In the current business environment, management systems show a complex and integrated nature from the perspective of a substantial group of internal and external variables. The evolution of the company over time – directed through the philosophy of management systems- promotes the relationship between three cardinal elements: the level of integration, maturity and sustainability. In terms of proportionality and on the basis of diversity of each system, the company will be more sustainable as it reaches higher levels of maturity.
Consequently, the management system not only contributes to the maintenance of the levels reached in terms of their effectiveness and compliance, but becomes an instrument for improvement. The integration of processes and the maturity level, has been recognized in several studies as a central variable in the integrated management systems, along with others such as the strategy adopted, the implementation process and motivation. Therefore, a link between those three elements towards organizational sustainability, favors the effectiveness of the evaluation to the objectives, as well as the satisfaction and more recently, customer delight.
This paper addresses the fundamental concepts and principles related to the link between level of integration and maturity of the management system and the sustainability of the organization. It also includes analysis of various models available in the literature focused on these elements so as to identify the contact points where that concurrence is exposed to express it in the form of a model.
management system, maturity, level of integration, sustainability.