Interview or inquisition: Successful communication techniques (Or what does ethics have to do with it, anyway )
Auditing and being audited can be a very stressful event. The auditor has to be sensitive to the anxiety of all auditees and should do everything possible to put the auditee at ease and help the audit process to proceed smoothly. In this paper, the human factors associated with auditing are discussed and methods of communication and other interfacing techniques are discussed which, hopefully, can act as stress reducers. The bottom-line'' of any audit should be to provide feedback to the auditees that will help validate or improve their process and management system. Reducing the stress and enhancing communication will help to better achieve this goal. Although some evidence during an audit is gathered from records and documents, a significant portion of audit time is spent interviewing the audited organization's personnel. Therefore, much of this paper deals with interview techniques. It is up to the auditor to establish an initial atmosphere of trust and open communication. The goal is to obtain as much valid information as possible in the shortest time possible. Auditors should emphasize that they are there to audit the systems or program, not the person. Auditors should help the auditees' line management view the audit not as a search for the guilty,'' but an audit that will identify problems and assist in correction of existing or potential system problems. It should be the clearly defined policy of any audit program that there be no surprises involved with the evaluation. An ethical audit is not the place for cloak-and-dagger tactics, for witch hunting, or for the identification of situations that are then sprung at a critical and embarrassing time (a gotcha'').
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC06-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 6870412
- Report Number(s):
- PNL-SA-21343; CONF-930278-2; ON: DE93009478
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 1993 American Society for Quality Control (ASQC) audit conference, Charlotte, NC (United States), 25-26 Feb 1993
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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