Chapter 5

Question 1

What are the two most basic audit methodologies?

Answer 1

Interviews and questionnaires

Question 2

What are the advantages of interviews?

Answer 2

1. Familiarity (auditor get to know the organization)
2. Fuller discussion
3. Serendipity
4. Interviewee reward
5. Organic nature

Question 3

What are the limitations of interviews?

Answer 3

1. Time-consuming
2. Analysis (more difficult to code etc)
3. Perceptual data

Question 4

Why should you schedule two different round of interviews?

Answer 4

You can do it weeks apart in order to tap developments in the organization.

Question 5

How do you call the first round of interviews?

Answer 5

Explanatory interviews

Question 6

What are explanatory interviews good for?

Answer 6

1. General orientation to the organization

2. Identify what needs to be probed further

Question 7

How do you call the second round of interviews?

Answer 7

The second round is more issue-orientated

Question 8

What is an interview agenda?

Answer 8

Simply a list of topic to be covered in the interview

Question 9

What are the four questions of Brache that might serve as a general agenda?

Answer 9

1. What er the external variables that influencer organizational performance?
2. What are the structural variables
3. What are the human variables
4. What are the variables that are both structural and human

Question 10

What are the six guidelines for developing an interview guide.

Answer 10

1. Ask open questions
2. Draw the interviewee out, probe skillfully
3. Avoid focusing on the negative
4. Adapt questions to specific levels/people
5. Do not reveal what you found out earlier
6. Let the guide grow, do not let it become static

Question 11

What is probe?

Answer 11

Asking a respondent to explain the answer more in depth

Question 12

What are the guidelines for thinking about the structure?

Answer 12

1. Orientation
2. Start with the job
3. Probe general areas before getting to specific ones
4. Do not permit the guide to restrict the interview

Question 13

What makes a sample good for the interviews?

Answer 13

It needs to be: representative, random and stratified

Question 14

How do you select people for the interviews?

Answer 14

1. Interview key people
2. Invite volunteers
3. Allow for contingencies

Question 15

When do you elborate?

Answer 15

When the answer is incomplete

Question 16

When do you ask for clarification?

Answer 16

When terms or concepts are unclear

Question 17

When do you ask for repetition of the question

Answer 17

When they give answers that do not match the question

Question 18

When do you search for confrontation?

Answer 18

When people seem to contradict themselves

Question 19

What do you write in a written formal summary?

Answer 19

1. Name of interviewee
2. Date
3. Position of interviewee
4. Answer to each individual question
5. Interviewer’s subjective reactions or observations
6. Questions or areas that should be explored further

Question 20

What are the procedures that may be helpful in synthesizing the data?

Answer 20

1. Set aside time for the interviewers to discuss what they are discovering about the organization
2. Develop a summary sheet for each question
3. Keep the first analysis descriptive
4. Analyze the data from each round of interviews separately
5. Look for qualitative interpretations
6. Draw conclusions across questions