How political power and economic circumstances can influence pursuits of excellence in quality management: The Polish example

Abstract

Quality was always of utmost importance in Poland, irrespective of historical, political, and economic circumstances. But quality understanding and quality assurance have changed in Poland over time, both from the customer's and producer's points of view. It is a result, to a large extent, of the very turbulent and dramatic turns in Polish history. The purpose of this publication is to show changes in the approach to quality management in Poland in the past 60 years. These changes are considered in the context of improvement and pursuit of excellence in enterprise management. This paper consists of five parts. The first part presents the author's understanding of improvement and excellence. Parts two and three convey general knowledge and characteristics of quality management in Polish companies in two periods: before 1990 and in the past 20 years. The year 1990 was chosen as the turning point because it was then that the Polish economy irrevocably changed from a centrally planned economy to a market-oriented economy. Special attention has been paid in these chapters to the influence of ideology and politics on quality issues. Parts four and five present a synthetic comparison of the quality management approach in Poland by Polish companies during the two periods.

Keywords:

• quality management
• excellence in management
• quality management in Poland
• historical, political and economic circumstances