Abstract

The control of quality standard ISO 9001 has made the internal audit to be experienced as police authority and paragraph control. Because of that, motivation for internal auditors is low. To counteract the experience, there is a possibility to integrate internal audit with improvements in company’s processes. Theory has shown that a qualified and competent auditor can provide information that can help the organization's managements to make the right decisions that will improve product quality and result in new customer contracts.

An opportunity to observe an internal and external audit at one of the case companies gave rise to this study. The purpose is to explore how different actors look at the role of internal quality auditor and how perceptions of the role affect the quality of audits of organizations certified according to ISO 9001. The study continued with qualitative case studies and interviews at four companies and with an external auditor.

The results of the study show that expectations of the internal auditor role do not differ significantly between case company’s corporate management, internal auditors and external auditor because everyone claims that internal auditor should work with improvements that are relevant to the companies. The big difference is that management does not communicate their expectations, which gives the impression that management has audits and ISO 9001 because the customers require the certification.

The internal auditors develop the role after realization that internal audits can be used to do more than control and to comply with the standard. That insight does not reach organization's management and the question is what quality the internal audits have. The quality of audits can be discussed by questioning how objective an auditor is. What factors influence what is reported as results of internal audits and how the internal audit findings have influenced management decisions?

Results of the study also show that it is difficult to measure how external auditor's expectations affect the quality of the internal auditor assignment.

Empirical findings, the selected theory and research support each other in terms of the importance of how and what is communicated around ISO 9001 and internal auditors because communication controls the quality of the internal audit?

Keywords: ISO 9001, quality of internal auditors, quality internal audits, expectations, improvements