Total Quality Management (TQM) focuses on continuous improvement, teamwork, and process efficiency. The CAE’s goal is to reduce audit time and improve client satisfaction, which requires collaborative decision-making and diverse skill sets to ensure a high-quality, efficient audit process.
(A) Assign a team with a trained audit manager to plan each audit and distribute fieldwork tasks to various staff auditors. ❌
Incorrect. While structured planning is beneficial, TQM emphasizes decentralized decision-making rather than relying solely on the audit manager.
(B) Assign a team of personnel who have different specialties to each audit and empower team members to participate fully in key decisions. ✅
Correct. TQM encourages cross-functional teams, collaboration, and shared decision-making, which helps in reducing audit time and improving quality.
IIA GTAG "Auditing Continuous Improvement Initiatives" highlights diverse audit teams as a best practice for improving audit effectiveness.
(C) Assign a team to each audit, designate a single person to be responsible for each phase of the audit, and limit decision-making outside of their area of responsibility. ❌
Incorrect. This approach is too rigid and limits team collaboration, which contradicts TQM principles.
(D) Assign a team of personnel who have similar specialties to specific engagements that would benefit from those specialties and limit key decisions to the senior person. ❌
Incorrect. Specializing teams in certain audits may improve technical accuracy, but TQM promotes diverse perspectives rather than restricting decisions to one senior auditor.
IIA GTAG – "Auditing Continuous Improvement Initiatives"
IIA Standard 2110 – Governance (Process Improvement)
ISO 9001 – Total Quality Management Principles
Analysis of Answer Choices:IIA References:Thus, the correct answer is B, as TQM supports cross-functional teams and shared decision-making to improve audit efficiency and client satisfaction.
