How political power and economic circumstances can influence pursuits of excellence in quality management: The Polish example

Quality was always of utmost importance in Poland, irrespective of historical, political, and economic circumstances. But quality understanding and quality assurance have changed in Poland over time, both from the customer's and producer's points of view. It is a result, to a large extent, of the very turbulent and dramatic turns in Polish history. The purpose of this publication is to show changes in the approach to quality management in Poland in the past 60 years. These changes are considered in the context of improvement and pursuit of excellence in enterprise management. This paper consists of five parts. The first part presents the author's understanding of improvement and excellence. Parts two and three convey general knowledge and characteristics of quality management in Polish companies in two periods: before 1990 and in the past 20 years. The year 1990 was chosen as the turning point because it was then that the Polish economy irrevocably changed from a centrally planned economy to a market-orie...