Narratives of internal audit: The Sisyphean work of becoming “independent”

Abstract

Based on a study of the Internal Audit Department at the Swedish Police Authority, this text offers insight into the everyday work of a group of internal auditors, showing how they manage the ideal of being independent in an organization of which they are a part. The text is built on a narrative framework and structures the analysis according to different plots. Because the internal audit is neither part of the organization to be audited, nor truly independent from it, the plot of internal audit independence can become that of a Tragedy, where the cast of the story never find their way to success but get stuck somewhere along the way. The narrative analysis brings out several findings, where special focus is put on the costs of the Tragic plot: the emotional work of the auditors, the ambiguity of internal auditor’s authority and the attempts they make to “deparadoxify” their practice – that is, how they manage their sometimes very paradoxical everyday work life.