What is a Management System? – Part 1

If one is going to discuss OH&S management systems –  it is probably worthwhile to explore just what a “management system” is.

There are a variety of ways you can go about deciding what a word or phrase means.  You can ask an expert, you can ask several experts, you can take an opinion survey or you can look it up in a dictionary.  Part 1 of this series takes the approach of looking it up in the dictionary (or more accurately — a dictionary of dictionaries — www.dictionary.com).

Part 2 will examine the definition of a “management system” set out in ISO standards.

A Dictionary Definition

If one approaches this as a tautological exercise, one can break the term “management system” into its component parts of “management” and “system,” define each and then combine the two definitions back together again into a single definition for a “management system.”

Using this approach, one can define the word “management” as the act or manner of managing; handling, direction, or control and the word “system” as a group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements forming a complex whole.  Combining these definitions, one gets the following definition for a “management system”  – the act of managing a group of interacting, interrelated or interdependent elements forming a complex whole.  This is a traditional definition.

On the other hand, by combining a different set of definitions for “management” and “system” from alternative on-line dictionaries, one can get the following, more cynical, definition — a social, economic or political organizational form used by individuals who are distinguished primarily by their distance from actual productive work and their chronic failure to manage.

For those who appreciate Dilbert cartoons, this represents an alternative view of “management systems” as they are perceived to exist in some organizations.

NOTE: This blog post was first published on the OHSAS 18001 Expert website on 5/7/2007.