ISO 14001 implementation: translation process and organizational change

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 the article unravels the way in which ISO 14001 requirements are interpreted by environmental managers and production teams and, then, translated to fit their organizational context, i.e. the specific industrial managerial cultures and organizational issues. The article conclude that the production and circulation of artifacts embodying extensive knowledge about the production activity and its impacts on the environment counterbalances dependency of company's environment departments on other departments and increases environment department ability to mobilize teams around the environmental stakes.