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The standard requires that "...top management provide evidence of its commitment to the development and implementation of the quality management system and continually improving its effectiveness..".

Firstly one needs to understand what the standard is implying by the term 'top management'. Little bit of history here, the the 1994 standard used terminology such as 'management representative', this allowed top management to pass wholesale responsibility down the organization hierarchy, often landing neatly on the quality manager's lap. It is not uncommon to find within organizations that many managers and employees perceived quality to be a function carried out by the quality department. Now within ISO 9000 top management is defined as 'the person or group of people who direct or control an organization at its highest level. This would appear to be a positive move to address the short fall in the previous revision. No longer can top management just attend the yearly management review meeting, they are required to show tangible commitment to the quality management system.

Note : There is no specific requirement in ISO 9000 that calls for a quality manager or quality department. The ethos is that quality should be inherent in all the processes throughout and organization and not be the sole responsibility of any single entity.

Secondly, commitment can be defined as a dedication to a cause or principle, an obligation, responsibility, or promise. From an organization or employee view point, this can be taken to mean an obligation accepted to fulfil a course of action. Other simple meanings could be 'doing what you say you will do', 'honouring plans and promises', 'working to agreed procedures and instructions'. The standard itself does not give a definition for commitment, however, one would expect top management to understand its commitments...

Within clause 5.1 covering management commitment the standard is looking for commitment from top management in five specific areas. The intent is that top management must provide evidence of its commitment to develop and implement the QMS and continually improve its effectiveness by.

communicating to the organization the importance of meeting customer as well as statutory and regulatory requirements,

establishing the quality policy,
ensuring that quality objectives are established,
conducting management reviews, and
ensuring the availability of resources.

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