ISO 9001 Benefits Process

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e-TQM College Working Paper SeriesWP- 0102032007

ISO 9001: 2000 Implementation in UAE: An Exploratory Study

By Dr Magd and Mr Nabulsi

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ByDr Hesham A. E. Magd

Mr Fadi Nabulsi

WP-0102032007


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ByDr Hesham A. E. Magd

Mr Fadi Nabulsi

WP-0102032007

The working paper series are produced by the e-TQM College and are to be circulated for discussion purposes only.Their contents should be considered preliminary. The papers are expected to be published in due course, in a revisedform and should not be quoted without the authors permission. E-TQM College working paper series is availablethrough www.etqm.ae/qme


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ISO 9001: 2000 Implementation in UAE: An Exploratory study

Dr Hesham A. E. MagdAssistant Professor, Certified Programs Leader, e-TQM College,

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

e-mail: [email protected]

Mr Fadi NabulsiQuality Engineer, Etisalat,

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

AbstractISO 9000 is widely accepted across the globe as it is based on the generic clausesthat define quality management systems requirements applicable to all organizationsregardless of the type, size and products/services provided. The popularity of thestandard initiated so many points of views for researchers and organizations

implementing the standard and these views seem to be focused within westerncountries as there is not much research performed on ISO 9000 implementation inthe Middle East which is an important part of the world. Therefore the purpose of this study is to shed some light on the associated implementation issues related tothe certification in the Middle East and more specifically on the United Arab Emirates.The study relied on feedback from 51 UAE certified organizations which represent 5%of the total number of certified organizations in the UAE. ISO 9000 had a positiveimpact within UAE certified organizations and it is forming a good starting point andthe foundation for initiating other total quality management initiatives.

Key words : UAE; ISO 9001: 2000; Drivers; Benefits and Problems


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INTRODUCTION

Since ISO 9000 was issued in 1987, ISO 9000 series defining the qualitymanagement system requirements have been adopted by many organizations

worldwide. The latest survey by ACNielsen showed that more than 775 thousandcompanies in 161 countries have been certified to the new edition of ISO 9001which was published in 15 Dec. 2000 (ISO Survey, 2005). The reason for the widelyacceptance of this standard lays on the generic clauses that define qualitymanagement systems requirements applicable to all organizations regardless of thetype, size and products / services provided. The popularity of the standard initiatedso many points of views for researchers and organizations implementing ISO 9000for whether the standard had fulfilled its scope and help companies in initiating aneffective quality management system or not?

This richness in studies and researches in different parts of the world addressing theISO 9001 standard implementation and other factors affecting it are not having thesame weight in the Arab World in general and United Arab Emirates (UAE) inparticular, despite the fact that UAE is currently occupying the second place of number of certified organizations in the Arab World (ISO, 2005). From this point, theneed exist to have an exploratory study to evaluate ISO 9001:2000 implementationwithin UAE organizations before going in depth to more specialized studies based onsectors or return on investment.

The difficulties when assessing ISO 9001:2000 implementation came from the factthat this standard is defining general requirements to establish a qualitymanagement system and this adds more challenges to identify the benefits as wellas the problems. For example, if we are discussing the effect of ISO 9001:2000 inbetter identifying and managing resources this will be based on many assumptionsthat ISO 9001:2000 is the sole factor that affect the process and there are no otherfactors like having more budgets allocated by the management or enhancing thetraining process through implementing internal training mechanism. This will lead tothe fact that assessing improvement in performance based on ISO 9001:2000implementation will depend on many assumptions and this assumptions may notalways be correct to give the right picture.

Based on this difficulty of assessment and since there are lack of information in thisfield in UAE, the need for this research exists to clearly understand the associatedimplementation issues of ISO 9001: 2000. Therefore, questionnaire was developed

to identify profiles of certified organizations as well as their perception to differentaspects affecting the implementation process. The questionnaire is assessing thefollowing points:

The main drivers and benefits for adopting ISO 9001:2000 in UAE. What are the problems initiated after implementing ISO 9001:2000


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LITERATURE REVIEW

Understanding ISO 9001: 2000The main objective of ISO 9001: 2000 is to enhance introducing the processapproach and continual improvement in order to achieve customer satisfaction. Thenew standard is based on eight quality management principles, these principlesestablish the cornerstone for total quality management culture all over theorganization, the eight quality management principles are: customer focus,leadership, involvement of people, process approach, system approach tomanagement, continual improvement, factual approach to decision making andmutually beneficial supplier relationship. ISO 9001:2000 standard was alsostructured according to the PDCA System (Pan, 2003). The clauses consist of fivemain requirements starting from clause number four which is quality managementsystem general and documentation requirements and ending up with clause numbereight that is measurement, analysis and improvement. The five main requirementsare illustrated as follow:

Clause 4 - Quality Management System: Focusing on establishing,documenting, implementing and maintaining a quality managementsystem and process approach enhancement. Main sub-clauses include:

o 4.1 quality management system general requirementso 4.2 quality management system documentation requirements

Clause 5 - Management responsibility: Defining the top management roleand commitment for establishing and improving the quality managementsystem. Main sub-clauses include:

o 5.1 management commitment, 5.2 customer focus, 5.3 qualitypolicy,

o 5.4 planning,o 5.5 responsibility authority and communication,o 5.6 management review.

Clause 6 - Resource management: Ensures that relevant resourcesrequirements are being identified, maintained, and improved in order toeffectively implement, maintain and improve the quality managementsystem to ensure fulfilling customer as well as regulatory requirements.Main sub-clauses include:

o 6.1 Provision of resources,o 6.2 human resources,o 6.3 infrastructure, and work environment.

Clause 7 - Product realization: This clause summarizes the controlsrequired for product life cycle management starting from planning anddevelopment till delivery while considering addressing customersrequirements and other controls to ensure effectiveness of the realizationprocesses. Main sub-clauses include:

o 7.1 planning of product realization,o 7.2 customer-related processes,


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o 7.3 design and development,o 7.4 purchasing,o 7.5 Product and service provision, and control of monitoring and

measuring devices. Clause 8 - Measurement analysis and improvement: Demonstrates the

requirements for monitoring, measuring, analyzing and improving of theprocesses needed to ensure product as well as quality managementsystem conformity requirements. Main sub-clauses include:

o 8.1 general,o 8.2 monitoring and measurement,o 8.3 Control of non-conforming product,o 8.4 Analysis of data,o 8.5 Improvement.

ISO 9001:2000 new series promote the adaptation of process approach as the basefor better understanding requirements and to assist organizations in establishing their quality management system. The model of a process-based qualitymanagement system is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The process approach followed by ISO 9000:2000 series of standards

Figure 1 illustrates the way organizations should manage numerous linked activitiesin order to function effectively to produce the required output. Figure 1 reveals thatthe process starts with identification of customer requirements which is continuouslyassessed by top management (Clause Five in ISO 9001:2000 standard) and endswith customer satisfaction that is continuously measured analyzed and improved(clause eight in the standard). Any organization is using product realization processesto convert inputs into outputs (Clause Seven), this conversion is managed through


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human as well as other resources (Clause six). If this cycle is continually monitoredwe can sustain continual improvement of the quality management system throughmanaging related activities embedded within these clauses. This approach isemphasizing the Deming Cycle (Plan Do, Check and Act) that can be applied toidentified processes of value adding and this will emphasize the importance of:understanding and meeting requirements, the need to consider processes in termsof added value, obtaining results of process performance and effectiveness, andcontinual improvement of processes based on objectives measurement (ISO 9001,2000).

ISO 9001: 2000 ImplementationThe wide acceptance of the ISO 9001:2000 standard by more than 775 thousandsorganizations in more than 160 countries and business economies (ISO Survey,2005) came from the generic requirements of the standard and its applicability to allorganizations, regardless of type, size and product / service provided (ISO 9001,2000). As been highlighted by Pan (2003), ISO 9000 standard was initially adoptedby firms in Europe and in countries with close relationship with UK such as Australiaand New Zealand. Nowadays is becoming the most popular standard implemented bymanufacturing as well as service organizations. The drivers for ISO 9001 certificationvary from one company to another and from one country to another: Johannsen(1996) summarized these drivers as pressures from existing customers, promotionalvalue and the desire of improving management processes and enhancing customerservice. Buttle (1997) ranked the benefits after conducting a survey on UKbusinesses and concluded that the most important benefit sought from certificationis profit improvement. McAdam and Canning (2001) argued the importance of registration in enhancing firms chances of gaining work. Furthermore, Magd andCurry (2003) analyzed twelve motivations for ISO 9001 certification. A summery of the main reasons of why companies adopt ISO 9001 can be framed as follows:

1- Pressure from existing customers (Johannes, 1996; Buttle, 1997).2- Pressure from parent organization (Johannes, 1996).3- Promotional benefit (Johannes, 1996).4- Competitors Registration (McAdam and Canning, 2001).5- To improve internal efficiency (McAdam and Canning, 2001).6- To maintain/increase market share (Magd and Curry, 2003).7- To help improve customer service (Douglas et al. , 2003).

Many researches studied the ability of ISO 9001 in achieving its main objectives of adding value to organizations implementing it in different economies in general or by

different sectors in particular. For example, Pan (2003) discussed ISO 9001 & ISO14001 implementation in Far East Countries, namely in Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong,and Korea. The study involved investigating firms motivation for certification, theirimplementation experiences, and the benefits received. The main conclusion forimplementing ISO 9001 in these countries was positive in general with somedifferences in motivation for and benefits gained after implementing ISO 9001. Heconcluded that there are common factors between these countries to go for ISO


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9001 certification, namely, external pressure, gaining competitive edge, internal andexternal portions and improvement of public relations. The common benefits of ISO9000 certification among these countries are: improved competitive edge, andimproved public relations. Moreover, Yahya and Goh (2001) did a study for a sampleof certified organization from Singapore, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Europe, and USA.They concluded that implementing ISO 9000 led to the following internal benefitsamong certified companies: better documentation, greater quality awareness, andimproved measurement system. Meanwhile, the certified Malaysian organizationgained also the following external benefits: improved customer satisfaction, higherperceived quality, and competitive edge. Moreover, they noticed that companiesexporting to Europe are having more pressure to get ISO 9000 certificates thanothers. Further more, Naser et al. (2004) studied the effect of ISO 9001 certificationon the performance of 162 public listed companies in Malaysia and they found anassociation between ISO 9000 registration and performance of companies inMalaysia. Their study revealed that accredited Malaysian companies outperformedthe non-accredited ones during the period of their study. Also Casadesus et al. (2001) performed a study to evaluate benefits of implementing ISO 9000 by Spanishindustries and they concluded that although ISO 9000 has many positive points, butthese points must be used in right context to maximize the benefits gained from thestandard. The overall conclusion for the study was: More than 90 percent of Spanishcertified industries believed that ISO 9000 had benefited them and it is a goodsystem for quality assurance. While in Canada, Bhuiyan and Alam (2004) studiedimplementing ISO 9001:2000 and they concluded that there were some difficultiesfaced by Canadian companies in implementing the new standard and thesedifficulties are varying based on different companies characteristics like size, andyears of operation.

In a study for evaluating implementation of ISO 9000 for 104 UK certified companies

performed by Douglas et al. (2003). They concluded after considering the views of quality professionals participating in the survey that ISO 9001:2000 is very positiveand it is less disputing the criticisms of the old revision. They concluded also that themain reason within UK organizations to seek ISO 9001 certification was to allowthem to tender for work that otherwise be unattainable. While, Magd and Curry(2003) studied ISO 9001 in Egypt and they concluded that the most commonreasons for seeking certification in Egypt were to improve the efficiency of the qualitysystem and pressures from competitors/foreign partners. Similarly, Magd (2006)investigated ISO 9001 perception in Saudi Arabia and the main finding was that theoverall views and experiences of quality managers / representatives who respondedto the survey on ISO 9000 were very positive and encouraging. Moreover, he

concluded that the three most important benefits achieved from implementing ISO9000 in Saudi Arabia are: improving the efficiency of the quality system, betterdocumentation procedures, and increased quality awareness within the certifiedfirms. Also identifying the impact of the certification, Tzelepis et al. (2006) concludedthat the overall ISOs effects on managerial inefficiency are negative indicating thatthe adoption of ISO reduces managerial inefficiency, and Quazi and Jacobs (2004)studied the impact of ISO 9000 certification on training and development activities in


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a sample size from Singapore and they reach to the conclusion of gaining significantimprovements in training needs analysis, training design, training delivery, training evaluation, and human resource development activities were reported afterimplementing ISO 9000 by these organizations.

The above points are all highlighting that: irrespective of some cons afterimplementing ISO 9000 by certified companies, ISO 9000 is considered as a goodtool for driving improvements by focusing more on system approach to managementand defining vale added activities leading to better fulfilling customers requirements.

RESEARCH PROBLEM

Reviewing the literature highlighted the extensive number of researches conductedstudies to address related implementation issues to ISO 9000 in different countries,but lack a focus on the Arab World in general and the UAE in particular. The need of exploratory research in evaluating ISO 9001 effectiveness of implementation withinUAE seems to be a very important subject but needs appropriate scope to definefactors that should be included in the research as well as considering previousresearches that have been conducted elsewhere and in similar economies. Thefocus of this study is on UAE and this is due to the fact that UAE comes in the secondplace in terms of number of certified companies with 963 certificates, while Egyptcomes in the first place with 1326, Saudi Arabia in the third place with 642, thefourth place for Morocco with 403 and the fifth place for Tunisia with 380certificates. In supporting this further, UAE organizations seem to occupy 45% of thetotal number of ISO 9000 certifications in the Arab Countries and ISO 9000 need tobe understood from the Gulf region perspectives.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In achieving the objectives of the current study, Survey method will be utilizedthrough the development of questionnaire based on: previous researches performedin other countries, the ISO 9000 series of standards, and publications provided bythe international organization for standardization. Deciding to choose thequestionnaire has been made due to the fact that questionnaires are associated withpositivistic and phenomenological methodologies (Collis and Hussey, 2003). Itinvolves selecting a list of carefully structured questions, chosen after considerabletesting, with a view to eliciting reliable response from a chosen sample. Theadvantage of this method in such a research lies in its ability of having differentfeedbacks from wide range of sampled certified organizations which will enable latter

on performing a comparative analysis. This method will minimize traveling andcommunication costs as the questionnaires can be distributed through fax or e-mail.There is a disadvantage of not understanding some of questions in the questionnairedue to lack of interfacing relationship but this can be avoided by trying to make thequestionnaire as user friendly as possible by simplifying the language or eventranslating the questionnaire to users languages.


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The most critical factor for deciding to use the questionnaire for data collection inthis research was reviewing several methods used by different researchers in similarstudies. Most researchers used questionnaires such as (Tsim et al. , 2002;Casadesus et al. , 2001; and Magd, 2006) and this will add a valuable input toperform comparison analysis of implementing ISO 9000 in UAE and other countries.

Having chosen questionnaire as the method of data collection and designing thequestionnaire based on the points discussed in the literature review, a pilot studywas performed within which representatives form consulting firms, certificationbodies and quality managers were requested to provide their feedbacks andaccordingly adjustments were introduced to make the questionnaire simpler anduser friendly. The questionnaire was translated to Arabic to ensure maximum numberof participants understanding and positive feedback. To ensure understanding thepurpose of the questionnaire an introductory letter was attached highlighting thatthis questionnaire is for research only and there will be no mentioning of the name of any organization participating nor any usage of the information for any commercialpurposes.

The questionnaire was publicized to a sample size of 100 certified companies withinUAE through fax and e-mail, a usable response rate of 51 percent was achievedtaking into consideration that 6 percent were incomplete ones. To ensure achieving this percentage many follow-ups by phone and through e-mail were made to urge thecompanies filling the required data after seeking assistance from certification bodiesand consultants who had worked with these companies. Responses from 51organizations were received and since there are 963 certified organizations in theUAE up to 2005 end (ISO Survey, 2005), this sample size represents more than 5percent of the total population. As been highlighted by Watson (2004) getting morethan 50 responses is adequate for basic descriptive analysis and this will give an

indication of more than 90 percent confidence in the results.

The questionnaire used Five-Points-Likert scale (5: strongly agree, 4: Agree, 3:Neutral, 2: Disagree and 1: Strongly Disagree) to ask respondents to specify theirlevel of agreement for obtaining numerical values for qualitative data to be able todiscuss research questions. The advantages of this method can be summarized inthe following points:

1. It can put a number of different statements in a list which does not take upmuch space (Collis and Hussey, 2003).

2. It is simple for the respondents to complete and simple for researchers tocode and analyze (Collis and Hussey, 2003).

3. It enables establishing of numeric results for reliable and valid statisticalanalysis (Magd, 2006).4. It enables dealing with complex issues in a consistent manner (Singh et al. ,

2006).5. Furthermore, selection of this method is also depending in similar researches

conducted in the gulf region such as the work of (Magd, 2006) which willfacilitate comparison.


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After collecting the data, SPSS for windows (Statistical Package for the SocialSciences) software is used to analyze collected data and support research findings.Norusis (2004) book was used as a reference for using SPSS. Special codes weregiven to identify the profile of each participated organization and other codes wereintroduced to address the Likert scale statements, other codes were also given toidentify not applicable or non responding feedbacks.

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Profile of Organizations Participated in the SurveyThe scope of work for 20 percent of the sampled organizations is in themanufacturing industries and the other 80 percent is in the service industries. Morethan 39 percent of these organizations are hiring more than 500 employees whichgive a quick indication that ISO 9001:2000 is more popular in the large organizationswithin UAE rather than the smaller ones. Table 1 illustrates the number andpercentage of employees of the sample size under study.

Table 1: Details of Number of Employees of Organizations in the Sample Size

No. of Employees Frequency Percent (%) Valid Percent (%) CumulativePercent

Valid Up to 20 1 2.0 2.0 2.021-70 12 23.5 23.5 25.571-150 6 11.8 11.8 37.3151-500 12 23.5 23.5 60.8Above 500 20 39.2 39.2 100.0Total 51 100.0 100.0

For the number of years organizations within the sample size were established; nonof these organizations was newly established (less than three years), 39 percent of these organizations were between 10 to 20 years of operation within UAE, and therest is almost equally distributed between 3 to 10 years and above 20 years of operations as shown in Table 2. This will also give a quick indication that ISO9001:2000 is not popular in the newly established organizations within UAE.

Table 2: Details of the period operating in the UAE for the sample size

Years Established in UAE Frequency Percent (%) Valid Percent

(%)

Cumulative

PercentValid from 3 - 10 years 15 29.4 29.4 29.4

10+ to 20 years 20 39.2 39.2 68.6Above 20 years 16 31.4 31.4 100.0Total 51 100.0 100.0


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With respect to number of years certified; non-of these organizations was ISO 9000certified for more than ten years and around 12 percent of these organizations werecertified in the last year which is close to the 18 percent of the annual growth of certification in the UAE as highlighted by the ISO 9000 Survey for 2005 (ISO Survey,2005). These figures will give an indication that ISO 9000 in UAE is reaching thesaturation effect were the yearly growth of number of certificates is expected to beless than 20 percent per year for the coming three years provided that no other newfactors will take place to force organizations to go for certification. Table 3summarizes the details of the duration of the period the organizations in the samplesize were certified.

As a summary an identical ISO 9001:2000 certified organization within UAE is anorganization from the service sector operating for more than 3 years in the UAEmarket, been certified for the period from one to ten years.

Table 3: Details of duration of certification for organizations in the sample size

Years ISO 9000 Certified Frequency Percent (%) Valid Percent(%)

CumulativePercent

Valid Less than a Year 6 11.8 11.8 11.81 to 3 Years 23 45.1 45.1 56.94 to 10 Years 22 43.1 43.1 100.0Total 51 100.0 100.0

Drivers for Adopting ISO 9001:2000 in UAE OrganizationsThe questionnaire addressed four main drivers that affect the decision to go for ISO9001:2000 certifications with UAE certified organizations. These drivers are:

1- Customers requisition ( Statement 3 in the questionnaire );2- Enhancing promotional efforts ( Statement 4 in the questionnaire );3- Following rivals steps after they have been ISO 9001:2000 certified

(Statement 5 in the questionnaire ); and4- Improving internal efficiency and reducing costs ( Statement 6 in the

questionnaire ).The following table ranked these drivers as perceived from UAE certifiedorganizations:

Table 4: Drivers for ISO 9001:2000 certification in UAE organizations

Rank Driver Mean Standarddeviation

Level of Importance

1 For promotional reasons 4.14 0.78 High2 To improve internal efficiency 3.86 0.81 Medium3 To fulfill customers requirements of doing

business with them3.70 1.09 Medium

4 Following competitors steps 2.64 1.04 Low


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The results presented in the table 4 are showing clearly that UAE organizations maindriver to adopt ISO 9001:2000 standard was due to promotional reasons in the firstplace. Other drivers like improving internal efficiency and fulfilling customerrequirements to do business are having less weight in the decision to go for ISO9001 certification but still considered to be important drivers. Organizations in UAEgive the least weight for the decision to go for ISO 9001 as a result of following theircompetitors who had achieved the certificate before them. These findings areemphasizing the role of promoting products and services while doing business in UAEdue to the open market strategy followed by the government and the toughcompetition between rivals in the country and this is also applicable for ISO 9001certification. On the other hand certified organizations should give more weight topublicize their certificates and advertise them in the media to maximize the benefitsof certification. This high perception of promotional reasons to go for ISO 9001certification should be also assessed among UAE customers themselves to see if promotional activities of ISO certification are really affecting their decisions fordealing with certified organizations. The second driver for improving efficiency seemsto be common reason in importance between UAE and other Arab countries as beendiscussed by (Magd and Curry, 2003; and Magd et al. , 2003). The third driver of going for ISO 9001:2000 certifications was to better fulfilling customersrequirements is aligned with the fact that most of the large organizations in the UAEare requesting their suppliers to have quality management systems in order to givethem preference in doing mutual business. The lowest drivers for going for ISO9001:2000 certification was following competitors step which means that UAEorganizations are not considering achieving the ISO 9000 certificate by theircompetitors as an important factor in their decision to go for ISO 9000 certificationby themselves. The first two drivers for ISO 9001 certification in UAE are having closerelationship with the findings discussed by Pan (2003) for motivations of going for

ISO 9000 in the Far East countries, which is also emphasizing the believe that UAE isfollowing the same business models of Far East countries.

Benefits Gained after Implementing ISO 9000 in UAE OrganizationsBenefits for implementing ISO 9000 were derived from the work of many researcherswho did previous studies in different economies in general like the work of (Pan,2003; Yahya nad Goh, 2001; Naser et al. , 2004; Casadesus et al. , 2001; Bhuiyanand Alam, 2004; Singh et al. , 2006) and in the Arab World in particular like the workof (Magd et al. , 2003; Magd and Curry, 2003; Magd, 2006). In the questionnaire therespondents were asked to provide their feedback of ISO 9001:2000 benefits afterimplementation in the following:

1- Getting more business ( Statement 1 in the questionnaire );2- Increasing market share ( Statement 2 in the questionnaire );3- Improving internal efficiency and reducing costs ( Statement 6 in the

questionnaire );4- Enhancing customer service ( Statement 7 in the questionnaire );5- Better analyzing information that lead to appropriate decisions ( Statement 11

in the questionnaire );


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6- Enhancing relationship with suppliers. ( Statement 12 in the questionnaire );7- Enhancing communication ( Statement 17 in the questionnaire );8- Improving human resources competencies ( Statement 20 in the

questionnaire );9- Improve suppliers performance ( Statement 21 in the questionnaire );10- Improving customer satisfaction ( Statement 23 in the questionnaire );11- Better identifying problems and effectively solving them ( Statement 28 in the

questionnaire );12- Eliminating the causes of potential non-conformities ( Statement 29 in the

questionnaire ); and13- Increasing employees productivity ( Statement 37 in the questionnaire ).

Table 5 ranked these benefits as they were perceived from the selected sample sizeand it is clearly that the most important benefits achieved within the samplesurveyed are better analyzing information that lead to more appropriate decisions;enhancing internal communication within the organization; and enhancing abilities of eliminating the causes of potential non-conformities. These benefits seem to relateto internal benefits as recommended by Magd (2006). To reduce the number of benefits into factors, a Varimax rotation procedure for the first eleven rankedbenefits (after excluding suppliers relationship and improvement benefits) wasperformed. The overall Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test (KMO) value is 0.765 which indicatesthat the selected data factor analysis is suitably good and analysis can be reliable.

Table 5: Ranking of benefits perceived after implementing ISO 9001 by UAEorganizations

Rank Benefit Mean Standarddeviation

Internal /External Factor

1 Better analyzing information that lead tomore appropriate decisions 4.06 0.86 Internal

2 Enhancing internal communication withinthe organization

4.04 0.83 Internal

3 Enhancing abilities of eliminating thecauses of potential non-conformities

4.00 0.75 Internal

4 Improving customer service 3.98 0.84 External5 Better identifying problems and effectively

solving them3.96 0.87 Internal

6 Improving customer satisfaction 3.88 0.88 External7 Improving internal efficiency and reducing

costs3.86 0.81 Internal

8 Getting more business 3.77 0.96 External9 Increasing employees productivity 3.73 0.90 Internal

10 Increasing market share 3.70 0.97 External11 Enhancing human resources competencies 3.59 1.02 Internal12 Enhance relationship with suppliers 3.57 0.95 External13 Improve supplier performance 3.38 1.01 External

Table 6 illustrates factor analysis of the first eleven benefits with cut-off factor score0.5 is showing clearly that the benefits can be reduced into two main factors which


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are internal and external factors with Eigenvalue more than one. Although the firstdriver highlighted by the surveyed sample was to use the certifications forpromotional reasons, but as been highlighted in the previous tables (5 and 6) thatthe most benefits gained after implementing ISO 9001 can be grouped more intoimproving the internal factors rather that the external ones as been concluded byPoksinska et al. (2003), Magd (2006), Dick (2000), and Poksinska et al. (2006).

Problems Initiated after Implementing ISO 9001:2000The questionnaire addressed three main problems that companies may face afterimplementing ISO 9001:2000. The three problems address the following factors:

1- Implementing ISO 9001 complicated the work through requesting unnecessary documentation of processes and activities which add more loadto the employees (51) ( Statement 39 in the questionnaire );

2- ISO 9001 is requesting some non-value added activities that do not integratewith adding value to the overall outcome of the business (63) ( Statement 40in the questionnaire ); and

3- ISO 9001 is enhancing competencies of some of the employees like themanagement representative and internal auditors which give them tools toseek for better jobs ( Statement 41 in the questionnaire ).

Table 6: Factor analysis for the benefits gained after implementing ISO 9001 in UAEorganizations

Rotated Component Matrix Component

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.Rotation Method: Equamax with Kaiser Normalization.

1(InternalFocus)

2(External

Focus)Enhancing internal communication within our organization. .903

Better identifying problems and effectively solving them. .842

Helping in analyzing information that lead to more appropriate decisions .773

Human resources competencies have improved after adopting ISO 9001certificate.

.693

Helping in improving internal efficiency and reducing our costs .689

Enhancing abilities to eliminate the causes of potential nonconformities. .659

ISO 9001 helped us in increasing our employees productivity. .618 .515

Improving Customer satisfaction .598 .526

ISO 9001 certification helped us in getting new business .891ISO 9001 certification helped us in increasing our market share .886

Customer service has been improved .562

Eigenvalue 5.339 1.817

% of Variance 48.533 % 16.516 %


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The respondents were asked to put their perception in five-points Likert Scale andthe feedback are illustrated table 7, 8, and 9. The results of the first two tables (7and 8) are showing that UAE certified organizations in general do not look to ISO9001:2000 as a standard that complicated the work at their organizations nor it isnon-value adding standard to their business and this is matching with theconclusions of Douglas et al. (2003) when they found that respondents within theirstudy are disagreeing with the widely held belief that ISO 9000 created unnecessarywork. Meanwhile, there is a quite intermediate balance between agreement anddisagreement of ability of ISO 9001 to enhance competencies of the employees (seetable 9) that make them apply for external jobs as been illustrated in the third table.In other words, UAE organizations are having better perception of ISO 9001:2000standard in terms of not complicating their work by adding non-value activitiesaffecting their business performance and this was the main intention of revising the1994 revision.

Table 7: UAE Organizations perception of whether Implementing ISO 9001complicated their work or not.

Frequency Percent ValidPercent

CumulativePercent

Valid Strongly Disagree 13 25.5 27.1 27.1Disagree 26 51.0 54.2 81.3Neutral 3 5.9 6.3 87.5Agree 3 5.9 6.3 93.8Strongly Agree 3 5.9 6.3 100.0Total 48 94.1 100.0

Missing N/A 3 5.9Total 51 100.0

Mean 2.1042Std. Deviation 1.07663

Table 8: UAE Organizations perception of whether the activities involved inimplementing ISO 9001 are non-value added activities or not.


CumulativePercent

Valid Strongly Disagree 12 23.5 24.0 24.0Disagree 27 52.9 54.0 78.0Neutral 4 7.8 8.0 86.0

Agree 5 9.8 10.0 96.0Strongly Agree 2 3.9 4.0 100.0Total 50 98.0 100.0

Missing N/A 1 2.0Total 51 100.0Mean 2.1600Std. Deviation 1.03726


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Table 9: UAE Organizations perception of whether implementing ISO 9001 enhanced

competencies of employees allowing them seek for a better job


CumulativePercent

Valid Strongly Disagree 5 9.8 10.6 10.6Disagree 7 13.7 14.9 25.5Neutral 16 31.4 34.0 59.6Agree 16 31.4 34.0 93.6Strongly Agree 3 5.9 6.4 100.0Total 47 92.2 100.0

Missing N/A 4 7.8Total 51 100.0Mean 3.1064Std. Deviation 1.08816

CONCLUSIONS

Reviewing the literature highlighted the extensive number of researches conductedto address ISO 9000 standard by many researches in different countries, but thisrichness in covering the subject is not reflected by researches in the Arab World ingeneral and in the UAE in particular. This research aimed to have an exploratorystudy of ISO 9001 implementation in United Arab Emirates which was thoroughlyinvestigated using well designed questionnaire addressing respondents opinionsabout different factors of implementation. UAE is having 963 ISO 9001:2000certified organizations up to the end of 2005 and it is having the second largestnumber of certificates in the Arab World after Egypt and the number of certificatesissued in UAE represents 45 percent of the total number of certificates issued in theGCC region.

UAE is becoming the hub for international organizations to cover the Gulf as well asthe Middle East regions, this encouraged certification bodies to have their local areaoffices in UAE and this added more weight to ISO 9001 marketing and promotionalactivities. Moreover, the topography of the UAE economy based on the mix of expatriates, international companies, and local organizations and authorities isencouraging the adaptation of quality concepts in general and ISO 9001:2000 inparticular. As a developing country UAE is facing lack of formal researches toevaluate ISO 9001 experience and this was the main aim of this study. Therefore,

the key findings of the study include:

The drivers for the decision to go for ISO 9001 were analyzed in this studyand the most dominant driver was for promotional reasons, thenimproving internal efficiency and fulfilling customers requirement of doing business with them in the second level while the least driver for thedecision to go for ISO 9001 certification by UAE organizations is following


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rivals steps who had been already certified. This finding is emphasizing thedesire of UAE organizations to enhance their images to be distinguished insuch an open economy.

This study also addressed the benefits gained by UAE organizations after

implementing ISO 9001, and it is evidenced that the internal benefitsgained are more dominant than the external ones. This finding issupported by similar researches in other economies as ISO 9001:2000 isconcentrating in the first place to building a quality management systemthat will fulfill customers requirements. Observing tangible improvementsin fulfilling external requirements will take more time than observing tangible internal improvements within the organization after implementing the standard.

In general most of UAE certified organizations are not facing problems of complicating work or implementing non-value added activities whenimplementing ISO 9001. This point leads us to conclude that the newrevision of the ISO 9000 standard is fulfilling its objectives in UAEorganizations through reducing extent of documentation requirements andfocusing on system outcome.

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Documents

ISO 9001 Benefits Process