Exam

Exam

ISO Standard

In an era of rapid globalization, technological innovation, population boom, and environmental change, the need for international collaboration and standardization exists across disciplines in order to decrease duplication and the reinvention of competing standardizing platforms and processes for business, government, and society. Accordingly, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was founded in 1947 to address these needs and to facilitate knowledge transfer for the sake of collaborative standardization within a global civil society. Today, the ISO is a network, composed of the national standards institutes of 162 countries, and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It runs under the auspices of the United Nations. It is a nongovernmental organization (NGO) intended to form a bridge between the public and private sectors, and which strives to find solutions that meet the needs of both business and the general public. Each country has one representative, and some are part of their country's government, while others have their roots in business and industry.

The mission of the ISO is to partner with a global network of standardizing bodies and stakeholders in order to identify, synthesize, arbitrate, and bring forth consensus on voluntary standards for operational platforms and practices in areas such as business, technology, environmental management, government, and public policy. Many of these standards, particularly the ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 family, are relevant to sustainability and other environmental concerns, and are therefore of interest to companies and organizations who want to “go green,” and use that choice as part of their public image. The ISO certification process provides an important means for businesses to organize and implement their environmental concerns while also assuring stakeholders that the business is adhering to sustainable management practices. Although the ISO standards are voluntary, they have become increasingly relevant for business and governmental bodies, as consumers demand that organizational processes, policies, and products meet a globally held standard as a threshold of competence and quality. In line with these global market trends, consumers and governments are demanding the private sector, as responsible community actors, meet a level of transparency and organizational competence. As such, ISO standards have greatly influenced the field and the practices of corporate social responsibility (CSR), global organizational development, and environmental management.

Discussion

ISO 9000 contains a collection of international standards for providing management obligations for maintaining and creating quality systems of the organization. At present, the literature based on ISO 9000 incorporates research which illustrates that whether ISO 9000 implementation in business organizations is bad or good for business operations. Moreover, many research papers are entirely based on the impact of the certification of ISO 9000 and ultimately stated different results (Zhelyazkov, 2008). Certification of ISO 9000 plays an inevitable role in business operations. Sales function is one of the most affected business operations by ISO 9000 certification. Several researches have shown the impact of ISO 9000 on sales operations within the business organizations. The research determines that whether average sales of such organizations which are ISO certified is greater than those organizations which are not ...