Diagnosis of organizational change: A multi-level approach (Case study of a French SME certified ISO 9001)

Abstract

Since their first certificates issued in 1989, ISO standards have grown considerably with, for example, more than 1,106,356 certificates delivered in 2016 to ISO 9001 granted in the world [1].
Even though these standards have contributed significantly to the formalization of the company's knowledge, little is known about the consequences of implementing this framework in terms of organizational changes and learning dynamics. To better understand this phenomenon, we opted for a qualitative approach based on a single case study. Our approach attempts to consider several levels of analysis: organizational, strategic, cognitive and societal. Hence, we have used a model that superimposes these four levels to analyze the organizational changes that are induced by the implementation of the ISO 9001 management system, and their consequences on the modes of learning within a French SME.