Quality Management and Job Quality: How the ISO 9001 Standard for Quality Management Systems Affects Employees and Employers

46 Pages Posted: 20 Aug 2008 Last revised: 14 Jun 2014

See all articles by David I. Levine

David I. Levine

University of California, Berkeley - Haas School of Business

Michael W. Toffel

Harvard Business School

Date Written: January 19, 2010

Abstract

Several studies have examined how the ISO 9001 Quality Management System standard predicts changes in organizational outcomes such as profits. This is the first large-scale study to explore how employee outcomes such as employment, earnings, and health and safety change when employers adopt ISO 9001. We analyzed a matched sample of nearly 1,000 companies in California. ISO 9001 adopters subsequently had far lower organizational death rates than a matched control group of non-adopters. Among surviving employers, ISO adopters had higher growth rates for sales, employment, payroll, and average annual earnings. Injury rates declined slightly for ISO 9001 adopters, although total injury costs did not. These results have implications for organizational theory, managers, and public policy.

Keywords: ISO 9001, quality management, standards, occupational health and safety, wages, labor, empirical, California

Suggested Citation

Levine, David Ian and Toffel, Michael W., Quality Management and Job Quality: How the ISO 9001 Standard for Quality Management Systems Affects Employees and Employers (January 19, 2010). Harvard Business School Technology & Operations Mgt. Unit Research Paper No. 09-018, Management Science, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1237730 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1237730

David Ian Levine

University of California, Berkeley - Haas School of Business ( email )

Berkeley, CA 94720
United States
510-642-1697 (Phone)
510-643-1420 (Fax)

Michael W. Toffel (Contact Author)

Harvard Business School ( email )

Boston, MA 02163
United States
617.384.8043 (Phone)

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