1.1             
Discussion

 

The study
has determined the main impacts and motives of ISO 9001 certification in
Pakistan based on a sample of 108 organizations spread all over the Pakistan.
The study is descriptive in nature and includes organizations from all over the
Pakistan. Structured instrument has been used to gather the data. The
instrument is mailed to organizations selected in the sample and one response
from each organization is received. Results of data analysis are presented in
chapter 5. Following discussion will provide the summary of results obtained.

 

1.1.1       
Demographic
Structure

 

As presented in previous chapter, the study includes
governmental and private firms, project based and functional organizations from
various business sectors of Pakistan. Out of 108 sample of
organizations participated in the survey, 71 (66%) are from Private sector
whereas 37 (34%) are from Government organizations of Pakistan. The
distributions of Project based and functional organizations are 48 (44%) and 60
(56%) respectively. The business sectors of the firms participated in the
survey include; Design & Development 12 (11%), Manufacturing 34 (32%),
Construction 13 (12%), Services 37 (34%) and others 12 (11%).  Hence, the study has focused on all the major
sectors, different types and categories of organizations in order to find the
overall impact of ISO 9001 certification in Pakistan.

 

1.1.2       
Hypothesis
Testing

 

As discussed under section 5.3, results of regression
analysis show a strong correlation between all the variables tested. Value of
regression coefficients have also been significant at given value of ?. The null
hypotheses enlisted under section 3.4 have been found true. Following are the
results of hypothesis testing:

 

H01: Internal motives for ISO 9001 certification are more
strongly related to the internal performance measures than external motives.

 

H02: External motives for ISO 9001 certification are more
strongly related to the external performance measures than internal motives.

 

These results are in accordance with the findings of Paulo et
al. (2011) in which 207 organizations of Portuguese were studied to analyze the
economic impact of quality management system.  As per Paulo et al. (2011), impacts of ISO
9001 are related with the motivations of the company for certification. If the
certification is based on internal motives, the positive impacts are obtained on
the factors internal to the organization like productivity and operational
results. Whereas, if the external motives are behind the certification, the
results obtained are mainly related to improvements of external nature like
economic factors.  As per findings of Changiz
and Mohsen (2015), change in one unit of measures of the internal motivations
results in 67% of the effects on organizational performance, whereas, change in
one unit of measures of the external motivations results in 54% of the effects
on organizational performance.  They have
concluded the high performance of the companies who have been certified on the
basis of internal motivations. Same are the findings of this study that the
motivations for certification are positively related to the performance of the
certified organizations, internal motivations contribute more to the
performance than the external motivations, internal motives for certification
impacts more the internal performance measures, whereas external motives impact
the external performance measures more than the internal motives.

 

1.1.3       
Impact
of ISO 9001 certification on organizational performance

 

The study shows that the impacts of ISO 9001quality management
system in Pakistan are, in descending order: increase in customer satisfaction,
improvement of corporate image, better definitions and standardizations of working
procedures, quality improvement, enhancement of on time delivery to the
customers, increase in market share, improvement in the relation with
communities, enhancement of employee morale, increase in productivity, environmental
improvements, improvement in the relations with authorities, increase in profit
margins and cost reduction. The mean of the factors used to measure the impact
of certification is found to be 3.80 on a five point scale (3 being the
“moderate impact” and 4 being “substantial impact”). It shows that the impact
of ISO 9001 certification on organizational performance is almost
“substantial”, which means that the improvement in the performance level of the
companies is being experienced in Pakistan.

 

These
results are quite similar with the study of Gilberto and Antonio (2013), which
was carried out in Portugal. Gilberto and Antonio (2013) found same top five
impacts on the performance of ISO 9001 certified organizations of Portugal with
some changes in the order of magnitude of impacts i.e. procedures at the top
followed by corporate image, quality improvement, customer satisfaction and on
time delivery. Vasileios and Odysseas (2015) have studied the impact of ISO
9001 certification in Greek and found the top benefits
including; improvement of the quality system, customers’ satisfaction and
corporate image, which are again in line with the findings of this study.
Almost similar findings have been quoted by Corbett et al. (2003) in a
study of benefits obtained by ISO 9001 certification in 15 different countries
of the world.

Figure 5.4 shows the histogram plots of responses
against each factor measuring the impact of certification. As per the histogram
of top most impact i.e. increase in customer satisfaction, more than 90
organizations have the “substantial” and “very substantial” impacts of
certification on customer satisfaction with a mean value of 4.26. Histogram of
second most impact i.e. improvement of corporate image, shows that more than 60
organizations experienced “substantial” impact on corporate image improvement
with a mean value of 4.1. Histogram of third most impact i.e. better
understanding and standardization of working procedures, shows that 50
organizations have experienced “substantial” and 35 organizations have experienced
“very substantial impact” in the better understanding and standardization of
working procedures with a mean value of 4.07.

 

Factor analysis
has been employed to reduce the number of items which has major effect on
performance of certified organizations in Pakistan. The value of KMO
(Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin), which is a statistical tool used to determine the quality
of the correlation between variables, has been found 0.884 for impact items.
This value is considered as “great” value for factor analysis. Principal
Component Analysis method has been used to conduct factor analysis. Table 5.16
shows the loading of three factors on various items of impact. As per the
analysis of Table 5.16, the three main impacts of ISO 9001 certification on
organizational performance include the following;

 

·                    
Process and Customer related impacts: Better definition and standardization of working
procedures, improvement of quality of product or service, increase in “on time”
deliveries to the customers and increase in customers’ satisfaction.

·                    
Financial impacts:
Reduction of production or services costs, improvement of productivity and
enhancement of profit margin.

·                    
Employees and Environment related impacts: Enhancement of employees’ morale and improvement of
environment.

 

The benefits extracted by Corbett et al. (2003)
after performing factor analysis include; Global profitability (reduction of
production or service costs, productivity improvement, enhancement of on-time
deliveries, increase in market share and profits), Political benefits (relation
with the authorities and communities, enhance environmental performance, and
improvement of marketing image) and Internal confidence (improved product or
service quality,  enhance costumers’
satisfaction, better
definition and standardization of working procedures, enhancement of workers’
moral and improvement of corporate image). The improvement in the
current study has been found in line with the study of Corbett et al. (2003). This study produces some
contradictory results as well when comparing to a number of the studies
regarding financial impacts of the certification. Studies like Dimara et al. (2004),
Costa, (2007) and Feng et al. (2008) showed that ISO implementation may contribute
no difference to financial values of the organizations or in fact affect them
negatively because of resources required. However, the current study has shown
the improvement like reduction of
production or services costs, improvement of productivity and enhancement of
profit margin.

 

The findings of
this study regarding impact of certification can also be categorized into
internal and external aspects as follows;

 

·                    
Internal Impacts: Better
definition and standardization of working procedures, improvement of quality of
product or service, reduction of production or services costs, improvement of
productivity, enhancement of profit margin, increase in the employees’ morale
and improvement of environment.

·                    
External Impacts: Increase in
“on time” deliveries to the customers and improvement in customers’
satisfaction.

 

It can be examined that ISO 9001 certification in
Pakistan impacts more internal variables of the organizations as compare to
external variables. External impacts of certification include improvement of
the processes related to customers. The findings of Vasileios
and Odysseas (2015) also showed more internal benefits as compare to external
benefits.

 

1.1.4       
Motivations
for  ISO 9001 certification

 

The study shows that the main motives for ISO 9001
certification in Pakistan are, in descending order: quality improvement,
corporate image, achievement of marketing advantages, demand of customers,
capturing workers’ knowledge, benefits experienced by other firms, certified
competitors, relationship with authorities and communities, cost reductions and
avoidance of potential export barriers. The mean of the factors used to measure
the motives of certification is found to be 3.78 on a five point scale (3 being
the “somewhat important” and 4 being “important”). It shows that the motives
for ISO 9001 certification are considered as “important” in Pakistan

 

The motivations for ISO 9001 certification
vary a little from country to country. This study has found the same top three
motives of ISO 9001 certification in Pakistan (i.e. quality improvement,
corporate image and marketing advantages) as the Gilberto and Antonio (2013)
found in their study carried out in Portugal. The findings are also in line
with work done by Corbett et al. (2003), who have studied the 15 different
countries in the world to find the motivations for ISO 9001 certification. The
fourth motive of Gilberto and Antonio (2013) is different i.e. “mobilizing workers’
knowledge”, however fourth motive found in this study is in accordance with the
study of Corbett et al. (2003) i.e. “customer pressure”.

 

Figure 5.6 shows the histogram plots of responses
against each factor measuring the motives of certification. As per the histogram
of top most motive i.e. quality improvement, more than 90 organizations have
considered the quality improvement as “important” and “very important” motive
for certification with a mean value of 4.24. Histogram of second most motive
i.e. improvement of corporate image, shows that more than 80 organizations have
considered “important” and “very important” motive for certification with a
mean value of 4.12. Histogram of third most motive i.e. marketing, shows that
more than 30 and 50 organizations have considered the motives “important” and
“very important” motives for certification respectively with a mean value of
4.08. Similarly, Histogram of the fourth motive i.e. customer demand, shows
that more than 40 and 20 organizations have considered the motives “important”
and “very important” respectively with a mean value of 3.75.

 

Factor analysis
has been employed to reduce the number of items in order to find the major
motives for ISO 9001 certification in Pakistan. The value of KMO
(Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin), which is a statistical tool used to determine the quality
of the correlation between variables, has been found 0.806 for impact items.
This value is considered as “great” value for factor analysis. Principal
Component Analysis method has been used to conduct factor analysis. Table 5.20
shows the loading of three factors on various items of motives. As per the
analysis of Table 5.20, the motives of ISO 9001 certification in Pakistan can
be divided into three broader categories;

 

·                    
Marketing Motives:
A number of certified competitors, avoiding the potential export barrier,
getting the marketing advantages and enhancing corporate image.

·                    
Efficiency Motives:
Capturing the knowledge of workers, improvement of the quality and reduction of
production or services costs.

·                    
Relationship Motives:
Relationship with the government authorities and communities and fulfillment of
the demand of customers.

 

The motives
extracted by Gilberto and
Antonio (2013) after performing
factor analysis include the four reasons; Reaction (customer demand, many
competitors certified), Political reasons (relationships with the authorities
and communities), Efficiency (reduction of production or services cost, quality
improvement and capturing the workers knowledge) and Market (marketing
advantages and corporate image). The findings of this research are in line with
the findings of Gilberto
and Antonio (2013). Similar findings
have been obtained in a study conducted by Masoumeh et al. (2015), which
elaborates that the companies of Iranian province Kermanshah seek ISO 9001
certification mainly based on internal motivations (improving the product
quality, cost reductions, and capturing the workers’ knowledge)  and external motivations (meeting the demands
of customers, marketing advantage and avoiding export barriers).

 

Overall, it can be examined that the organizations in
Pakistan certify by internal factors (quality improvement, reduction of
production or service cost and capturing worker’s knowledge) and external
factors (Marketing-corporate image, marketing advantages, avoiding potential
export barriers; Political reasons-relationship with the governmental
authorities and communities; Reaction-demand of customers and certified
competitors). The findings related to external factors are similar to the
research work of Bevilacqua
et al. (2013), who have studied seven different productive
organizations, which were considered as leader in the production and
commercialization of heating systems. It was found that the reasons behind the
implementation of ISO 9001 were mainly externally driven factors such as
customer demands, corporate image, and competitive advantages.

 

1.2             
Conclusion

 

The research conveys valuable information
to all stakeholders involved in adopting ISO 9001 standard and those who have
adopted it. The aim of the study is to create awareness in the organizations
that how it would be best for them to accomplish excellence in its performance
when ISO 9001 quality management system is being adopted. The research work
carried out to study the impacts and motivations of ISO 9001 certification in
Pakistan and it has focused on different sectors such as construction, manufacturing,
design and development, services industries etc., encompassing governmental and
private sector, project based and functional organizations. Positive impacts of
certification have been found on organizational performance of certified
organizations of Pakistan. The main impacts of certification are: increase in
customer satisfaction, improvement of corporate image, better definitions and
standardizations of working procedures and improvement of quality. Broadly, the
improvements by the implementation of ISO 9001 certification in Pakistan can be
divided into three categories including; Process and Environmental improvements
(better definition and standardization of working procedures, improvement of
quality of product or service and of environmental improvements), Financial
improvements (reduction of production or services costs, improvement of
productivity and enhancement of profit margin) and Employees and Customer
related improvements (enhancement of employees’ morale and increase in
customers’ satisfaction and improvement in “on time” deliveries to the
customers).

 

The impacts of ISO 9001 certification have a significant dependence
on the motivations for certification. Internal motives for certification impact
more the internal performance measures than the external motives, whereas
external motives impact the external performance measures more than the
internal motives. The motives for ISO 9001 certification in
Pakistan can be broadly divided into three categories which include; Marketing Motives
(enhancing corporate image, getting the marketing advantages, certified
competitors and avoiding the potential export barrier), Efficiency Motives
(improvement of the quality, reduction of production or services costs and
capturing the knowledge of workers) and Relationship Motives (relationship with
the government authorities and communities and fulfillment of the demand of
customers). These factors show that the main reasons of certification are the
efficiency enhancement, marketing, relationship building and reaction to the
demands of customers.

 

It can be concluded from the study that implementation
of ISO 9001 can bring about significant improvement in organization in terms of
efficient and effective work processes, satisfied customers and financial
progress. However, the implementation of the standard needs to be ensured in
true sense otherwise, no real benefits can be reaped if the certificate is
obtained for ceremonial purposes by running a parallel documentation program.

 

1.3             
Implications
for researchers and practitioners

 

The
results of the study have significant implications for practitioners. The study
shows that the implementation of ISO 9001 standard impacts positively
contribute to the organizations It has been shown that the directions of the
ISO 9001 standard actions contribute benefits to the organizations, therefore
the organizations should try to achieve those benefits through implementation
of the standard.

 

Managers
can use the parameters of performance measures used in the study to analyze the
benefits to be achieved from ISO certification and determine the potential ways
to improve the performance of the organizations.

 

1.4             
Limitations
of the study

 

The
limitations of the research study are summarized as below:

·                   
The research work could have been
improved if records of ISO 9001 compliance of different organizations were furnished
by the certification bodies. The information related to performance of
certified organizations was not provided by certification bodies. It seemed
that the certification bodies were over protective regarding their customers.

·                   
The study is based on the
perceptions and response of only one quality manager or representative from
each organization because it was not possible to get response from multiple
participants of an organization.

·                   
The study has not considered other
quality programs or initiatives that might be implemented by the organizations
parallel to ISO 9001.

·                   
As it is a cross sectional study
therefore the changes in impacts and motives over a period of time has not been
taken into account.

 

1.5             
Suggestions
for future research

 

Finally,
this work should not be brought to an end at this stage. It must be carried on
with future work to investigate various scopes of ISO 9001 implementation. My
suggestions for future research are given below:

 

·                   
The scope of work can be expanded to
include more number of organizations with diverse business in order to get more
accurate findings.

·                   
Analysis of impact and motives may
also be carried out with respect to different business sectors, type and
categories of the organizations.

·                   
Response from more than one person
can be taken and then the average of all responses of an organization will
provide more accurate results.

·                   
The other programs implemented by
the organization may also be studied to determine the actual reasons of
impacts.

·                   
Comparison between ISO 9001
certified and non-certified organizations of Pakistan can be carried out to study
the impacts of certification.