There Are No More Internal Audit Experts, Only Communities of Practices Experts Synopsis

‘   what is needed now [in internal auditing] is empowerment of communities of practices that self-manage intellectual capital in order to respond flexibly to changes in the environment and stay competitive.’ How communities of practices can be developed to manage knowledge is discussed from research, both theoretical and empirical. How communities of practices can be developed by internal auditing to manage its own knowledge and contribute to the management of knowledge in an organization is also discussed. Cutting edge internal auditing resources and practices need communities of practices to motivate and drive their development.

Contributed by Ronald Lackland, CIA, CGAP, CCSA, CFE, MIRM, MBA, MSc, PGCE, Senior Course Director in Audit Management and Consultancy and PhD Candidate, Centre for Internal Audit, Risk Management and Governance, Birmingham City University Business School, Birmingham, UK.

After Reading the Case Study Consider:
1. How many communities of practice can you identify in your internal auditing, and across your organization with internal auditing presence?
2. Can you recognize the ‘   three domains of intellectual capital, namely: human, structural and relational    ’ in your internal auditing knowledge management strategy? You should be able to and from that develop your management of knowledge.
3. Is your internal auditing ‘   establishing communities of practices with members from across the organizations it serves   ’ and does it use these to ‘   assist senior management in keeping the organization in a sustainable advantageous “cutting edge” position’?