Effective Auditing Business Assignment

Posted: May 7th, 2022

Effective Auditing Business Assignment
Career Relevancy
The first and primary goal of any business is to achieve its missions, objectives, and goals. Streamlining this process is achieved through organizational efficiency, and it’s up to the organizational designer to design systems that are both efficient and effective. The best way to measure this effectiveness is through auditing, a process that is applicable to a wide range of industries.
Background
Efficient Organization
Putting people first was the foundation for all the OD that James was intent on creating, but there were additional layers that he had to consider. The first, and arguably the most important from the perspective of his superiors, is the concept of organizational efficiency. Efficiency, defined best as how well employees accomplish tasks without wasting time, effort, or resources (Quain, 2019), is built almost exclusively on the maximization of time. His task as OD designer was then to create specific directives designed to maximize this efficiency— but he had to determine the best way to measure it while still working with the confines of his personal ethics.
James believed that people were, at their base, good and diligent workers, b ut he understood that motivation could be a struggle for even the most well-intentioned workforce. Even without considering the problem of motivation, he still had to constantly ask himself the question, “How can I get the best possible results for the smallest expenditure of money and time?” That all felt very mercenary, but he recognized that they were ultimately trying to run a business. His baseline was the people that his OD would impact, but the bottom line of the company was what really mattered most. After all, if the business was not successful, then there wouldn’t be a human element for him to support at all.
Focused Audits
Establishing efficiency within the business was a fine thing to say, but he needed a way to produce actual results for his superiors to view. To this end, James turned to the tried and true method of performance measurement known as auditing. In his planned presentation for the CEO, he defined a performance audit as the best tool for businesses to measure internal workings, programs, and functions for proficiency (Windham). There was, unquestionably, no better way to measure their overall efficiency. He then had to determine how he was going to approach the audits—thankfully, author Carrie Windham had detailed five steps for creating an effective audit:
Selection Process
In initial steps, James identified that he needed to find what elements of the business need to be reviewed. He then would have to determine who he was going to set to work on the auditing project—would it be internal, or would he hire on someone from outside the business to review their work? Generally speaking, James much preferred keeping all their processes internal, but there was something to be said about an outside perspective.
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Outline the Schedule
After step one, he would have to conduct the audit. He would produce a detailed outline of the elements he planned to review while identifying important milestones in production. This way, he can create a scaling outline with clear measurements, scheduling every step of the process so he can produce clear results with an even clearer timeline.
Examine the Data
After step two, he would have to review relevant data, documents, and other elements to ascertain what data points were most important in his audit. From interviewing staff members to combing over individual bits of work, this step needed to be exhaustive in its review. He wanted to be absolutely certain that no important details went unnoticed.
Report Findings
Penultimately, James knew that he would then have to produce his findings to the higher ups. He could start with a preliminary report, but he always preferred to offer the full content up front. Once he had combed over every data point, he should be capable of producing a clear line of logic that shows where the business is maintaining efficiency, and where there might be problems.
Follow-Up
Finally, James wanted to be certain that his results would be given the full consideration that they are due. Thus, he would set up assorted follow-up appointments to go over the result of their audit s. However, James would primarily delegate this to the individual teams themselves, allowing them to self-report on their progress to hold themselves individually accountable.
With all of these key elements in mind, James at least believed that he would be able to build an auditing process that was straightforward and fair. He knew that there would inevitably be weaknesses in their processes, and while the growing pains of identifying these might be rough to start with, he knew that it was ultimately going to be in the best interest of the business to identify them and develop beyond them.
References
Quain S. (2019, February 01) Organizational Effectiveness Vs. Organizational Efficiency. Retrieved On March 10, 2020. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/organizational-effectiveness-vs-organizational-efficiency-22413.html
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Windham C. (2019) Performance Audit Procedures. Retrieved On March 10, 2020. https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/performance-audit-procedures-28721.html
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Prompt
Continuing your project from Week 1, create a minimum of 500-word audit procedure including at least 4 of the following: examining documents, review assets, observations, review of leadership meetings, stakeholder expectations, vision and mission statements, implementation process, rating scale, or other elements deemed important to the auditing process. Your paper should include at least 2 citations and reference.