Management systems integration: a Renaissance organizational era

Abstract

Holistic approach to management, fullfilling all the stakeholders’ requirements, characterizes management systems (MS) integration. Other distinctive features are the interactions enhancement between several sub-systems and the hiper-technological context where it develops. All these characteristics mimic a sociological, cultural, political, artistical and intellectual era: Renaissance. Taking into account the polymath or Renaissance man concept we may converge through the analogy: science and art harmoniously integrated in the same entity focused on the achievement of several objectives at the same time. An organizational Renaissance era, enabling a Middle Age to a Modern Age organizational evolution may be forecasted providing a successful management sub-systems integration. Taking into account this assumption, some lingering questions raised among MS community: Which is the best strategy to management systems integration? How to comparatively assess an integrated management system (IMS)? Which are the most efficient IMS? How many evolutionary (maturity) levels should be considered? Should a polymath profile be required for employees in this newly organizational context? It is intended that the present extended abstract be the first on reporting some preliminary results of an ongoing project aiming the maturity and efficiency levels assessment of IMS.