Benchmarking on behalf of management systems integration

Abstract

The integration of management systems, to be effective, requires several organisational features. An integrating concept enabling a common language, a proactive approach, a holistic vision, sustainable objectives and consistence and coherence on action are among those features. All these features will be properly and efficiently achieved considering concepts linked to benchmarking, namely, teammanship, self-management, democracy in management and collaborative benchmarking. This paper is based on an ongoing research project focusing the development of a tool/methodology to assess maturity and effectiveness levels achieved by organizations that implemented an integrated management system (IMS) being its purpose to report and to enhance the potential synergies between benchmarking methodologies and management systems integration. The research, and implicit results, aims organizations that are considering an IMS implementation being the findings transferable to in field environment, being useful to practitioners willing to implement an IMS.