Quality configurations:a contingency approach to quality management

This article departs from Mintzberg's framework in which five different organisational configurations are defined. The purpose of the study has been to identify and describe the differences between organisations of different configurations to determine the way that quality management is used and the effects that are produced. The research population comprised the members of the Swedish Association for Quality. A questionnaire was mailed to 500 members. The questions concerned the values, models and techniques of quality management as well as the outcomes and the difficulties in using these models and techniques. The results show that the differences between the configurations are limited. Two of the more important differences are that systematic quality management is less used in the adhocracy configuration and that the effect of increased participation is more seldom seen in the professional bureaucracy configuration. On a general basis, it is also noted that the use of quality models and tools is rather infrequent and the value of committed leadership is highlighted.