The willingness of professionals to contribute to their organisation's certification

Purpose – This paper seeks to find out which factors influence the willingness of professionals to contribute to a certification process and to understand the rationale behind this willingness. Design/methodology/approach – Based on literature, prerequisites are formulated for the willingness of professionals to contribute to certification. These are compared with the results of a study among lecturers at Universities of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands and Flanders about their willingness to contribute to accreditation of their schools. This study combines survey and Delphi research. Findings – Professionals agree on the added value of certification systems. They are willing to contribute to the certification process, provided that a set of conditions is fulfilled. Research limitations/implications – The case focuses on large organisations for which certification is obligatory. The findings may not apply in small or medium-sized organisations or if the main driver for certification is internal improvement. Further research is needed to verify the generalisation of the results to other sectors and countries. Originality/value – Research has shown that it is difficult to motivate professionals to contribute to certification. Little research has been done on the reasons why. The paper provides more insight into the difficulties that organizations face to commit their professionals to become involved in certification and turns these into requirements to be fulfilled to achieve commitment. These are relevant for organisations, which need the support of their professional employees to achieve management system certification.

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