Corporate Culture and the Quality Organization

Most quality management programs focus on the tools that can be employed to improve quality, but the long-term results of these efforts have been mixed. The only way to ensure that quality improvement will have lasting consequences for a firm is to change the corporate culture. Having the appropriate level of technical knowledge to address quality problems is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for realizing the hoped-for improvement. Only when the entire culture of the corporation, starting with a visionary leader and senior management, is receptive to the adoption of new tools will any substantial progress be made.

Fairfield-Sonn, a management consultant and professor of management, argues that success in this endeavor depends not only on mastering the components of a quality corporate culture but on understanding how to put those components together. He describes not only what must be done to establish a quality culture but how to stage a rollout of a quality program to enhance the likelihood of the effort's long-term success. Four in-depth case studies—Fidelity Investments, General Electric, Torrington Supply Company, and Connecticut Renaissance—are presented for illustration and instruction by way of example. Geared toward executives and consultants as well as those teaching courses in production and operations management, process management, total quality management, and corporate culture.

JAMES W. FAIRFIELD-SONN is Associate Professor of Management at the Barney School of Business, University of Hartford./e Voted Outstanding Teacher of the Year in 1999, he teaches courses in process management and leadership.