Chinese organizations are embracing management systems faster than the rest of the world in a bid to boost reputation and customer satisfaction, research revealed in London on Tuesday.

The research conducted for Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) said the surge of investment in management systems is driven by a desire to overcome perceptions in the developed world that quality and social and environmental standards are lower in emerging markets such as China.

The desire for improved reputation, customer satisfaction and improved quality of products and services is the driving force behind the change in management systems, the report said.

"It's not for nothing that China now leads the world with its near exponential adoption of management systems. Who's to say that China will not ultimately embrace social and governance processes with a similar fervor in due course?" said Andrew Kakabadse, professor of international management at the Cranfield School of Management in Britain.

The report said 54 percent of respondents think environmental standards are lower in emerging markets than in the developed world, 47 percent think health and safety standards are lower in emerging markets, and 41 percent think management systems are less rigorously assessed in these markets.

"China's response has been to recognize the upside of having robust, assessed systems and the positive impact it has on reputation and customer satisfaction," said Ian Hodgskinson, director of management systems at the LRQA.

Starting years ago, systems dedicated to managing quality control have now spread to many other areas of business operations, and have become key tools for managing organizational performance and behavior.

The LRQA is a leading business assurance company providing verification, certification and training services to a wide range of organizations around the world.

(Xinhua News Agency November 29, 2006)