An audit partner from each of
the firms was interviewed. These local office audit partners were located at
offices some distance away from the ACU and were users of ACU services.^
We selected the local office and the partner independently of the firm's ACU
staff. The ACU staff were unaware beforehand that we were interviewing local
office partners. In addition, a recent consultation in which the local partner was
involved was walked through to gain further insights into the process.
All interviews (ACU and local office) were taped. A research assistant who
was unaware of the purpose of the research transcribed tbe ACU tapes. The
author who did not attend the ACU interviews read the transcripts and listened
to selected portions of the interview tapes to ensure transcript accuracy. Both
authors read the audit manual sections supplied by the ACU partners. Both
authors were present at tbe local office interviews. One author transcribed tbose
interviews, and the other checked the transcription. Because the local office
interviews were supplementary data, it was felt that an independent transcription
was not needed of those interviews. Employing all of these resources, the
author who did not attend the ACU interviews identified the perceived mandate,
the resources employed, and the processes followed by each of the five
ACUs. This same author also made the primary classification decisions
required for the organizational memory analysis. The interviewing author independently
performed the same analysis. No disagreements were found between
the two authors' analyses employing these three data sources.
All procedures that were followed in the walk-throughs were cross-checked
with those procedures noted in the interviews by the author who was present at
the walk-through. No discrepancies were found between the reported procedures
in the interviews and tbe inquiry walk-througbs tbat were observed.
This data-gathering approach, employing multiple sources of information,
enabled us to triangulate our research to ensure that we understood both the formal
and informal aspects of the current institutional arrangements (Jick 1979).
In the description and analysis that follows, all of our sources support the interpretation
given unless we explicitly note to tbe contrary. Finally, as part of our
analysis, a draft of this paper was circulated to our informants. Their feedback
confirmed we had described tbeir ACU correctly. Further, the feedback did not
take issue witb the substance of our analysis.