Identifying the relationships, their implications for questions of policy and how to best negotiate within the structure to achieve desired outcomes thus requires political analysis. Political analysis and its implementation is seen in the second paragraph of her comments. Engaging in political behavior means taking the actions dictated by the information and analysis. Successful auditors engage in political behavior in the sense of analyzing organizations from the point of view of power relationships and taking appropriate actions to protect and defend the audit function and further the implementation of audit recommendations. Ann-Marie makes this point, that her work in this arena is critical to her success, in the final paragraph of her comments.
Most auditors describe themselves as analytical.
Auditors need to understand that political analysis is analysis. Not to engage in political analysis is to abandon an important tool. We can learn to identify political information, engage in political analysis and use the results to guide our behavior. Over time we can increase our ability to do this well. There is nothing immoral, wrong, corrupt or deceitful about this.