Organizational Consequences of Implementing an ISO 14001 Environmental Management System

Abstract

The authors assess and measure the repercussions of the implementation and certification of an ISO 14001 environmental management system (EMS) on company organizational structure. They identify these e fects on Mintzberg's parameters of structural design by postulating a series of hypotheses. These hypotheses are then studied empirically among firms that have implemented the ISO 14001 EMS. With this empirical evidence, they conclude the key determinants of the intensity of organizational changes observed are EMS maturity, management involvement in the implementation process, and the prior existence of an ISO 9001 quality management system.