QUALITY AUDIT AND ENTERPRISE IMPROVEMENT FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF EXTERNAL AUDITORS

Abstract

The paper deals with the issue of organisational improvement and employs a theoretical and empirical approach. Its purpose was to introduce the notion of the quality audit as a management instrument contributing to the improvement of enterprise operations. The theoretical part presents the contemporary meaning of audit, its objectives, functions and types. In the second – empirical – part, the results of the author’s own study were used to reveal that the quality audit identifies the weaknesses of an organisation and, thus, points to areas that should or can be improved. In addition, the results of the study can be used to draw a conclusion that increasing the knowledge of employees responsible for the quality management system would contribute to reducing the barriers affecting the effective implementation of the audit and would maximise the results obtained from the audit.