The articles in this issue present an opportunity to examine
the implementation of quality management approaches in developing
and emerging economies. Although many quality management approaches
were initially developed and implemented in Japan, they were
successfully disseminated to the United States and other Western
nations during the 1980s. More recent years have seen the
dissemination of quality management approaches to countries
whose economies are developing. The articles in this issue
examine some of the unique characteristics of developing and
emerging economies and the relevance of quality management
approaches in them.
The first article examines quality management in India. In
“Organizational Quality Management
in Emerging Economies,” Bharat Jain and Filiz Tabak
of Towson University investigate the effectiveness of quality
management in emerging economies, which have recently restructured
to convert from a centrally planned system to a market driven
system. They argue that such economies present fundamentally
different organizational environments than those where quality
management was initially implemented. Since organizational
culture is critical in the implementation of quality management,
they questioned whether quality management would be equally
successful in countries, such as India, with emerging economies.
Surveying executives in 104 organizations in India, the authors
found that they perceived that efforts at implementation of
quality management in India have been modest. In addition,
they found significant differences between respondents at
different organizational levels and in different types of
organizations in terms of the drivers that they felt were
more critical to organizational performance. This indicates
that the concepts of quality management are still evolving
and being adapted in India.
The second article looks at the small software development
companies common in Ireland and other developing economies.
Although there have been a number of models developed for
large software development firms, they are not relevant to
smaller companies, with their flatter structures, flexibility,
responsiveness, and entrepreneurial nature, as well as limited
resources, even though there are many such companies in developing
countries around the world. Ita Richardson, Eamonn Murphy,
and Kevin Ryan of the University of Limerick in Ireland propose
and test a process for guiding the software development process
in small development firms in “Development
of a Generic Quality Function Deployment Matrix.”
Their model is based on the principles of quality function
deployment. The model was validated in practice, using the
opinions of 22 experts with an average of 17 years of experience,
as well as through action research in three organizations
in a longitudinal study. They found that this tool was useful
in improving the software development process in small development
firms, in an affordable manner.
Lori Cook of DePaul University and Rohit Verma of the University
of Utah examine quality management in the banking industry
in Hong Kong in “Exploring the
Linkages Between Quality System, Service Quality, and Performance
Excellence: Service Providers’ Perspectives.”
Changes in government structure have led to a turbulent environment
and significant market pressures in the banking industry in
Hong Kong. Cook and Verma examine the perceptions of the front-line
service providers in 28 retail branches. They are particularly
important in a service operation such as banking, since customers
may form their opinions of the quality of the service based
on their interaction with the service provider. The authors
conducted a detailed case study, followed by a survey, in
order to determine linkages between perception of the quality
system, the organizational culture, and performance excellence.
They found strategic consensus among the employees about the
importance of quality management, as well as the belief that
delivery of service quality impacts quality performance.
The final paper looks at quality management in Turkey. Ceyhun
Ozgur of Valparaiso University, Gary Meek of Black Hills State
University, and Aysegul Toker of Bogazici University in Turkey
look at several important aspects of quality management in
“The Impact of ISO Certification
on the Levels of Awareness and Usage of Quality Tools and
Concepts: A Survey of Turkish Manufacturing Companies.”
ISO 9000 has been important to companies in emerging economies
as a means for demonstrating that they have the systems in
place to produce a quality product, particularly if they seek
to distribute their products in the European Community. Ozgur,
Meek, and Toker looked at 140 large Turkish manufacturing
firms to determine whether there was a relationship between
certification and the use of quality management tools. Although
they found that the basic tools were used significantly more
by ISO certified companies, they found few differences among
the companies in their use of the advanced tools. This indicates
that the use of quality management approaches is still developing
in Turkey. Their findings also indicated some evidence of
misunderstanding about the use of some of the tools. Thus,
as in India, the use of quality management is still evolving
and being adapted in Turkey.
We were all saddened to hear of the recent death of Bill
Golomski, whose vision and dedication led to the creation
of Quality Management Journal. Following are reminiscences
of Bill and his life by two of his close friends, Hy Pitt
and George Easton. Their eulogies paint a vivid picture of
Bill's devotion to quality management, embodied in his work
and his founding of Quality Management Journal.
Barbara B. Flynn
Editor
Quality Management Journal
EDITORIAL
EDITOR
Barbara B. Flynn
Wake Forest UniversityPAST EDITOR
George S. Easton
Emory UniversityFOUNDING EDITOR
William A. Golomski
University of Chicago
BOOK REVIEW EDITOR
James B. Kohnen
St. Mary’s College of CaliforniaPUBLISHER
William Tony
MANUSCRIPT COORDINATOR
Dave Nelsen
COPY EDITORS
Leigh Ann Klaus
Kris McEachern
PRODUCTION
Cathy Schnackenberg
DIGITAL PRODUCTION SPECIALISTS
Jen Czajka
Jill ZimmermanHTML CODING
Jill ZimmermanEDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
John Anderson
University of Minnesota
Selwyn Becker
University of Chicago
Robert E. Cole
University of California
James W. Dean, Jr.
University of North Carolina
James R. Evans
University of Cincinnati
John P. Evans
University of North Carolina
Frank M. Gryna
University of Tampa
John Hamburg
APEX, Inc.
David Luther
Luther Quality Associates
Ram Narasimhan
Michigan State University
Roger G. Schroeder
University of Minnesota
Kalyan Singhal
University of Baltimore
Michael J. Stahl
University of TennesseeEDITORIAL REVIEW BOARD
Sanjay Ahire
University of Dayton
Susan D. Amundson
Arizona State University
Kimberly A. Bates*
University of Toronto
Paul M. Bobrowski
Syracuse University
Kenneth Boyer
Michigan State University
Kenneth E. Case
Oklahoma State University
Injazz Chen
Cleveland State University
Barrie Dale*
University of Manchester
Richard Deane
Georgia State University
John Delery
University of Arkansas
Kevin Dooley
Arizona State University
Edward Duplaga
Bowling Green State University
Susan West Engelkemeyer
Babson College
Byron Finch
Miami University
Mark P. Finster
University of Wisconsin
Laura Forker
University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth
Soumen Ghosh
Georgia Institute of Technology
Glenn H. Gilbreath
Virginia Commonwealth University
John M. Groocock*
TRW (Retired)
Robert Handfield
North Carolina State University
Sandra J. Hartman
University of New Orleans
Marilyn Helms
Dalton State College
Mary Collins Holcomb
University of Tennessee
Ann Jordan
University of North Texas
Gary Kern
Indiana University South Bend
Jill Phelps Kern
Digital Semiconductor
David Kerridge*
Aberdeen University
Ray A. Klotz
Qualcomm Inc.
Frank Knight
FISI Madison Financial
Ronald D. Kurtzmann
Diamond Management Systems
Keong Leong
Ohio State University
A. Magid Mazen
Suffolk University
Satish Mehra
University of Memphis
Kim I. Melton
North Georgia College and State University
Henry R. Neave*
British Deming Association
Yoram Neumann
California State University
William Newman
Miami University
Gary Ragatz
Michigan State University
Gipsie B. Ranney
Belmont University
Richard N. Rosett
Rochester Institute of Technology
Brooke Saladin
Wake Forest University
Helmut Schneider
Louisiana State University
Nirmal Sethia
California State Polytechnic University
John G. Surak
Clemson University
William Tallon
Northern Illinois University
Michael D. Tveite
The Tetrad Group
Peter Ward
Ohio State University
L. David Weller
University of Georgia
Ted Weston
Colorado State University
*International reviewer
