Integrated management systems – quality, environment and health and safety: motivations, benefits, difficulties and critical success factors

Abstract

Following the process of economic globalization and increasingly competitive markets, many organizations have implemented wider management systems, as distinctive factor against competition. However, with the increasing standards organizations found themselves needing to integrate management systems aiming the expertise and resources optimization. As a result of that integration a maximum performance of the management system can be achieved. It was defined as this study aim the assessment of critical success factors for implementing an integrated management system, and what were the difficulties felt by organizations during the integration process. The type of sampling was nonprobabilistic by convenience. The sample was composed with four organizations with certified management system of quality, environment and occupational health and safety. The type of study was descriptive and exploratory level I. To collect data semi-structured interviews were conducted with management system managers, where the entire integration process was examined. It can be concluded that the integrated management system contributes positively to the studied organizations, leading to benefits at the organizational processes, cost reduction, efficiency gains, among others. It can also be concluded that the involvement of top management, the existence of human and financial resources, training, as well as the employee motivation involvement, clear goals and meeting deadlines, are factors that can lead to successful systems integration. The change on both organization structure and behavior of employees was the most outline difficulty felted by organizations.