Quality Management

Abstract

This chapter aims to provide students with an understanding of the importance of contextual factors in shaping the uptake and use of quality management programmes. Since the early 1990s, an increasing number of companies have attempted to take a broader approach to quality improvement that encompasses all aspects of internal operations, involves every employee of the company and accommodates external operating practices and customer-supplier relations. This holistic approach to quality management and change differentiates it from earlier attempts at quality control (through quality assurance departments) and employee involvement programmes (through the use of quality circles on the shop floor). In pursuit of this aim, a number of management tools have also been developed to help organisations to implement systems of continuous improvement, such as brainstorming, flow charts, Pareto charts and cause and effect (fishbone) diagrams. In practice, however, any holistic approach has to accommodate contextual conditions as there is no single recipe to the successful introduction of quality management programmes. Consequently, this chapter sets out to highlight the centrality of context in shaping the process and outcomes of change through discussing the practical case study example of Pirelli Cables Australia Limited.