Pavel Castka

A critical look on quality through CSR lenses

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to map the key challenges that quality management faces in order to meet the demands of CSR. The paper focuses on ISO 26000 – a newly emerging international standard for social responsibility – and discusses synergies (and divergences) between quality management (and ISO quality management and environmental management standards) and CSR as they emerged during the process of ISO 26000 development.Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws conclusions from the resolutions and working materials produced by ISO Committee on Consumer Policy, the Strategic Advisory Group on Social Responsibility and ISO/TMB/WG SR – a working group in charge of the development of ISO 26000. To add the quality management dimension to the discussion, the evidence is further expanded from the ISO documents by revealing the arguments posited by nominated experts during the development of ISO 26000.Findings – The paper finds that the quality field can significantly contribute to the deployme...

Adoption of social responsibility through the expansion of existing management systems

Purpose – The papers aims are: to scrutinize International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 26000 international guidance standard for social responsibility; to discuss the role of this standard in the adoption of social responsibility in organisations with existing quality management systems in line with ISO 9000.Design/methodology/approach – Building on academic literature and recent resolutions and working documents from ISO, the paper discusses ISO 9000 and ISO 26000 in five areas: general description; scope; approach to supply chain management; principles and content.Findings – Provides a comparison between ISO 9000 and ISO 26000 in each area listed above. Argues for ISO 9000 to provide a structural and infrastructural platform for organisations to develop and adopt corporate social responsibility (CSR) and for ISO 26000 to facilitate a shift from customer focus to stakeholder focus hence creating a business‐to‐society orientation in organisations.Practical implications – A very useful source f...

Social responsibility standardization: Guidance or reinforcement through certification?

Increased debates and scrutiny over Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainable Development (SD) has resulted in a greater number of organizations subscribing to CSR and SD principles. To assist with the operationalization of CSR and SD, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed a set of standards – most recently a standard for social responsibility (ISO 26000). Some of these standards are intended for use as specification standards for certification, others establish guiding principles. The latter are not intended for certification purpose hence they rely on self-motivated implementation. Should ISO 26000 be a guidance standard or a certifiable standard? To answer this question, we firstly outline and discuss ISO standards for CSR and SD. Central to our discussion is whether and how certification impacts on the uptake of CSR and SD standards. We argue that for ISO 26000 a guidance standard not a certifiable standard is preferable.

Towards Understanding the Impeders of Strategy Implementation in Higher Education (HE): A Case of HE Institutes in Iran.

Purpose – To identify the impeders of strategy implementation in the higher education (HE) sector of Iran.Design/methodology/approach – A structured questionnaire was distributed to the academic staff from Iranian Universities. The questionnaire consisted of closed and open questions. Data were gathered from the major universities in different regions of the country.Findings – Major impeders towards strategy implementation in the HE sector of Iran are outlined and the nature of these impeders are explained and the relationships among them are explored.Research limitations/implications – The research, through the use of the structured questionnaire, delivered a set of generic impeders; however a detailed picture of implementation of strategies needs further investigation.Practical implications – Through the analysis of the most prevalent impeders, this paper informs Iranian academics about possibilities for change and improvement.Originality/value – The case of the HE sector development in Iran is somethin...

How organisational culture impacts on the implementation of ISO 14001:1996 – a UK multiple‐case view

Purpose – To investigate the influence of organisational culture on the implementation of ISO 14001:1996 environmental management system (EMS) standard in two manufacturing case study organisations (CSOs).Design/methodology/approach – This research is a case study action research conducted in two manufacturing organisations in the UK.Findings – The hassles authors identified a framework of four dimensions of organisational culture that play an important role during the ISO 14001:1996 implementation process of. These are recognised as people, process, structure and environment.Research limitation/implications – The study is limited to two case organisations, which are based in the UK.Practical implications – The four dimensions of organisational culture identified through this research can help practitioners to coordinate their ISO 14000:1996 implementation projects.Originality/value – This paper fulfils the need to improve the understanding of the impact of the organisational culture on ISO 14001:1996 imp...

Management Systems Standards: Diffusion, Impact and Governance of ISO 9000, ISO 14000, and Other Management Standards

Management systems standards have become ubiquitous, adopted by millions of organizations around the world. The ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 quality and environmental management systems standards are the most well-known, but standards exist or are emerging for many other aspects of management too. Such a widespread phenomenon invites many questions. Key among those are why organizations adopt these standards, what effect they have on organizations, and how the standards themselves are managed. Although the literature investigating these standards is vast, it is scattered across many disciplines, and largely disjointed. This monograph provides a comprehensive overview of the empirical research on ISO 9000, ISO 14000, and other management standards, revolving around the three key questions above.

Adoption and diffusion of environmental and social standards: The effect of stringency, governance, and media coverage

Purpose The increased focus on sustainability has led firms to incorporate a range of sustainability practices in their products, processes and supply chains. Because these practices are typically difficult to observe, firms often seek an independent verification and adopt voluntary environmental and social standards and eco-labels such as ISO 14000, FSC, USDA Organic or Fairtrade. The purpose of this paper is to study several factors linked to their adoption. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on existing theory, the authors hypothesize that environmental and social standards will be more widely adopted if they are better-governed, less stringent and more favorably covered in the media. The authors collect data on 41 eco-labels from multiple data sources. Findings The authors find that the better-governed labels are more widely adopted, but that more stringent labels within the sample are not less widely adopted. More favorable media coverage is not associated with wider adoption. Research limitations/implications The study focuses on the diffusion of a sample of well-established eco-labels. To establish causal links, longitudinal data on governance, stringency, adoption and media coverage would be needed. Practical implications Managers deciding which eco-label to adopt need not be concerned that a more stringent label will inevitably yield less business value due to the label being less widely adopted. However, they should care whether a label is seen to be well-governed. Managers cannot use the way a label is portrayed in the media as a predictor for adoption. Originality/value Past research has often ignored how characteristics of environmental and social standards impact their diffusion. The work contributes to the growing literature on diffusion of voluntary standards and eco-labels by adding a quantitative and multi-sectoral perspective.

Benchmarking leagility in mass services: The case of a fast food restaurant chains in Iran

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate and highlight that the application of leagility can be possible in mass services as one type of services.Design/methodology/approach – This paper describes a case study and considers the concept of the leagility in a mass service organization. By highlighting some of the characteristics of mass services, it examines whether or not this concept can be applicable in the context of mass services.Findings – Despite the low customization in mass services, fast food restaurants have faced changing needs of the customers. To respond to these demands, the case study organization can adopt new strategies so that it could be able to serve the customer with short lead times, low costs and high variety.Research limitations/implications – This paper considers leagility in a single mass service. Hence, in order to provide robust results in this type of services, more cases should be studied. It is also necessary to study leagility in other types of services that is,...

Geographies, motivations and benefits from ISO 9000 standard: a comparison of manufacturing and service organisations

In this research we aim to empirically describe differences between manufacturing and service industries in terms of their geographies, motivations and benefits from ISO 9000 certification. Based on the response from 422 New Zealand based ISO 9000 certified organisations, we reveal that service organisations are focused on national business environment whereas manufacturing sector is more linked to international business. Furthermore, ISO 9000 service organisations experience less coercive pressure to get certified in comparison to their manufacturing counterparts and both sectors gain similar benefits from the certification. We have also concluded that our findings are relevant to global population of ISO 9000 certified companies as New Zealand patterns of ISO 9000 are comparable with patterns identified in other developed countries such as the USA, Australia or France.