Who needs to learn what from whom? Understanding quality management by differentiating organisations and practices

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to understand quality management by describing differences between organisations and practices. This study looks at the scores for different criteria from the different quality award applicants in Sweden between 1992 and 2010. It is noteworthy to mention that the service industry outperforms the manufacturing industry. Furthermore, and maybe not surprisingly, large organisations are ahead of small and medium enterprises in the race for quality progress. In general, when comparing public with private organisations, private organisations do better, and especially process issues seem to be easier for private firms. This study also suggests that process management as it is described and taught needs to be revised to better fit the organisations. The time has come to question old truths about quality management, especially regarding who is better than whom at what, and who needs to learn what from whom.