Integrated management systems – Advantages, problems and possibilities

Summary Effective management in the globalized world requires an effective, efficient and flexible management system. Effective could be interpreted as addressing all relevant stakeholder concerns in a context of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Efficient would mean that it does the job with low resource use. Flexibility requires that changed conditions and new requirements easily can be included. Many organizations are already working with Integrated Management Systems (IMS). Interesting questions are to what extent current integration covers the above mentioned needs and if not what changes are needed. This conceptual paper looks at the advantages and problems of integration. Possibilities for development of fully integrated management systems are studied from the perspective of managing stakeholder needs, with the forthcoming ISO 26000 -"Guidance on social responsibility", as inspiration. Results show that there are advantages in integration, but that the scope and level of integration often is limited. A conceptual model for integrating all stakeholder needs in value networks is presented