My Reading on ASQ CQA HB Part III

Part IIIC
Managing Difficult Situations
Challenging situations include antagonism (a clash of temperaments leading readily to hostility.), coercion, and
even time-wasting techniques employed by the auditee to slow down or stop the audit process.
Meaning:
Coercion means the use of express or implied threats of violence or reprisal (as discharge from employment) or
other intimidating behavior that puts a person in immediate fear of the consequences in order to compel that
person to act against his or her will
Difficult situations May arise
At times, an auditor may encounter difficult situations that are counterproductive to the auditing process. For
example, an auditee may be antagonistic or coercive. Interviewing may be made ineffective by an interviewee
who talks too much or not at all. An auditee may also use time-wasting tactics by deviating from the audit plan.
In any difficult situation, the auditor should remain polite but firm, maintaining self-control and complete control
of the audit.
Defusing Antagonistic Situations
Sometimes employees are openly hostile to an auditor for reasons unrelated to the audit, or the employees
may be reacting to what they feel is a personal attack by the auditor on their abilities to do their work. An
employee may have been part of the team that developed a process or a particular system, or he or she may
have just gone through a six-month-long endeavor to improve something that the auditor is now picking apart.
When auditees get defensive, the auditor should separate them or suggest a break to defuse the situation. The
auditor should continue the conversation at a later time, when everyone is calm.
Charlie Chong/ Fion Zhang