The role of leadership competencies for implementing ISO 9000

Abstract

The current economic distress faced by many manufacturing companies in South Africa both large and small has forced the leadership to review business performance and implement measures to reduce costs across all levels. However, in a well-designed study exploring the attitudes and perceptions of senior executives to ISO 9000, Taylor [18] stated that the transition from concept to implementation of ISO 9000 is often where senior executives fail to provide the ISO 9000 initiative with adequate legitimacy, and fail to address the resource requirements, the potential benefits, the methods of measuring results and steps in the detailed planning process. The paper aims to determine what leadership competencies are required for ensuring commitment to implementing quality management systems and how the level of leadership competencies affects the extent of implementation of quality management principles through a questionnaire using a 5 point Likert scale.