Emerging elements of a world view for sustainable quality

Abstract

The ongoing economic globalization is seen by many to inflict serious undesirable impacts. These are forcing governments, scientists and a number of businesses to question the validity of the assumptions of the way economic growth is created and its long-term effects on a sustainable quality of life. Increasing inequalities of wealth among and within developed and less developed societies, rising levels of discontent and international crime, increasing pollution of the natural environment and more intense and frequent climate-related natural disasters all combine to raise questions about how sustainable are our ways of improving our standards of living and the world view of aiming for a single global economy amidst violent conflicts related to control of natural resources, religious, ethnic and cultural differences that threaten our very existence on planet Earth. In this context, attempting to improve quality for specific products and services to make any single company more profitable might be a futile exercise, unless such efforts are placed in a new framework designed to create conditions more supportive of a sustainable quality of life on a broader scale. The key elements shaping the new paradigm for sustainable quality, which are described briefly in this paper, must be incorporated in an expanded framework for total quality management to maintain it as a relevant approach in a larger but vitally important context.