Strategies for the integration of management systems and standards

Abstract

Due to the proliferation of function-specific management systems and related standards, a need has emerged to somehow integrate them in order to reduce wasteful redundancies and possibly generate synergy effects. While the integration of the requirements of standards, for example ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, does not represent a major issue, doing the same for internal management systems may present a few obstacles. This paper discusses various ideas for the development of an integrated management system, together with the supporting audit methodologies. A two-pronged model based on systems thinking is suggested for future work in this exciting area of research and practice.

Integration of management systems: A methodology for operational excellence and strategic flexibility

“…Third stream: This literature focuses on practical approaches to carrying out integration-with a focus on strategies and process of integration, and degree of integration. Examples are Jonker and Karapetrovic (2004), Jørgensen et al (2006), Karapetrovic (2002), andRocha et al (2007). See a summary of the three streams in Table 1.…”

“…Literature in this stream elaborates the concept of integration and provides the basis for more recent IMS literature. Noteworthy works in this stream include Griffith (2000), Karapetrovic (2003), Karapetrovic and Willborn (1998), and Wilkinson and Dale (1999, 2001, 2002. Second stream: The second stream of literature focuses on further exploration of IMS and in particular on proving the legitimacy of IMS.…”

“…A description of the selected organisations is summarized in Table 2. Asif et al 2009;Beckmerhagen et al 2003;Bernardo et al 2008;Douglas and Glen 2000;Holdsworth 2003;Jonker and Karapetrovic 2004;Jørgensen 2008;Jørgensen et al 2006;Karapetrovic 2002Karapetrovic and Jonker 2003;Labodova 2004;Rocha et al 2007;Salomone 2008 Degree of integration IMS: a means to sustainable development IMS: a means to sustainable management systems…”

“…The number of these MSs is burgeoning and the need has arisen to integrate them into a single overriding business MS (Karapetrovic 2003;Zutshi and Sohal 2005) for three primary reasons: 1) to ensure that unintegrated MSs do not pull the organisational processes in different directions; 2) to make it easier for organisations to handle various MSs; and 3) to improve organisational performance. Further, the literature describing the process of integration of MSs is limited (Karapetrovic 2002;Karapetrovic and Jonker 2003). Future development is warranted because past studies: 1) omit a systematic consideration of the integration process based on empirical data and 2) lack a focus on how integration brings about organisational changes and how organisations can manage the integration process to maximise benefits.…”

Descifrando los niveles de integración de los sistemas integrados de gestión

“…Al revisar los documentos normativos creados por los organismos internacionales de estandarización, no se encontró información específica acerca de niveles de integración de sistemas de gestión integrados. Es por esto que para el propósito del instrumento, y alineado a la definición de sistema integrado de gestión seleccionada, la teoría de niveles para sistemas integrados de gestión que mejor se adapta es la de los tres niveles de integración propuestos por Karapetrovic (2002), ya que en ellos se logran abarcar todos los aspectos que son parte de la integración de sistemas de gestión que se indican en los documentos de los organismos internacionales de estandarización referenciados y en los que concuerdan la mayoría de los demás autores consultados, empezando en un primer nivel por la integración de la documentación; en un segundo nivel, alineando los procesos, objetivos y recursos, y en un tercer nivel integrando todas las partes del sistema de gestión en un único sistema. Estos niveles permiten enmarcar la evolución de la integración de los sistemas y proporcionan puntos claves que permiten fijar un rumbo claro para alcanzar los objetivos de la integración de sistemas de gestión (ver tabla 4).…”