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The rapid fashion swings in popular management theory puzzle and alarm many observers and users of management theory. New concepts arrive, experience a sudden popularity, then flatten out and are soon forgotten or appear old‐fashioned. This article presents a model of such short time management theory fashion swings: The garbage can life cycle model. The model is based on James March’s garbage can model of decision making combined with a life cycle model. The model describes how actors, problems and methods typically are different at four stages in the life cycle of a concept. The model is illustrated with data from quality management. The model does not pass judgement on the inherent qualities of quality management or the need for quality in the economy but seeks to explain what typically happens over time. The article concludes with a short discussion from the perspective of the model of the strategies that the quality movement may use at the present stage: A, retracting into full specialization; B, widening and attaching new fashionable themes to quality management; and C, focusing on its competitive advantages. Strategy C is recommended.

The ISO 9000 standards were first published in 1987. A first, more limited revision was completed in 1994. There is now a more thorough revision underway. A first draft of the suggested new standard has been published in July 1998 and a second draft, expected to be very close to the final version, in February 1999. The changes proposed in these drafts are described and discussed. Summing up, the standard is changing from a technical‐practical tool to a management tool. Four problems with this development are discussed: the sum of demands on management; the comparative strength of the ISO 9000 standard concept; the changed role of the certifying bodies that this change implies; and the implied paradigm of management. The consequences of this may be that the standard turns into a legitimacy seeking management concept alongside other popular “three‐letter acronyms” and thereby adds to the growing amount of hypocrisy in management. This is the year 2000 problem for the ISO 9000 standards.

Although the latest Mobile Oil survey tells us that more than 200,000 accredited ISO 9000‐family certificates have been issued world‐wide up to September 1997, few of these have been given to organisations in the social sector. In this article the implementation of an ISO 9000 system in a public owned home for partially blind and mentally retarded people in Denmark called “Ebo” is analysed. The analysis focuses on three major areas: the motivation for choosing certification, the interpretation of the standard in the social sector, and finally the effects of the implementation process at Ebo. The central findings are that managerial technologies like ISO 9000 have little or no inherent core that makes them more or less compatible with any type of institution. They also have little or no core effects, but effects are a result of social sense‐making processes in an ambiguous situation. If ISO 9000 certification has any non‐socially constructed effects, they will be more pronounced when the cultural distance between the standard and the company culture is the largest. The research project has been conducted by action research methodology, where the authors have been involved in the implementation process as consultants.

The Institute dates back to 1952 when Torben Agersnap started at the Copenhagen School of Economics and Social Sciences. By 1969 it had a staff of three researchers, but in the following years it has grown rapidly. Today the Institute comprises a staff of two full professors, seven associate professors and nine research fellows all on the payroll of the School. In addition there is a staff of about five researchers on various grants and projects.