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The Role Of Quality Practices In Service Organizations, Anders Gustafsson, Lars Nilsson, Michael D. Johnson

Michael D. Johnson

The widespread interest in using quality management to improve organizational performance started in the manufacturing sector and later spread to service organizations. Quality management can be viewed as an approach to management characterized by its principles, practices and techniques (Dean and Bowen, 1994). Each principle is implemented through a set of practices, which consist of activities such as collecting customer information, improving work processes and managing employees. The practices are, in turn, made effective by the support of a wide array of techniques. The strength of quality management compared with other business philosophies is its focus on practical methodology, i.e. …