Translation Process and Organizational Change: ISO 14001 Implementation

The purpose of this study is to find out how local translations of a generic management system reduce organizational uncertainties, produce technical and organizational knowledge, and introduce cooperative relations, cross-functional learning, and problem identification and solving. The study uses the organizational dynamics associated with the implementation of an environmental management system (EMS), according to ISO 14001, in a chemical plant to answer those questions. Based on an ethnographic study, this paper unravels the way in which ISO 14001 requirements are interpreted by environmental managers and production teams and are, then, translated to fit their organizational context (i.e., the specific industrial managerial cultures and organizational issues). The author concludes that the production and circulation of artifacts embodying extensive knowledge about the production activity and its impacts on the environment counterbalance the dependency of a company’s environment departments on other departments and increase the environment department’s ability to mobilize teams around the environmental stakes.