The human factor in quality management

"Quality management is not just a strategy. It must be a new style of worki ng, even a new style of thinking. A dedication to quality and excellence is more than good business. It is a way of life, giving something back to soc iety, offering your best to others" (George Bush 1991). From this statement it becomes immediately clear that the human factor play s an eminent role in quality management. Therefore, some important relevant aspects of quality management are high-lighted which are not so frequently discussed elsewhere. Various definitions and statements on quality lead to the fact that quality depends essentially on people. Some thoughts' are de veloped on the Japanese quality culture which contributed essential impulse s to the evolution of certain quality installations such as quality circles . The Japanese also developed a philosophy of quality, Kaizen, which is sig nificantly different from Western industrial quality concepts. Kaizen works well in a slow growth economy, contrary to Western innovation which is mor e suited to the fast growth economy of the past. Some ideas on the quality control of top management as well as on the quali ty control of ourselves are expressed and it is shown how this is related t o ethical principles. Every human society is as successful as: its intrinsi c degree of honesty and righteousness, its degree of prevention of corrupti on and nepotism, and its readiness to work hard for personal advancement an d for the sake of the community. Leadership, political or economic, is a sp ecial cultural effort - or at least it should be. But the striving for qual ity must be everybody's business in a company. It is the old 'pride of work manship' which is greatly lost in today's industrial structures, and which is so absolutely important to again find satisfaction and contentment in ou r work. It is shown that the human factor in quality management, apart from all the necessary formal and institutional regulations, is of major import ance, but very often neglected, especially in the present situation of over -rationalization. It is shown that dynamic equilibria do not only regulate chemical and biological systems but also operate in our psychic world. Unfo rtunately, there is a tendency to unhealthy extremes in the latter, e.g. to work aholics or neo-capitalism. Installations of total quality management such as systems, procedural and product audits are important facets of mode rn quality assurance. They are again closely related to human behaviour, as well as the procedure of company and laboratory accreditation. Finally the "Codex Hammurabi" shows that product liability was a clearly regulated iss ue in ancient Babylon, 2200 BC. This may be indicative of the fact that man y new trends propagated by management gurus usually stem from a very old pa rt of the wisdom of mankind but they are newly decorated and formed to mode rn slogans.