Abstract

A culture of quality is easy to spot in an organization for a trained professional. Between obsessing over customer satisfaction, a mature understanding of improvement's status as journey rather than destination and open, candid communication at all organizational levels, the signs of a culture centered on quality will be clear. The application of techniques creating a quality culture, on the other hand, can be difficult. Most of the time, the problem is in the middle, with middle management. For affected departments, the most likely culprit of slow uptake of quality principles is a void of organizational self-awareness and a disconnection with quality's vision and mission. In other words, if a part of the whole can find in itself nothing important, how can it be important to the company?