Isomorphism and cerimonialism in organizations: an empirical survey on the diffusion of ISO 9000 certifications in Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Caldas, Miguel Pinto
• Data de Publicação: 2002
• Tipo de documento: Relatório
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional do FGV (FGV Repositório Digital)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10438/2972
• topic: ISO-9000; Cerimonialismo; Teoria neoinstitucional; Administração de empresas; Isomorfismos (Matematica)

This study analyzes the diffusion of ISO-9000 certifications in Brazil, through the lens of neo-institutional theory and references on managerial fads in organizations. The assumption is that many of such certification decisions which became quite popular in Brazilian organizations since 1990 can only be fully understood if their faddish and institutionalized nature is adequately perceived, and that many of these processes may reflect cerimonial adoption (i.e., lip-service ). Through an exploratory field survey of 70 cases of ISO 9000 certifications in Brazil, the study attempts to better understand issues related to such programs adoption decision process, implementation strategy, perceived results and justification mechanisms. The study found the ceremonial adoption of ISO 9000 to be (a) positively correlated with isomorphic behvaior, influence of consultants/gurus, as well as authoritative management styles; and (b) negatively correlated to performance.