IJCA - Volume 2 - Flipbook - Page 28
28 The International Journal of Conformity Assessment
DOI: doi.org/10.55459/IJCA/v2i1/NG
Risk Management, Conformity Assessment, and
Evaluation of Organizational Intelligence in Scenarios of
Change and Crisis
By Nicola Gigante, Assessor of Accredia, Italian Accreditation Body
-ABSTRACTIn an environment increasingly dominated by change and crisis, in which the organizations are required
to readily adapt their management systems to new needs and emerging risks, the conformity assessment
should itself be adaptive and always responsive to the growing complexity of its object. The article aims to
explore this issue, first by addressing the topic of “organizational intelligence.” In the second part, there is
a focus on the evolution of the management system standards in a performance perspective, and on risk
management as a countermeasure to the progressive reduction of the prescriptive approach. Finally, the
idea of a “complexity assessment” is proposed, aimed at assessing not only the conformity to requirements
within a stable and predictable framework, but also the adaptability and resilience of the organizations, in
response to the traumatic transformations of the context.
Keywords: Risk management, organizational intelligence, conformity assessment, change, crisis, quality assurance, performance
assurance, complexity assessment, ISO 9001:2015, ISO 17000, ISO 31000, IEC 31010, ISO 31050
Introduction
Organizations and Context Transformation
Is it possible to have confidence in the validity
of conformity assessment, even when its
object is rapidly changing? How can the ability
of organizations to ensure the fulfillment of
requirements be appraised in the presence of
structural and traumatic crises, nowadays inevitable
components of the broader context? How is it
possible to reconcile the goal of performance
assurance (for example, “quality assurance”) with
the concept of risk, and with that of its associated
uncertainty? How should assessment tools evolve
to match the growing complexity of the object
activities?
Organizations are complex adaptive systems.
Considering the sometimes-disruptive variations of
the conditions that characterize their context, they
will become increasingly able to regularly provide
outputs conforming to the requirements and to deal
advantageously with this variability.
The following considerations arise from these
questions with the intention of contributing to the
search for the right answers. First, to this end,
the topic of “organizational intelligence” will be
addressed. Subsequently, we will focus on the
evolution in the sense of performance of the rules on
management systems, and on risk management as
a countermeasure to the progressive abandonment
of the prescriptive approach. Finally, the idea of a
“complexity assessment” will be proposed, aimed at
assessing not only compliance with the requirements
in a stable and predictable framework, but also the
adaptability and resilience of organizations in the
face of change and crisis.
To achieve this, organizations should possess, to the
necessary degree:
1. An up-to-date knowledge of the framework of
requirements, resulting from monitoring the
expectations and requirements of the most critical
and important interested parties, and of their
evolution.
2. A clear understanding of the risks and
opportunities associated with both the routine
management of processes and their change, when
necessary.
For the realities characterized by the unpredictability
of the scenario, the risk-based approach and the
adoption of tools to maximize the rationality of
decisions will be decisive. The management system
will be more useful and effective the better it can
regulate on this basis the organizational reactions in
unforeseen events and crises.
Operationally, a management system should include
tools for:
