Selection, experience and satisfaction with ISO 9001 certification body and auditors

Summary

Amid growing competition in the certification market, this research investigates how firms seeking ISO 9001 certification select an appropriate certification body (including quality system auditors). It further explores firms’ experience of engaging with the auditors and the certification body and how it affects their satisfaction of these services.

The findings show that different characteristics of certification bodies have different effects on the perceived benefits of the ISO 9001 certification, suggesting the importance of having good auditors and certification bodies in the overall process of ISO 9001 implementation.

This is the third research project that is part of the long-term collaborations with Joint Accreditation Systems Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ).

Key researchers

  • Professor Daniel Prajogo (Monash Business School, Monash University)
  • Professor Amrik Sohal (Monash Business School, Monash University)
  • Professor Pavel Castka (University of Canterbury, New Zealand)

Project background and aims

ISO 9001 certification has opened up for a growing number of certification bodies to enter the market, creating considerable variation in the competency of ISO 9001 standard auditors and the quality of certification bodies issuing the certifications and revealing some poor practices.

This variation poses a serious potential threat to the certification industry which in the long run might also hamper the credibility of the ISO 9001 standard.

Anecdotal evidence indeed suggests that the growth in certification has been accompanied by some questionable practices in the certification industry. This particular problem is coupled with the absence of publicly available information about the quality of these bodies for companies which adopt ISO 9001.

The research aims to understand the perceptions of firms that are certified to ISO 9001 with respect to their selection criteria of a certifying body, the process and steps of searching information of certification bodies, the expectations and the perceptions on the quality of the auditing process, and the benefits of the auditing and certification process.

In a broader sense, the research also considers the aspects of motives and needs of the firm in seeking certification and the outcomes and values of the certification.

Methodology

This research combines both qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative method involved interviews and focus group discussions with six certification bodies (CBs) and eight certified firms (clients) in Australia and New Zealand.

The quantitative data was collected via a mail survey across 4,000 Australian firms and 1,000 New Zealand firms. The total number of responses received were 596 firms (12% response rate) with 418 responses being from Australia and 178 responses from New Zealand.

Findings

The findings show that firms are still predominantly driven by external reasons for certification (such as meeting customers’ requirements). In selecting a certifier, firms usually seek information from other firms and rely on the reputation of the certifying body.

Larger firms tend to also consider a variety of services it provides. Firms generally acknowledged the competencies of quality system auditors although they showed some level of reservation in regards to industry experience of auditors.

In terms of the characteristics of certification bodies, among different characteristics such as strong brand and a market leader in the industry, strong reputation for the quality of services, competitive price, and strict and uncompromising auditing, the findings show that quality of service and strict auditing have the strongest effect on various aspects of realised benefits yielded from the ISO 9001 certification.

The findings have led to further research for developing a curriculum for auditor’s competency training programs as well as developing a ranking system of the quality of certification bodies which can be openly accessed by the public to help firms new to the certification.

Output

  1. Prajogo, D., Castka, P., and Searcy, C. (2021), “Paymasters and Assurance Providers Exploring the ethical issues in non-financial auditing”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 173, pp. 795–811

Funding information

Joint Accreditation Systems Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ) provided $40,000 in funding for the project. JAS-ANZ also contributed in the data collection process as well as in the publication of the industry report.