ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the influence of culture on quality by using the Toyota Way and International Organization for Standardization 9000 as examples of universal management models that are partly oriented toward culture, and partly toward practice. It deals with a review of culture, and then focus on recent research conducted by the authors in New Zealand and Malaysian contexts, which serve to highlight the circular nature of the impact of culture on the management systems/models, and the impact of the systems/models on culture. A quality culture is an organizational value system that results in an environment that is conducive to the establishment and continual improvement of quality. Research-based literature indicates that general organizational systems, such as quality systems, can be influenced by organizational culture and by national culture. The chapter presents a new model that illustrates the interactive, circular relationship between organizational culture and management models that aim to shape, but are also influenced by, that culture.