The Production of Distrust by Means of Producing Trust

Abstract

ISO 9000 certifications are spreading throughout the world. ISO 9000 standards and certification should serve as a verification that it is justified to trust the ability of a supplier to produce quality goods. In this paper, results of an empirical study on the use of ISO 9000 standards and ISO 9000 certification in Germany will be presented. An important finding is that the standards and the certification do not, as was intended, serve as a means for producing trust between customers and suppliers. Reasons as to why ISO 9000 certification does not serve as a means for producing an institutional-based type of trust will be presented. However, despite the fact that certification does not produce trust, the implementation of the standards was evaluated positively by the organizations investigated. The implementation of the ISO 9000 standards was regarded as an occasion for structuring and led to the development of a system of bureaucratic control that was both enabling and coercive.