ABSTRACT
In previous editions the ideas of this chapter were presented as ‘Skills Based Quality Management’. They have been further revised to deal more widely with the issue of service quality management as a whole and further connected to the notion of the Intelligent Organisation (Beckford, 2016). The original chapter, underpinned by an understanding of organisational cybernetics (Beckford, 1993), drew on an international series of seminars aimed at introducing a fundamentally different approach to quality management for the service and professional sectors. The ideas were subsequently developed into a paperless Quality Management System compliant with ISO 9000:2000. Quality is an emergent property of a ‘system’ or organisation achievable through three
dimensions of knowledge. Management of the whole system enables the delivery of quality products and services, however ‘quality’ may be defined. The three dimensions of knowledge considered are:
Know Why: Purpose, Outcomes, Vision, Values; Know How: Behaviours, Attitudes, Skills and competences; Know What: Systems and processes.
