Enhancing internal auditors' risk assessment through governance and cognition: an Egyptian perspective

The current study investigates the impact of internal auditors' behavioural skills (cognitive style) and technical skills [involvement in information technology governance (ITG)] in assessing risk, namely fraud risk and control risk. A 2 × 2 factorial experimental design was conducted on a sample of 104 internal auditors from Egyptian commercial banks. The results reveal that internal auditors with an analytic cognitive style assessed a significantly higher fraud risk compared to internal auditors with an intuitive cognitive style. On the other hand, internal auditors with an analytic cognitive style assessed an insignificantly higher control risk compared to internal auditors with an intuitive cognitive style. Additionally, internal auditors who were involved in ITG assessed significantly higher fraud and control risks than non-ITG-involved internal auditors. Finally, analytic internal auditors who were involved in ITG assessed significantly higher fraud and control risks compared to intuitive internal auditors who were not involved in ITG. The overall results support the notion that internal auditors need to possess certain behavioural skills and technical skills to be able to engage in more strategic roles and, in turn, add value to their organisations.