Management Systems of Tomorrow - Gaining the organizations support

Abstract: Management systems need to be able to stay viable in a changing environment and not become counterproductive because the surroundings have changed. The purpose of this study is to create a concept that can act as a foundation for future management systems. This concept should try to help close the gap between how the management systems are intended to be used, versus how they are actually used in reality. It should provide organizations with the mindset necessary for designing, improving or implementing their management system. This project aims to answer the following questions: How can a successful management system be defined? What aspects need to influence a management system so that it will become alive and rooted in the entire organization? The project uses an inductive approach, following the following methodology: Step 1 of the project was to create a theoretical framework based on previous research. Step 2 was to collect qualitative data through interviews. Step 3 was to analyze the data and compare it to the theoretical framework. Step 4 was to create and finalize the concept. The findings of this project suggest that a successful management system is a simple system with clear structures and routines for both managers and employees. The system should be available, inspiring and supporting so that both managers and employees feel secure and comfortable when performing their daily work. By making managers and employees feel involved and able to perform to their fullest capabilities, it will increase the chances for the system to be truly rooted and alive in an organization, which will bring value to both the organization and its stakeholders. Based on this the authors suggest the following definition for a successful management system: “A management system should aim to provide value to the end customer by creating a systematic way of managing all of an organizations processes. It should help the organization understand its employees in order to create a corporate culture that embraces change projects and enables it to utilize their employees to their fullest capabilities” A proposal for further studies is to investigate if it would be beneficial to integrate suppliers into an organizations management system and if so how this integration could look. It would also be beneficial to examine if the general structure of management systems will look differently depending on which industry sector the organization operates in.