How do firms integrate management systems? A comparative study

Abstract

The aim of this article is to study how Spanish firms implement and integrate the different management systems by a comparison of Spanish firms located in Spain and Spanish firms in Czech Republic. Two empirical studies were conducted in the aforementioned two countries. A questionnaire was sent to firms in both countries that comply with a specific requirement: that they had implanted at least two management systems (no matter which ones) to carry out the integration. This research will determine the contents of the integration plan, the integration methodology, the resources (human resources and procedures) involved in the different management systems as well as the main benefits and difficulties found during the integration process. This paper is one of the first studies where the location of Spanish firms is used as a differentiating factor to compare the Integrated Management System within two European countries, in this case, Spain and Czech Republic.

Keywords:

• integrated management system (IMS)
• management system (MS)
• integration
• methodology
• Spain
• Czech Republic

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.