Gender Diversity in Internal Auditing: A Catalyst for Sustainability

Concepts such as environmental, social, governance, sustainable development, and responsibility towards the environment are not new concepts. They appeared and were defined a long time ago, but more recently their importance has increased significantly. Governments, companies, regulatory institutions, non-profit organizations, and even educational institutions have emphasized the activities carried out from the perspective of the notion of sustainable development. Thus, the number of problems related to sustainability, the risks that may arise in this process, and the need to find the most effective solutions, have also increased. The purpose of this study is to analyze whether the gender of internal auditors influences their involvement in ESG reporting. Our study was carried out by applying a questionnaire to internal auditors and/or coordinators of the internal audit function in Romania. Following the application of the questionnaire the final sample size employed in this analysis is 93 with a gender structure that allows a differentiated analysis (29.18 men, 63.53 women, 7.29 unspecified). Our interest was directed towards internal auditors because the specific activities of insurance and advisory have to work to create a sustainability management system in the first phase and audit the system in the second phase. The analysis of the received results was done by clustering also, we considered it appropriate to statistically test the correlations between the variables using nonparametric correlation analysis (Kendall). The main findings show a strong and directly significant link between the gender of the internal auditor and the way the entity can contribute to achieving sustainable development goals. The limits of the study are found in the size and category of the sample of respondents. The category of respondents is limited to internal auditors from Romania and their number can be expanded.