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The concept of quality culture has gained increased attention in health professions education, drawing on insights that quality management processes and positive work-related attitudes of staff in synergy lead to continuous improvement. However, the directions that guide institutions from quality culture theory to educational practice have been missing so far. A prospective qualitative case study of three health professions education programmes was conducted to explore how a quality culture can be enhanced according to the experiences and perspectives of educational leaders. The data collection was structured by an appreciative inquiry approach, supported with vignette-based interviews. A total of 25 participants (a selection of course coordinators, bachelor coordinators and directors of education) reflected on quality culture themes to learn about the best of what is (Discover), envision positive future developments (Dream), identify actions to reach the desired future (Design), and determine how to support and sustain improvement actions (Destiny) within their own educational setting. The results are presented as themes subsumed under these four phases. The experiences and perspectives of educational leaders reveal that peer learning in teams and communities, attention to professional development, and embedding support- and innovation networks, are at the heart of quality culture enhancement. An emphasis on human resources, (inter)relations and contextual awareness of leaders stood out as quality culture catalysts. Educational leaders are therefore encouraged to especially fuel their networking, communication, coalition building, and reflection competencies.

The ‘quality culture’ notion embraces the idea that educational quality management should be in line with staff values, so that these reciprocally reinforce each other. Despite its positive connotation, a sound conceptualization of the quality culture construct is missing. Two overarching research questions underpin our studies: 1) What are the most important features of a quality culture and how do these features interrelate? 2) How to promote a culture of continuous educational quality improvement? The results of this research lead to the conclusion that a closer fit is required between innovation strategies, staff development, and supportive networks. Moreover, a larger emphasis on human interrelations is needed. The furthering of HRM, especially in areas of competency development and educational career building, will contribute to the sustainability of HEIs’ improvement capacity. Communities of practice could help to catalyze individual and collective learning, peer support and institutions’ innovation potential. To sail from the status quo to an enhanced quality culture, institutions should pay attention to the following three main areas: the connection between quality structures and values, the relation between quality, culture and change, and educational leadership development.

Whether it is a company or a university, quality management cannot do without culture. Quality culture is the essence of quality management. Without a positive quality culture, quality management cannot be successful, and quality goals cannot be achieved. In the age of quality, the construction of quality culture in colleges and universities can only start from the value level and spiritual field of contemporary college students, highlighting self-education, enhancing quality awareness, changing their attitudes and habits, changing the way of doing things, and focusing on improving the soft power of college students, higher education In order to achieve success in quality management, the education quality goal can be finally achieved.

The publication focuses on issues related to the culture of safety and the culture of quality. The aim of the publication is to analyze the literature on the subject of these two concepts and to present the relationship between the culture of quality and culture of safety. The integrated system should include the culture of an integrated management system, which will include issues related to individual partial cultures, for example the cultures of quality and safety presented in this publication. This concept includes all elements of the culture of quality and culture of occupational safety. This opens up new, interesting research fields, consistent with contemporary trends in both theory and practice of management sciences. Considering the practical dimension of management sciences, it is difficult to consider separately the “culture” of individual subsystems, where in most enterprises, especially industrial ones, these systems do not appear separately and are implemented in the form of an integrated system.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to present a comprehensive approach to studying organizational culture using “soft measures” to facilitate sustainable quality development in organizations. The purpose is also to present, discuss and compare the results from a survey designed to measure a company’s value base. Design/methodology/approach A number of different methods were used to collect soft data to study and measure organizational culture and at the same time influence the culture and the leadership within three organizations. One method, the survey, was used on two different occasions to obtain an overview of the culture within an organization and to investigate if the activities had influenced the culture and the leadership. Findings The application of soft measures used by leaders to study and develop organizational culture resulted in statistically significant positive changes in organizational work culture, according to a pre-post survey after a short period of one year. Practical implications The approach can be used by leaders in different types of organizations as the challenge of changing the organizational culture through the leadership seems to be a common challenge regardless of line of business. Originality/value The study shows the benefits of using a comprehensive approach to assess an organization’s culture based on qualitative measures and analysis.

The concept of Industry 4.0 means a new paradigm of modern manufacturing. This phenomenon requires continuous innovation processes and technological development from each enterprise. Traditional concepts of quality must absorb changes and prepare themselves for new challenges. The studies linked to successful adaptation to Industry 4.0 focus mostly on technical dimensions and forget the impact of organisational culture. One should, however, remember that quality culture plays a crucial role in the organisational culture of manufacturing enterprises with elements of quality management implemented. Developed quality cultures support the innovation environment, which is why it is necessary for the enterprises to identify the current level of their quality culture and detect significant factors that differentiate individual quality cultures and focus on them. Given this fact, the aim of the paper is to analyse the typical cultures and quality concepts and to detect the factors that differentiate individual quality cultures in Slovakia. We use data from our own survey, dependences were indicated by means of correspondence analysis and the test of proportion. The improvement and assurance of quality, the use of information and the overall effectiveness are significant factors detected by the discriminant analysis. The conclusions of the survey may be used by scientific researchers but especially by manufacturing enterprises interested in quality which are coming to terms with the era of Industry 4.0.

The order no. 2010-49 of January 13, 2010 has made the accreditation of medical biology laboratories in France mandatory. It is based on international standards: NF EN ISO 15189 for medical biology laboratories and NF EN ISO 22870 for point-of-care testing. The NF EN ISO 15189:2012 standard is an adaptation of the requirements relating to the quality management system according to the ISO 9001:2008 standard, to improve delivery performance. As a company's performance is closely linked to its quality culture, the establishment and development of a quality culture within a company appears fundamental. The purpose of this article is to explain how to create a common language on which to base the development of quality culture within a medical biology laboratory. It is a simple approach which consists in asking 3 questions concerning quality management to the members of the team of this laboratory (what do you value? what emotions give you these values? what do you not value?) then to organize the answers in a reference frame for quality management.

Lack of excellent quality culture becomes a deep crisis for most Chinese manufacturing enterprises and the obstacles for the quality improvement of their products. How to cultivate an effective quality culture and manage it well within an organization is a key question challenges the manufacturing enterprises. As there is lack of relative research on this issue, and the results of the only researches have been confined to extensive frameworks, this paper, based on the methodology of Grounded Theory, using three-level coding analysis techniques, analyzes in depth the quality culture management practices of eight representative Chinese manufacturing enterprises, and abstracts from those cases a quality culture management model and its measures. This study also analyzes the functions of the measures in developing different dimensions of quality culture. The results of this paper provide both theoretical and experiential reference for more enterprises facing the quality culture challenges.

This study aims to embed a mental attitude to build a quality culture in Singkawang School of Teacher Training and Education (STKIP Singkawang) using DIECU model. DIECU (Deciding, Implementation, and Evaluation, Check and Upgrading cycle) is the model of continuous improvement for sustainable quality assurance. The research was considered as a case study with a qualitative approach. The data collection techniques used interviews, observation, and documentation. DIECU model could embed a strong mental attitude to an academic community in STKIP Singkawang. There are (1) always prioritizing quality in setting quality standards and must conform to the vision and mission of STKIP Singkawang, (2) always oriented to internal stakeholders in STKIP Singkawang in implementing Internal Quality Assurance System (IQAS) of STKIP Singkawang, (3) every unit that conducted a self-evaluation process should consider other people as stakeholders who must be fulfilled in using their self-evaluation results, (4) any policies made in the quality improvement process should be based on data analysis in the form of a self-evaluation report, not based on assumptions or manipulations, (5) any policy making in the process of improving the content of STKIP Singkawang's IQAS standard should be done in a participative and collegial, not authoritarian.

Brazilian health care system has been going through profound changes, causing hospital institutions to adopt quality management programs. The goal is to continually improve these processes, products and services. This article analyzes the impact promoted by hospital accreditation methodology in the development of a quality culture directed towards providing services with excellence. It uses a qualitative approach, with multiple case studies, in five different hospitals, from November 2015 to March 2016. The approach was done through interviews, with the support of a semi-structured survey. The results showed that accreditation methodology is the main means by which a hospital initiates and diffuses quality management. The conclusion shows that the accreditation methodology is able to promote the processes, which give rise to the development of a culture of quality, increasing patients satisfaction.

Purpose – One of the commonly cited problems in the implementation of quality practices is related to cultural resistance to change. While the importance of organizational culture to quality management (QM) practices has been recognized in the recent literature, little is known about how quality culture influences quality performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the mechanism of how the nurture of quality culture in a firm influences quality performance. Design/methodology/approach – This study empirically assesses the path from quality culture to infrastructure practices, core practices, and finally to quality performance using data collected from 397 Chinese manufacturing firms in a structural equitation model. Findings – The results indicate a chain effect that quality culture serves as an antecedent for infrastructure practices to take effect and infrastructure practices provide a supporting foundation for core practices to generate positive impact on quality performance. Anything that breaks on the chain will cause a problem in quality practices implementation. Originality/value – The results of this study contribute to understanding the cultural implications for successful QM implementation. The study emphasizes that quality implementation needs to be considered as a system work where culture is an indispensible part. This offers practical insights of how firms operating in China could build quality advantages other than cost.

The current paper is part of a wider research that has as general objective to develop an evaluation and analysis model for the total quality management (TQM) system to identify best practices that determine its' performance, in order to improve it. The research is focused on organizations from the metal construction industry. The sample consists of organizations from Romania operating in the before mentioned area, which have a consolidated position in the market and conducted efforts in implementing TQM systems. The data analysis was conducted through quantitative research methods, based on statistical processing. Regarding the research tools used for data collection, a survey based on a questionnaire was employed. The designed and pre-tested questionnaire contains items based on factors considered important in analysing and evaluating the TQM system, based on the evaluation criteria of the EFQM European Excellence Award (European Foundation for Quality Management), which provides credibility to the research. The objective of the present research is analysing the components of the TQM system, leadership and quality culture, in companies from the Romanian metal construction industry and their influence on customer relationship. The empirical research was conducted between September 2014 and August 2015, and the study is based on questioning 263 managers from 23 companies . The main research results show a very strong positive relation between the variables leadership, quality culture and customer relationship. It was also noticed that the management team of the analysed organizations is concerned with the continuous quality improvement process and that efforts are made for satisfying and exceeding customers' expectations, thus existing the premises for creating customers' dedicated organizations and achieving long term excellence. A surprising result concerning the leadership style favourable to quality culture's development was obtained. The managers from th e analysed organizations which have an authoritarian leadership style favour the development of a quality culture more than managers who adopt a democratic style.

Purpose Today’s organisations face the challenge of measuring the right things and then using those measurements as a starting point to work with improved quality. The failure to generate a shared value base is pointed out as one main cause for the inability to effectively apply quality management and lean within organisations; thus, it appears central to measure these values. However, the measuring of values and behaviours seems to be missing within both concepts. Therefore, there is a need for a tool that measures not only quality values but also behaviours that support or obstruct a quality culture. The purpose of this paper is to describe how a measuring tool which measures quality culture can be designed and structured. Design/methodology/approach A project with the aim to measure and develop quality culture started in 2015 by three Swedish universities/institutes and seven organisations. During several workshops, quality values and supportive and obstructive behaviours were developed and described. This resulted in a survey where employees of the participating organisations ranked performance and importance of the described behaviours. The results were presented and discussed in a fourth workshop. Findings A framework of behaviours and a measurement tool for a quality culture are presented in this paper. Originality/value The framework of behaviours, supporting or obstructing a quality culture, is original and may be very useful to diagnose and develop a quality culture.

Quality management has been one of the research focuses in construction management for at least two decades and extensive literatures have been written in areas related to the quality of construction works. Most agree that a change in culture, or a creation of a quality culture, is the key to the success of any quality initiatives made by contractors. To achieve cultural change, one must be able to measure the magnitude of any change, positive or negative, against a predetermined benchmark. In other words, the existing quality culture of a contractor must first be audited so that it can be used for further reference. Through the use of a Quality Culture Auditing (QCA) questionnaire, this paper develops a pragmatic tool enabling construction contractors to measure the quality culture quantitatively using a scoring system. A total of 90 employees from 30 contracting firms completed the QCA questionnaire and the scores obtained were analysed. Parametric studies using company sizes and working levels of emplo...

Quality movement emerged as revolutionary approach and philosophy in management which continuously search for needs and requirements of customers and try to incorporate them in organization systems, policies and procedures on an ongoing basis. Therefore, many companies around the world adopt the techniques and principles of that momentum. However, there is a dearth of knowledge regarding requirements of such direction in developing countries such as Saudi Arabia. The majority of research done in this area was conducted in different areas of the world, especially western countries. Little empirical research was done in developing countries that investigate the requirements to enhance the culture base for the quality to grow. Accordingly, this study tries to tackle this issue by investigating the existence of seven requirements of Total quality management adoption in the hotel industry in Saudi Arabia. To achieve its objectives, the study utilized a survey among mangers in selected five star hotels in the eastern region in Saudi Arabia. Results revealed that quality awareness is high in the selected hotels. Moreover, there are high levels of top management commitment to quality and focus on satisfying customer needs of the services provided by the hotels. The results obtained from this study have implications for managers and researchers.

As part of the process of enhancing quality, quality culture has become a taken-for-granted concept intended to support development and improvement processes in higher education. By taking a theoretical approach to examining quality culture, starting with a scholarly examination of the concept of culture, and exploring how it is related to quality, quality improvement and quality assurance, the aim of this paper is to create a better understanding of how one can make sense of quality culture, its boundaries but also its links to the fundamental processes of teaching and learning.

Quality is considered to be one of the most important competitive factors of profit as well as non-profit organizations. Accordingly, quality assurance as well as quality management procedures represent established tools within the management strategy of numerous organizations. In addition to that, the importance of developing and furthering an organization-specific quality culture is increasingly emphasized. In order to operationalize the quality culture construct we developed the Quality Culture Inventory (QCI), which was administered to N = 93 employees in the framework of a comprehensive pilot study. First results support the validity and reliability of the developed quality culture scales. The QCI represents the first systematical approach allowing organizations to assess the status quo of their quality culture. Respective results provide an empirically-based foundation to reflect on quality culture and derive specific measures for quality development.

Background The Department of Health - Abu Dhabi (DoH) is the responsible organization that ensures high-quality, sustainable, and accessible care to a population of about 3 million. Improving the quality of care and enhancing patient experience are the top strategic priorities for the DoH and for Abu Dhabi Vision 2020. However, a quality framework had not been put in place to monitor the performance of healthcare providers and measure the quality levels. Moreover, there were variations in the clinical outcomes among the peer group of providers, which affected the patient experience. In order to improve the quality of care and patient experience, DoH introduced Abu Dhabi Quality Index in 2014, a comprehensive quality monitoring framework that is based on the latest thinking and innovative solutions that allows for continuous quality improvements. It consists of Jawda (quality in Arabic) indicators, patient experience survey, and healthcare professional satisfaction survey. Methods To implement a wide scale of quality change, the DoH developed and implemented a quality improvement framework to enhance quality culture at system level, improve patient safety at the population level, and reduce quality outcome variation among all healthcare providers. This was achieved through a set of quality indicators, Jawda indicators, that measure clinical outcomes, patient safety, and accessibility. The initiation of what to focus on and the vison was around patients’ complaints analysis, workshops with stakeholders, and one-to-one meetings. This was a key driving case for change. Results The latest data collected from 45 hospitals in Abu Dhabi have shown the following results: 20% reduction in unplanned readmission rate for pneumonia. 50% reduction in cardiopulmonary arrest outside critical care. 40% reduction in rate of falls resulting in any injury. 30% reduction in hospital–acquired or worsening pressure ulcer rate. 50% reduction in emergency primary cesarean section rate. 40% reduction in surgical site infection rate for emergency cesarean section. Conclusion It has been 4 years since the introduction of Jawda indicators to the health sector in Abu Dhabi, and there have been improvements on the average of quality performance and reduction in quality variation among hospitals. More importantly, quality culture, transparency, and accountability were enhanced. The latest improvements to the program include risk adjustments and clinical subspecialty indicators such as stroke, orthopedics, and bariatric surgeries. In 2019, new quality dimensions will be added to the Abu Dhabi Healthcare Quality Index and hospital rankings will be published.

Healthcare in Canada underachieves stakeholders' expectations for safe, high-quality care. The authors maintain that a common understanding of, and vision for, what is required to achieve improved outcomes for patients is missing. Educating tomorrow's healthcare professionals is paramount to address this critical shortfall. However, healthcare educational institutions must themselves break out of a 20th-century paradigm of viewing healthcare safety and quality as functions of individual healthcare providers rather than as properties of the clinical micro- and meso-systems within which they function and are a part. Canadian healthcare systems are ailing; like treating a sick patient, interventions should be grounded on a solid understanding of anatomy (structure) and physiology (function). The Healthcare Encounter Safety and Quality Model (HESQM) highlights the structures underlying healthcare delivery and the key system functions required to achieve safe, high-quality care. The model has been used to frame the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine's educational strategy for achieving safer, higher-quality care. The HESQM is based on leadership - leaders whose decisions and actions are guided by core safety and quality principles. Today's and especially tomorrow's healthcare leaders require a common understanding of how to achieve higher-performing healthcare systems; it is the responsibility of Canada's post-secondary institutions to deliver it.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe an approach to build a quality culture within a higher education institution. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on Action research and a Case study. Findings The authors show the result of the mapped processes of a higher education institution, Management planning and control, Education, Research and Support, and describe how the mapping was performed, working in cross-functional teams. Further on, they discuss the result of the pilot and the plan for implementation. Originality/value A process-oriented approach in higher education institutions, with its complexity, creates opportunities for successful quality assurance and control when having an integrated quality assurance system.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to clarify the concept of “school quality management culture” in relation to the general notion of “school organizational culture” and to review empirical studies that scrutinised the relation between organisational culture and quality management practices in education and business. Design/methodology/approach The paper builds on an extensive literature review that was conducted as part of a project, which intends to develop an instrument to diagnose schools’ quality management culture in initial vocational education. Findings The paper demonstrates that school quality (management) culture exists and differs from school (organisational) culture. A pluralist view of culture and a differentiation perspective are more appropriate to explain the complex relationship between culture and quality practices than unified or integrated approaches. However, they also pose a challenge to empirical studies because they call for longitudinal and multi-method research designs. Research limitations/implications The reciprocal relation between quality practices and school culture asks for a longitudinal and comparative research design. The findings also suggest using multi-perspective and multi-method approaches, and recommend cooperation between different but comparable fields such as education, health or social work. Practical implications This paper offers a literature base and a theoretical model to improve existing data collection tools to support quality management in vocational and other educational institutions. Originality/value Apart from the ideological question on whether “culture” is something an organisation is or an organisation has, the paper examines the question as to whether more “quality”-conducive cultures can be discerned from less conducive ones in schools. Furthermore, it deliberates on whether an organisation’s quality management culture is part of, or different from, an organisation’s overall culture and presents models to guide empirical analyses.

Purpose: Medical schools are expected to engage in ongoing reflection to maintain the quality of the education they deliver, that is, to cultivate a Quality Culture. Quality Culture integrates the culture of an organization with its structure and management processes. The culture of medical schools has not been previously studied. Organizational cultures can be identified using the Competing Value Questionnaire, and classified into four types, based on organizations’ climate, leader style, reward systems, and strategic emphasis. Clan and Open cultures are typically positively associated with quality improvement. This study identifies the dominant organizational cultures of Canadian medical schools. Method: Sixteen of the 17 Canadian medical schools were invited to participate; one school was excluded due to ongoing accreditation activities. Faculty members of participating schools were surveyed. Results: Eleven (69%) schools participated. Nine had a dominant Hierarchical culture; two had a dominant Clan culture. Conclusions: Only two schools had a Clan culture, which might better support ongoing reflections on quality improvement. Schools leaders should examine the staff climate, leadership style, rewards system, and strategic emphasis in place at their school; these will provide clues to the existing culture and help prioritize changes required to support the implementation of a Quality Culture.

Quality culture as an enabler of high-quality performance and subsequently as a source of competitive advantage is increasingly discussed among operational excellence (OPEX) and quality executives. Research studies indicate an impact of quality culture on performance, especially on the success of quality improvement programs, such as Total Quality Management initiatives. A continual challenge in quality culture research, however, remains the lack of practical and accepted metrics to assess culture. In 2014, the Parental Drug Association (PDA) conducted a quality culture survey within the pharmaceutical industry. The results indicate a positive and significant correlation between quality (culture) behavior of a production site9s employees and quality (system) maturity, which represents the maturity of the quality system in place. As the maturity of the quality system is more comfortable to assess by objective criteria, the positive correlation between quality (culture) behavior and quality (system) maturity may be exploited by using the latter as an indicator for quality culture. This paper confirms this positive relationship by exploring the comprehensive St. Gallen OPEX database for pharmaceutical production plants. Furthermore, data analysis shows that high-performing production sites, regarding timely provision of high-quality drugs, reveal a higher level of both quality (system) maturity and quality (culture) behavior than low-performing sites.

Decision making, as described in the two preceding chapters, reflects a concern on the part of the decision makers that their decisions are not only right but also consistent with meeting the needs of the institution and its stakeholders. In each chapter, the authors discuss the use of integrated qualitative and quantitative information to support their planning and decision making. These decision-making processes reflect many of the attributes associated with the quality movement that many institutions have embraced during the past fifteen years. The intent of these efforts has been to create an organization that reflects quality in all aspects of its programs and processes. This chapter discusses the characteristics of a quality organization. Various relationships and processes will be examined that contribute to an institution achieving its stated objectives, meeting stakeholder expectations, and being consistently true to its values. In particular, the crucial role that measurement—both qualitative and quantitative—plays in ensuring that these ends are met is the focus of this discussion. This chapter is not necessarily about total quality management, continuous quality improvement, or other derivations of these concepts, although what will be reviewed does pertain to these approaches.

A framework for organizational quality culture is introduced, and its legitimacy is analyzed empirically. The framework is needed because of the lack of success in various types of quality initiatives and their confusing relationship with effectiveness..

The Parenteral Drug Association conducted an anonymous global survey of quality culture in the pharmaceutical industry to determine whether there is a relationship between certain quality behaviors and certain quality attributes, and whether these quality attributes could be used as surrogates (or proxy variables) to assess quality culture. Other studies have shown that an unhealthy quality culture is a root cause of many quality or compliance issues seen by sites and organizations. Statistical analysis of survey data suggests that certain attributes are driving good behaviors, and the demographic data suggests that this relationship holds irrespective of the geographic location of the site. Executive survey respondents had a more optimistic view of the current state of quality culture than survey respondents at large, with cross-functional vision showing the biggest gap (P-value = 0.07, F-Test). The top five quality attributes that can serve as surrogates for quality culture were (1) Management communication that quality is everyone's responsibility, (2) Site has formal quality improvement objectives and targets, (3) Clear performance criteria for feedback and coaching, (4) Quality topics included in at least half of all-hands meetings, and (5) Collecting error prevention metrics. These identified mature quality attributes are related to management responsibility, and continual improvement of the pharmaceutical quality system sections of ICH Q10, and therefore may be amenable to be incorporated in audit programs or in regulatory inspections. Additional research and discussion is required to build a coherent approach, which the pharmaceutical industry and regulators can adopt.

This research examines the relationship between TQM and organizational culture. To accomplish this, a questionnaire was developed, based upon the competing values model of culture and the Baldrige Award criteria, to define both the organization's culture and quality management position. This questionnaire was then sent to 1000 members of the American Society for Quality. A total of 219 usable responses were received and analyzed. The results indicate that higher Baldridge scores tend to be significantly related to the adhocracy and group cultural types.

Since the study on quality culture has been only attractive in recent literature, most published related research works are still qualitative in nature. Based on the information from the project of research about quality culture in national defense technology industry, this paper is attempt to design the evaluation system about quality culture's index and propose the new fuzzy comprehensive model of multiple levels of quality culture, which is from the method of entropy power.

Існуючі моделі конкурентоспроможності підприємства, що розглядають фактор якості продукції, є статичними та не враховують динамічний характер змін при управлінні якістю та формуванні культури якості на окремому підприємстві. Запропонована модель конкурентоспроможності підприємства з урахуванням динамічного впливу культури якості сприяє управлінню темпом росту експортної діяльності підприємства. Research shows that available enterprise`s competitiveness models, which take in to account quality factor, are static. These models don’t include the impact of the dynamic nature of changes caused by quality management and quality culture development at the particular enterprise. Suggested competitiveness model considers the dynamic impact of quality culture on the export growth rate at the enterprise