An empirical examination of ISO 9000-registered companies in New Zealand

This paper presents the results of a mail survey carried out on ISO 9000-accredited manufacturing companies in New Zealand. 63.6% of the 121 responding organizations were small (fewer than 100 employees), while the remaining 36.4% were large (more than 100 employees). The research finds significant differences in the quality programme implementation patterns corresponding to these diff erences in employee numbers. The key findings are that the smaller companies, when compared to the larger companies, are more likely to implement ISO 9000 because of external factors rather than internal factors, show less understanding of the relationship between ISO 9000 and total quality management, which results in them implementing ISO 9000 only, and have little intention of extending their quality programmes further (unless required to do so). Based on these findings, the paper develops frameworks which show the 'common path' of quality implementation for smaller versus larger manufacturing companies in New Zealand. The diff erences observed between the smaller and larger firms are discussed, and the paper concludes by developing some suggestions for future research.