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This study aims to understand independence in internal auditing by investigating how internal auditor independence is constructed when analysed in its corporate governance context.

A critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the corporate governance reports of Swedish large stock market listed non-financial companies, for three consecutive years, is undertaken, using a theoretical lens of organisational embeddedness and operational coupling to understand independence as a situated practice.

The study develops four archetypes of internal auditor independence – autarchic, instrumental, symbiotic and subservient – and discusses each archetype's implications for independence, related to tripartite relations with management and the audit committee, regarding who has the mandate to direct work and how the work is done. It finds that internal auditors always have a capacity to be independent. Although they are not independent in relation to agents in the subservient archetype, they are independent of those down the organisational chain of command, suggesting independence is both situational and relational.

The analysis contributes a novel approach to the literature and develops a conception of independence using the dimensions of embeddedness and coupling. The archetypes offer an analytical framework for future studies on independence.

Internal auditors may understand their practice differently through the archetypes that result from this study.

Internal auditors' power relations within corporate governance further an understanding of the pressures on internal auditors and their role.

This study contributes new knowledge on the situatedness of independence by showing how internal auditors are embedded and coupled helps build their independence.

This paper aims to examine the association between the working relationship between internal and external auditors and the moral courage of internal auditors to report management fraud in the Tunisian setting.

Data are gathered from 163 internal auditors working in Tunisian companies and a partial least squares–structural equation model (PLS-SEM) is used to test the hypothesis regarding the effect of the cooperation between internal and external auditors on internal auditors’ moral courage.

The results of this study provide strong empirical support for the positive impact of the working relationship between internal and external auditors on internal auditors’ moral courage to report management fraud and unethical behaviors.

The reported results increase the awareness of Tunisian regulators to enact regulations that strengthen the collaboration between internal and external auditors to promote internal auditors’ moral courage and then limit fraud and improve organizational performance in the Tunisian setting.

This paper fills one of the major research gaps in internal audit and moral courage research streams by revealing that the courageous behavior of internal auditors can be fostered by specific means efficacy such as the working relationship between internal and external auditors.