real culture, it is usually limited by an upward filtering mechanism — employees don't want to give bad news to their supervisors so they present information in the best possible light. Their supervisors take what they heard and present it in an even better light to their managers, and so forth up the chain of command.
