Interactive qualitative analysis focus group of internal audit practitioners to explore the development of internal auditors’ professional identity

The interactive qualitative analysis (IQA) focus group enabled participants to identify the key components applicable to the development of internal auditors’ professional identity and to apply axial coding to define affinities. Thirteen internal audit practitioners participated in the study. During the focus group, the practitioners identified 110 elements grouped into twelve affinities. Subsequent to the focus group, the participants described pairwise relationships between the affinities and further defined these in a detailed affinity relationship form that was consolidated into a table. The participants then indicated their belief as to whether a relationship existed between the affinities with 618 indicators for a possible 132 relationships. These were then consolidated in an affinity pair relationship frequency table that, together with the affinity definitions, formed the basis of further analysis.