Integrated management systems towards sustainable and socially responsible organisation

Abstract

Integrated quality, environmental, occupational health and safety management systems (IMS) are well known and deployed by various industries with different level of success. Still, a very limited number of theoretical and empirical research focuses on the interrelation between IMS and sustainable development. The authors consider IMS a tool for implementing the concept of sustainable development at the organisation level. The aim of the paper is to analyse how IMS should be designed so that it can be used for building a socially responsible organisation that contributes to sustainable development. Several research methods, such as the analysis of academic and professional publications, and logical and comparative analysis are applied in this research, and a survey on the depth of IMS integration was developed and distributed among organisations in Latvia that have an IMS. The survey revealed that understanding of IMS complexity, its integration levels and possibilities varies. Limitations of the theoretical research are that quality management (ISO 9001:2008), environmental management (ISO 14001:2004) and occupational health and safety (OHSAS 18001:2007) standards-based integrated management systems were used.

Keywords:

• integrated management system
• management systems integration degree
• IMS integration degree
• sustainable development
• corporate social responsibility