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ABSTRACT
Given heterogeneous findings on how diversity impacts performance, we investigate diversity in internal audit teams. Using responses from 302 chief audit executives, we analyze demographic and cognitive diversity's effects on perceived internal audit performance. Our metrics go beyond gender diversity to include nationality and education. National diversity gains importance with the increasing internationalization of companies and the global focus of internal auditing. Our findings highlight that gender diversity is conducive to team performance, whereas a skewed gender composition may impede it. We find that national and educational diversity might enhance perceived performance. However, our results indicate that in certain configurations, such as gender-uniform groups, perceived performance may be higher, revealing a complex relation between our measures for diversity and perceived performance. Our findings reveal diversity may induce biases to exclude minority groups, such that teams do not integrate additional perspectives to improve decision-making and offset the expected benefits of diversity.
Data Availability: The data that support the findings of this study are available from the authors upon request.

ABSTRACTWith the growing relevance of internal auditing, academics and practitioners emphasize the importance of an adequate and adaptable staffing approach. Because internal audit resources are considered a crucial component of internal audit quality, we investigate why internal auditors perform audits with experts from within or outside the organization. These joint audits augment resources and represent a viable alternative to additional staffing or full outsourcing of the internal audit function (IAF). Using survey data from three national chapters of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), we consider three IAF dimensions (i.e., structure and resources, activities and processes, environmental factors) associated with resource augmentations. Our findings provide evidence that joint audits are used when the IAF is comparatively small and competent, when the IAF focuses on risk and strategy-related tasks, and when the IAF is decentralized. Our findings also suggest that joint audits can strengthen the auditor-auditee relationship.Data Availability: Please contact the authors.JEL Classifications: M42; M49.