It is the process: A philosophical foundation for quality management

A process-oriented philosophy is proposed for quality management. The philo sophy contains three premises: the process is usually more enjoyable than t he product (i.e. the result); if one takes care of the process, the product will take care of itself; and any result is part of an endless process lea ding to future results and future processes. The philosophy is not only sol idly grounded in traditional academic philosophies, but also transparent an d easy to communicate to practitioners as a folk philosophy. Furthermore, t he process-oriented philosophy provides a new paradigm for decision theory, organization theory, motivation theory, etc.-all of them are important iss ues in quality management.