ISO 9000
Introduction
The importance of managing quality within the organizations cannot be underestimated. As a matter of fact, the management of quality guarantees superior quality services as well as products within the organizations. Different stakeholders, especially the customers expect the organization always to offer quality services and deliver quality products. Consequently, managing quality leads to high levels of customer satisfaction and eventually customer loyalty. Additionally, quality management facilitates waste reduction within the organizations. Quality management also contributes to higher productivity and increased revenues and profitability within the businesses. The contemporary organizations create the reputation for quality by gaining certification with ISO 9000 standards. As a set of global standards on quality management as well as quality assurance, ISO 9000 helps the organizations adopt as well as operate efficient quality management system as Hoyle (2001) asserts. However, the contemporary organizations face a major ISO 9000 principle issue/problem. The present paper delves into this issue. In particular, the paper elucidates this problem and its consequences as well as analyzes the way various organizations are handling it.
ISO 9000 Principles Issue/Problem Facing the Organizations Today
The main ISO 9000 principles problem/issue facing the present-day organizations is the implementation problem. As a matter of fact, various organizations today are experiencing both internal and external obstacles that are eventually facilitating the implementation problem.
High certification costs
The high certification cost is essentially acting as a barrier to the implementation of ISO 9000 principles in most organizations today. Awan & Bhatti (2003) imply that ISO 9000 is criticized for the high costs of certification. There are additional costs that the organizations wishing to succeed in implementing the ISO 9000 principles must incur. According to Sharif (2005), the high certification cost is facilitated by the registration fee, time, training, and consultation fee, among others. Ideally, the process of achieving the ISO 9000 accreditation, especially for the small businesses is very costly. In an attempt to successfully implement ISO 9000, the organizations must incur huge costs in consulting, training, and infrastructure upgrading.
Lack of commitment and support by the top management
The problem of ISO 9000 implementation in the contemporary organizations is also brought about by the lack of commitment and support by the top management. In any organization, the top management plays an imperative role in ensuring that quality management is successfully adopted and implemented. In fact, Awan & Bhatti (2003) found out that Firm S would not have accomplished the certification devoid of the top management support as well as involvement. Nonetheless, the top organizational leaders in some of the contemporary organizations are not ready to adopt and implement the ISO 9000 principles due to their resistance to change. Besides, they are not ready to support the middle-level managers in implementing the quality management systems. They do not understand the benefits of ISO 9000. As a result, this has led to the problem of ISO 9000 principles implementation within the organizations today.
Lack of time
The lack of time is one of the internal difficulties that organizations are facing today in implementing the ISO 9000 standards. In essence, the entire ISO 9000 registration process takes time. The entire process involves too much documentation, which needs a lot of time. As a result, the organizations are required to take their time to ensure that they succeed in the registration process. Nonetheless, some of the contemporary organizations do not devote much of their time in the registration process. The little time they use in the ISO 9000 registration process acts as a barrier to the successful adoption and implementation of the ISO 9000 standards.
Lack of involvement by the employees
The lack of employee participation is also acting as a barrier to the successful implementation of the ISO 9000 principles in the organizations today. In fact, Awan & Bhatti (2003) found out that the lack of both worker participation and support were among the barriers to the implementation of ISO 9000. In essence, staff involvement plays an imperative role in the implementation of ISO 9000 standards within the organization. The top management within the organization registering for the ISO 9000 standards is required to empower their employees to take part in the process to facilitate its success. However, some of the organizations today lack the top management who empower their staff to participate in the ISO 9000 process and, as a result, this causes the problem of implementation.
Lack of awareness
Awan & Bhatti (2003) suggest that the adoption and the implementation of ISO 9000 principles in the developing countries such as Pakistan are slow because of lack of awareness as well as initiatives. Some of the organizations today lack the education, information, and training programs on the issues pertaining to quality. As a consequence, the level of awareness of quality management issues within these organizations is very low, and this explains why they face the problem of ISO 9000 standards implementation. The ISO 9000 standards are prone to misinterpretation if one fails to understand the terms (Hoyle, 2001). It is disheartening to note that both the employees and the top management in some of the contemporary organizations do not have a sufficient comprehension of the ISO 9000 accreditation process. As a result, their attempts to the registration of ISO 9000 principles/standards lead to wasted efforts and time.
Consequences of the ISO 9000 Principles implementation problem
The failure in the implementation of the ISO 9000 principles in the organizations today has some effects as below elucidated.
Lack of Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty
The failure of the contemporary organizations to implement ISO 9000 principles implies that these organizations do not understand the needs of their customers nor satisfy their requirements as required under the first principle. As a result, this is leading to the lack of customer satisfaction and ultimately the lack of creation of customer loyalty.
Lack of Quality Awareness
The problem of ISO 9000 principles implementation failure within the organizations today also results in the lack of quality awareness among both the employees and the management. Consequently, it becomes hard for the contemporary organizations to deliver quality goods and offer quality services.
Reduced Profitability
The lack of customer satisfaction and loyalty due to the failure of the contemporary organizations to implement ISO 9000 principles results in reduced profitability. These organizations do not make enough revenues and profits due to the customer dissatisfaction.
Lack of employee motivation
ISO 9000 accreditation improves employee engagement and motivation. Nonetheless, the problem of the failure to ISO 9000 principles implementation within the organizations today is leading to job dissatisfaction among the employees and lowering their morale.
Increase in service/product-liability risks
The failure of the contemporary organizations to implement the ISO 9000 principles leads to the increase in the service/product liability lawsuits as the consumers complain as a result of low-quality services/products offered to them.
How Different Organizations Deal with this Issue
Different contemporary organizations are dealing with the problem of the failure of implementing the ISO 9000 principles by offering their employees and top management the required training in quality management system. These organizations are utilizing the training methods such as seminars, internal audit training courses, and workshops, among others. Awan & Bhatti (2003) claim that training is an imperative factor in the implementation of the ISO 9000. The training programs are facilitating the increase in the ISO 9000 awareness among the top management and the workers in the contemporary organizations. As a result, this is leading to the increase in the implementation of the ISO 9000 principles in these organizations.
References
Awan, H. M., & Ishaq Bhatti, M. (2003). An evaluation of ISO 9000 registration practices: a case study of sports goods industry. Managerial Finance, 29(7), 109-134.
Hoyle, D. (2001). ISO 9000 quality systems handbook. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Sharif, I. M. (2005). The Barriers Affecting the Implementation of Quality Management System-ISO 9000 in Libyan Manufacturing Public Sector Organizations (Doctoral dissertation, University of Salford, UK).
