 Management by standards -- real benefits from fashionBøje Larsen and Tord Häversjö Scandinavian Journal of Management, 2001, vol. 17, issue 4, 457-480 Abstract: The ISO 9000 series and other management standards have been experiencing a surprising success. This article analyses the possible reasons for this success. Is it because the standards do produce the benefits they promise, or is it just another example of fashion in management? The empirical material for the article consists of two parts. The first comprises a description of the actual development of the standards market, which indicates the nature of the "demand-pull" for standards. The second part consists of the quite substantial amount of empirical and non-theoretical research that has accumulated about the uses and results of standard-based solutions. It is concluded that the benefits cannot be denied or regarded exclusively as a result of social construction. But perhaps these benefits stem from the very legitimacy of the management standards at a time when they were fashionable, and from the legitimisation that a company acquires through the external and formal accreditation and certification of its quality management system. Keywords: Management; standards; ISO; 9000; Legitimisation; Management; theory; Effects; Management; fashion (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:scaman:v:17:y:2001:i:4:p:457-480 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Scandinavian Journal of Management is currently edited by Janne Tienari More articles in Scandinavian Journal of Management from Elsevier |
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