ISO 9000 and Formalization - How Organizational Contingencies Affect Organizational Responses to Institutional Forces

Abstract

We investigate the adoption of ISO 9000 standards by the German mechanical engineering industry and analyze how organizational contingencies affect susceptibility to institutional forces. Our study's findings show that differences in organizational size, proportion of administrative staff, and type of production technology lead to variations in the probability of adopting ISO 9000 standards. Moreover, our findings show that despite the modern anti-bureaucratic management ideology, there has been a remarkable increase in the degree of formalization.

Keywords: ISO 9000, Formalization, Institutional Theory

JEL Classification: L23, L61, M10, P11, P21