The documented organization is at best a rough facsimile for the actual organization. There is always a gap between what is expressed in job descriptions, policies, and procedures; and the actual organization performing the work.
A significant cause for this gap can be attributed to the level of accountability and autonomy given to workers to achieve their objectives. In fact, these are required to enable proactive behaviours that anticipate, plan, and advance objectives and goals.
Creating the balance between adherence to standard practices and having adequate room to be proactive is precisely the balance between management systems and programs.
Systems achieve consistency by adhering to procedures, resisting change and reacting to variation. While programs anticipate conditions, introduce change, and advance outcomes.
Effective compliance (ex. quality, safety, environmental, and regulatory) requires that existing conditions are maintained, and that progress is made towards compliance goals (ex. zero defects, zero fatalities, zero emissions, zero violations). This requires that companies implement appropriate programs to advance these goals along with their management systems to keep the ground they already have.
