Introduction and background
The conducting of audits, internal to a company, to assess the status of a quality
system is a regular occurrence, yet never seems to be popular or necessarily results in a
positive or beneficial outcome.
It is often considered to lack respect (Small, 1998);
indeed, recent events in the financial sector (WorldCom, Enron, etc.) have done little to
improve the reputation of the auditing profession.
The negativity created by auditing
can impact morale and adversely affect working practices. So it is a useful exercise to
examine the nuances within the process, identify the elements that are ineffective or
create difficulty, and the reasons why. The ineffective elements could then be
eliminated, bypassed or their impact controlled, or new process elements developed.
However, it is important to quantify the current status so that changes made can be
measured to validate improvement.