GUIDELINES FOR THE ALIGNMENT OF THE INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT SYSTEM WITH THE BUSINESS STRATEGY IN INDUSTRIAL COMPANIES

Abstract

With today's globalized and increasingly competitive organizational landscape, organizations need strategy to survive in the midst of excessive competition. In order to save efforts and resources, companies have started developing their own Integrated Management System (IMS) as a plausible and effective alternative in this sense. The IMS seeks to achieve the integration of the processes of quality, environment, occupational health and safety and corporate social responsibility in accordance with the characteristics, activities and needs of each organization. An effective alignment of IMS with the business strategy can have positive influences on innovative capabilities of organizations, as well as the satisfaction of their employees and customers. However, few companies are aware of the difficulties in aligning the IMS with their strategy. Therefore, the objective of this research is to propose guidelines for the alignment of the Integrated Management System with the business strategy in industrial companies.