1. “ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 are commonly used International Standards and as
management standards are applicable universally”.
a. Define and explain: ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and International Standards
b. Using literature, discuss the (above) statement.
International Standards are a set of standards which are applicable worldwide and these
standards are established by one or more international standard organizations (GOV.UK,
2020). The main principles of the development of these standards should include
transparency, openness, impartially and consensus, effectiveness and relevance, coherence,
and development dimension (World Trade Organisation, n.d.). The International Organization
of Standardization (ISO), has created international standards such as ISO 9001 and ISO
14001. “ISO 9001 is the internationally recognized Quality Management System (QMS)
standard that can benefit any size organization” according to (bsi, n.d.). ISO 14001 provides
guidelines on several aspects of operations such as product development, manufacturing,
storage, and distribution (bsi, n.d.). There are several benefits for ISO 9001 and ISO 14001,
which is shown in figure 1.1.
Figure 1.1 - shows the benefits of ISO 9001, (bsi, n.d.), on the left and ISO 14001, (bsi, n.d.), on the right.
The main argument of this statement is that ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 are applicable
universally, which is quite a big claim since it is often hard to cater to different sizes of
businesses and economies. Although, having these international standards would help
organizations work together internationally since they have the same standards. Several case
studies have been done to show that the international standards have significant
improvements, for example this case study on the “Implementation of Integrated Management
System in Hydropower Stations in Bhutan” (ZANGMO & PHUNTSHOK, 2023). This case study
, shows benefits for ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, which are coherent with the benefits shown in
figure 1. However, there was another case study done to research several organizations in
Portugal which have implemented ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 and have found that the
disadvantages outweigh the advantages in these specific cases (Neves, et al., 2023). In fact,
the Bhutan case study shows the extensive work and finance that needed to be done in order
to implement ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, and the Portugal case study states that this long and
complex process impacted the organizations in Portugal negatively. Which may be linked to
the size of a business and available resources needed to implement these standards.
However, the case studies differ by what they define as success. The Portugal case study
uses the GMM system estimation method which considers Return on Assets, Return on Equity,
Tobin’s Q, and EBITDA margin, whereas the Bhutan case study focuses on the non-financial
advantages such as customer satisfaction, brand reputation, and impact on the environment.
Nevertheless, a larger organization can compensate implementing these standards for non-
financial rewards compared to smaller organizations whose main objective is to stay afloat.
Therefore, these standards are not necessarily universally applicable as different businesses
view success in different ways, so they have to factor this in to improve their standards.
Furthermore, relating back to the definition of international standards, one of the factors that
should govern the creation of these standards should include development dimension, which
is shown to be lacking in the Portugal case study. In order for international standards to
function, is that if as many organisations implement them as possible. Hence why, improving
these standards to have better development dimension would lead to these standards being
used by more organisations.
Bibliography
World Trade Organisation, n.d. Principles for the Development of International Standards,
Guides and Recommendations. [Online]
Available at: https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tbt_e/principles_standards_tbt_e.htm
[Accessed 16 November 2023].
bsi, n.d. ISO 9001 - Quality Management (QMS). [Online]
Available at: https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/iso-9001-quality-management/
[Accessed 16 November 2023].
bsi, n.d. ISO 14001 - Environmental Management (EMS). [Online]
Available at: https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/iso-14001-environmental-management/
[Accessed 16 November 2023].
