In this regard, it should be remembered that internal
auditors – like other professionals such as accountants,
scientists, attorneys and engineers – have two competing
loyalties and identities : to their profession and to
the organisation for which they work. This issue of
profession versus organisation has been an ongoing
concern in organisational theory and the sociology
of professions for a couple of decades. One of the
most common conceptualisations of the question was
advanced by Gouldner (1957, 1958) and is known as
the cosmopolitan–local distinction. In Gouldner’s view,
individuals whose identification is local see as their frame
of reference the institution in which they work. They
have strong loyalty towards their employing organisation
and low identification with their profession. By contrast,
cosmopolitans are committed to maintaining the skills
and values of the profession to which they belong. They
tend to use external professional groups as their frame of
reference, and are less loyal to the specific organisation
that employs them.