ISO 9001:2026 asks top management to promote a quality culture and ethical behaviour, and extends awareness so people understand how culture and ethics relate to their work. The challenge most organisations face is practical: what does “quality culture” actually look like, and how do we show evidence of it? That is exactly where ISO 10010:2022 helps.
What Is ISO 10010?
ISO 10010:2022 — Quality management: Guidance to understand, evaluate and improve organizational quality culture was published in August 2022. It is a guidance standard (not certifiable) built on the quality management principles, with a particular focus on leadership and engagement of people. It applies to any organisation regardless of size, sector or maturity, and includes example tools for self-assessing quality culture maturity and identifying where to improve.
Where ISO 9001:2026 and ISO 10010 Meet
| ISO 9001:2026 expectation | How ISO 10010 helps |
|---|---|
| Leadership promotes quality culture and ethical behaviour | Explains what quality culture is — shared values, beliefs and behaviours — so leaders know what they are promoting and how their own actions shape it |
| People are aware of quality culture and ethics | Helps translate culture into everyday behaviours that can be communicated in induction, toolbox talks and awareness training |
| Evidence for audits | Provides a structured self-assessment approach that produces records of how culture is evaluated over time |
| Continual improvement | Links assessment results to improvement actions, objectives and management review |
| Engagement of people | Gives guidance on involving employees at all levels — speaking up, ownership and recognition |
A Practical Approach: Understand, Evaluate, Improve
1. Understand
- Define what quality culture means for your organisation in plain language
- Identify the behaviours you expect from leaders, supervisors and front-line teams
- Link culture and ethics to your quality policy, values and code of conduct
2. Evaluate
- Run a quality culture self-assessment using the ISO 10010 guidance (surveys, interviews, focus groups and observation)
- Look for signals such as willingness to report problems, response to customer complaints, how nonconformities are handled and whether quality is traded off under pressure
- Identify the current maturity level and the gaps against where you want to be
3. Improve
- Set quality culture objectives and simple indicators (e.g., near-miss and issue reporting, participation in improvement, survey scores)
- Build leadership routines such as Gemba walks, recognition and open communication
- Review progress in management review and repeat the assessment periodically
What Auditors Are Likely to Look For
- Visible leadership commitment to quality and ethics — not only a signed policy
- Communication and awareness records covering quality culture and ethical behaviour
- Evidence that people can raise concerns without fear
- Culture-related objectives, assessments or indicators reviewed by management
- Consistency between what is written and what people actually do on the shop floor
ISO 10010 is not a requirement of ISO 9001:2026, but using it gives you a recognised, structured way to demonstrate that quality culture is understood, evaluated and improved — which makes the new requirement far easier to meet and to audit.
How QualityGuru Can Support You
QualityGuru helps organisations turn quality culture from a slogan into everyday practice:
- Training: ISO 9001:2026 transition, quality culture and ethics awareness, and internal auditor programmes
- Quality culture assessment: ISO 10010-based surveys, interviews and maturity evaluation with a clear improvement roadmap
- Implementation: leadership routines, culture objectives and indicators, and integration into management review
- Readiness audit: verification of quality culture evidence before your ISO 9001:2026 transition audit
Ready to plan your transition? Contact QualityGuru — email info@qualityguru.net or call +91 99522 29598.