The final draft of ISO 9001:2026 gives The organization's shared values, attitudes and observed behaviours that support quality objectives and outputs that meet customer and other interested-party needs. and Making decisions and acting consistently with the organization's principles and obligations, even under pressure from time, cost or targets. a clearer place in the standard. Top management must promote both. People working under the organization’s control must know what conduct is expected.123
The standard is expected to be published in September 2026. Until then, you can prepare your practices but should wait before adding permanent clause references.4
Management must promote the culture and explain expected conduct
ISO 9000 describes quality culture as shared values and behaviours that support the quality policy, quality objectives and the ability to meet the needs of customers and other interested parties.5
The final draft addresses the subject in three places:
- Clause 5.1.1: top management must promote quality culture and ethical behaviour.
- Clause 7.3: employees, consultants and others working under the organization’s control must know the culture and expected conduct.
- Clause 7.1.4: a note explains that culture and ethical behaviour can affect the environment needed for processes to operate. The note is guidance rather than a separate requirement.1
ISO 9001:2015 already requires leadership, an effective environment for processes and awareness of personal contribution. The draft makes quality culture and ethical behaviour explicit.6
The proposed requirements do not prescribe a specific culture programme, index or survey.1 Start with the decisions and behaviours that affect quality in your organization.
Start where time and cost affect quality decisions
Review a few actual nonconformities, customer complaints or late deliveries. Find out when the problem became known, who made the decision and whether time, cost or another target caused a planned control to be skipped.
The review shows whether the organization’s stated values guide decisions in practice. If defects remain in email threads, people lack authority or managers delay action, you have a specific problem to solve. The cause may lie in staffing, planning, responsibility or reporting routes.
Give each role clear authority
State what each role can decide, when work must stop, who can approve a delivery with a known nonconformity and where problems must be reported. Include consultants and others working under your control.
Use real situations in onboarding, instructions and meetings. Ask how the person would respond, then compare the answer with your authority and procedures. This gives better information than checking only whether someone attended training.
Track behaviours that affect the customer
Choose measures connected to your processes. Examples include nonconformities found after delivery, recurring defects, missed planned controls or delayed reports. Follow the trend and investigate when results get worse.
Internal audit can check whether responsibilities and reporting routes work. Top management's recurring review of whether the management system works and which changes, actions or resources are needed. can then address recurring barriers and decide on resources or changes to practices. Use the review to find and handle problems earlier.23
Prepare a management system that can adapt
Separate the proposed requirements from the guidance. Map where quality decisions are made, clarify authority and test it in real situations. Keep practices that already produce the right result.
Use the upcoming change to test how easily your management system can adapt. If a new requirement must be copied into several documents, responsibilities are assigned by email and follow-up happens in separate lists, it becomes hard to see what applies.
A living digital management system should instead help you:
- show which practice applies and who is responsible for it,
- connect nonconformities, audits and actions to the affected processes,
- distinguish proposals from approved changes,
- retain history and records when a practice is updated.
Start with one process where quality decisions are often needed. Keep the decision route, authority and follow-up in the same system, then test the setup with a real nonconformity or customer comment. The current version, responsible person and next action should be visible where the work happens.
Once the standard is published, update the clause references and confirm the transition with your certification body. Read more about how a digital management system can keep day-to-day work connected.
Footnotes
-
ISO/FDIS 9001:2026, clauses 5.1.1, 7.1.4 and 7.3. Clauses 5.1.1 and 7.3 contain requirements. The reference in 7.1.4 appears in a note and is guidance. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 -
DNV, “ISO 9001:2026 Standard Revision”. DNV describes a new requirement in clause 5.1 and references to quality culture and ethical behaviour in 7.1.4 and 7.3. https://www.dnv.com/assurance/Management-Systems/new-iso/transition/iso-9001-revision/ ↩ ↩2
-
BSI, “ISO 9001:2026, Key Changes and Guidance”. BSI describes management responsibility, the awareness requirement and possible approaches. https://www.bsigroup.com/en-US/products-and-services/standards-services/iso-9001-2026-key-changes-and-guidance/ ↩ ↩2
-
ISO, “ISO 9001: Quality management systems, Requirements”. ISO lists the document at FDIS status and expects publication in September 2026. https://www.iso.org/standard/88464.html ↩
-
ISO 9000:2026, clauses 3.4.7–3.4.8. The standard defines culture and quality culture. https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso:9000:en ↩ -
ISO 9001:2015, clauses 5.1.1, 7.1.4 and 7.3. The current edition already requires leadership, a suitable process environment and awareness of personal contribution and the consequences of not meeting requirements. ↩
