EXPECTATION MANAGEMENT AT IFRN'S INTERNAL AUDIT UNIT: A CASE STUDY
internal audit in the public sector; standards; audit expectations gap; managing expectations.
This dissertation aims to understand how expectations are managed in the internal audit unit of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Norte - IFRN. The adopted methodology is classified as to the procedures, as descriptive and exploratory; as to the objectives, case study and documentary research; and as for the approach, qualitative. For data collection, institutional records and documents, the individual interview with the Chief Auditor and the focus group with IFRN auditors were used as instruments. The data were treated through content analysis and document analysis. The results showed that the knowledge phase (identification and collect of key stakeholder expectations) has a pre-defined procedure routine, in which the main instrument used is the Information Survey. As for the expectations consideration phase, it was found that the unit does not have a routine procedure to guide auditors in this stage. As a result, there were weaknesses that can interfere with the effectiveness and quality of work, the impartiality of professional judgments and the mitigation of differences in expectations. In view of these weaknesses and considering that the literature points out that the current scenario shows the emergence of new expectations and the expansion of these around the internal audit, it is concluded that the moment of analysis of the expectations of the main stakeholders deserves attention, and it is relevant to establish procedures guidance to the auditors in order to remove or mitigate the weaknesses detected.