Impactos da norma QWEB nas empresas portuguesas

: estudo de casos múltiplos

Abstract

The globalisation and internationalisation of markets and rise of e-business and e-commerce requires that today's organizations make efforts to keep up with the progress of the new technologies and to improve the efficiency and performance to survive in an increasingly competitive market. For organisations to assert themselves, it is important to obtain a certification by an external and independent certification body certifying that these institutions are implementing processes aimed at ensuring minimum quality levels to costumers. In this way, the QWEB standard, internationally accepted, presents a set of rules and guidelines to meet the needs and requirements of the organisations’s operations of the Digital Economy. This dissertation focuses on the case study of three Portuguese institutions that have implemented the QWEB standard, with the aim of identifying the motivations, impacts, difficulties/challenges and the key factors of the success regarding its implementation. The methodology used was multiple case studies, using interviews, observation and documentary analysis as techniques for the collection of data. The study made it possible to demonstrate the existence of internal and external motivations that led to implementation. The requirements of the QWEB standard are a reference to the institutions, reflecting a considerable improvement of organizational processes. However, the external acknowledgment, despite being one of the motivations for the implementation, falls short of expectations. Neverthless, it is necessary to take into account that the QWEB standard presents benefits, contributing to an increase in the credibility of organizations and satisfaction of customer needs. Associated costs, despite of not being a penalizing factor, are a problem for most organizations, especially for the small ones. Identified as key factors for success are the commitment of top management to motivate, train and support their staff, ensuring that quality is a top priority, the existence of a strong and cohesive team’s project and involvement of all organization’s members.

Date of Award	4 May 2015
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Nuno Filipe Rosa Melão (Supervisor)