The impact of quality management systems on organizational resilience

Purpose For decades, quality management systems (QMS) have played an important role in the performance of organizations. Yet, with the unprecedented uncertainty surrounding the business environment, organizational resilience has become vital for business continuity. As organizations need to ensure both high performance and resilience, this paper aims at investigating how ISO 9001 implementation impacts organizational resilience. Design/methodology/approach The research deploys a qualitative methodology, with an outsider–insider approach. 32 semi-structured interviews were conducted, plus one final reflective interview. Interview questions dealt with resilience constructs: problem identification and prioritization, resource mobilization, organizational learning, sensemaking, self-organization, creativity and innovation, entrepreneurial spirit, mindfulness and coupling. The questions also dealt with how ISO 9001 implementation impacted each construct of organizational resilience. Findings The results show that ISO 9001 implementation enhanced resilience, mainly by promoting process-orientation and ensuring consistent practice of risk management across the organization. The results also suggest that at a certain point, when units became very highly process-oriented, ISO impact faded or disappeared as units had already been beyond that level before ISO implementation. This indicates a significant role played by the organizational structure when it comes to both ISO 9001 implementation and organizational structure. Originality/value This study is unique as it is the first – within the reviewed literature – to examine how a QMS, in particular ISO 9001, impacts firm’s ability to overcome adverse conditions. It also highlights the fundamental role the organizational structure plays to both effectively implement ISO 9001 and enhance organizational resilience.