Unused Potential of Quality Management Systems of the Russian Companies: an Empirical Study
The perception of ISO 9000 standards, their use and effectiveness of quality management systems (QMS) of companies around the world is ambiguous; there are ongoing discussions about the benefits and advantages of the standards, as well as their limitations. In this article the results of an empirical study are presented, conducted in the format of an online survey to identify the perception of ISO 9000 by intersectoral group of respondents - Russian enterprises and companies of the real economy and services. The survey identified the factors of implementation, benefits and the main problems of the use of ISO 9001:2008, as well as the approach to the international standard ISO 9004:2009 and a draft of a new version of ISO 9001:2015. According to some survey results the answers of the Russian respondents were compared to the responses received during the study of TC 176 ISO in 2010-2011. In accordance with the study results the following conclusions about zones of incomplete use of the QMS potential of Russian companies are formulated: insufficient focus on customer satisfaction, the surveyed companies don't see the connection between QMS and its financial results, Russian companies don't see the benefits of increasing the commitment (commitment interest) of QMS management, most actual problems of QMS in companies and organizations are: the process approach in practice, the lack of involvement of senior management in the QMS and the lack of leaders, organizations do not make a proper emphasis on continuous improvement, there is little use of the international standard ISO 9004 by companies and organizations in their activities, though many of them know about this standard.