Leadership, goal acceptance, and QMS conformance readiness: exploring the mediating effects of audit team cohesion

The significance of quality management system certification continues to increase as signalled by growth in the number of companies that have implemented quality systems conforming to the ISO 9001 standard. Even though the ISO 9001 standard requires organisational leaders to work with internal and external auditors to assess quality management system readiness and conformance, there are claims that the largest obstacle to certification is lack of leader involvement. The purpose of this study is to explore involvement, in terms of leader capability to foster acceptance of team goals, and its relationship to team performance and operational outcomes and whether these relationships are mediated by audit team cohesion. This research examines leadership and group dynamics in relation to system conformance to ISO 9001 through views from external auditors. Data from 106 external auditors were analysed using PLS path modelling. Results showed that audit team cohesion mediates relationships between fostering acceptance of team goals and satisfaction with team performance and quality management system conformance readiness.