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The purpose of this paper is to answer the following three questions: what influence has the centrally planned economy and Soviet-style manufacturing had on the evolution and implementation of quality management practices in Bulgaria’s manufacturing sector since the end of the communism; have Bulgaria and its businesses been able to embrace modern quality management philosophies such as TQM, which at times preach the exact opposite philosophies of the Soviet-style manufacturing; and if so, how advanced is the quality mindset of Bulgarian manufacturing businesses today – 24 years after the end of communism?

The paper relies mainly on qualitative research methods. The authors have opted for exploratory approach. Besides an array of articles from scholarly journals, books, and conference proceedings, the authors have relied on five in-depth, semi-structured interviews and one case study in the form of plant visit and observations. The authors have used a framed analytical approach for interpreting the empirical data.

The paper argues that the slow and painful transition from a centrally planned to market economy has impeded the evolution and implementation of QM practices in Bulgaria. More precisely, haphazard reforms in education, lack of highly qualified individuals due to the brain drain in the early 1990s, and the workers’ strong resistance to change have been among the main obstacles in the case of the quality movement.

The work presented in this paper is just the beginning of a series of studies on the quality management initiatives in Bulgaria. To go deeper into the topic, the authors realize that further research in a number of different directions is required. The first direction is related to the degree of relevance of Management Sovieticus in the twenty-first century, which somehow has been completely neglected as a research topic in the last decade. The second direction lies in the aspect of the attributes of Bulgarian managers and their perception toward the importance of the role of quality today.

Countries with similar, political, economic, and social backgrounds – former Eastern Bloc members – can profit a great deal from the authors’ work. More than 20 years since the end of communism, both researchers and entrepreneurs, especially those from the West, have been neglecting the legacy of the centrally planned economy, which has been a major reason for the great number of business failures in the region. The authors’ work seeks to awaken those who still believe that two decades are sufficient to eradicate fully the unfortunate legacy of the command economy.

Little, not to say incremental, research on the quality initiatives in Eastern Europe (*except for Russia) has been conducted so far. As to Bulgaria, the investigation reveals no significant studies on quality management, especially ones published in English. Hence, the authors’ work is the first international study on the evolution and implementation of QM practices in Bulgaria.

Explores the evolution of the quality issue within the health care industry and also the significance of quality in the health industry along with the historical origins of quality management. Reviews applications of total quality management in the health care industry along with implementation issues. Concludes that a fundamental understanding of the process of total quality management is an absolute requirement.

Crosby suggested that “quality is free”. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the argument that, although it is not free, it can reduce costs. The UK’s Benefit Enquiry Line (BEL) for people with disabilities is used to illustrate this. The evolution of quality management systems implemented by BEL is examined. These include Charter Mark, Service First, Investors in People, the Business Excellence Framework and the EFQM Excellence Model. A comparative analysis is undertaken between the findings of the authors and those of other academic writers. Conclusions are drawn as to the appropriateness of these quality initiatives in facilitating continuous improvement at minimal cost.

The quality issue represents one of the greatest challenges facing managers in the 1990s. This paper presents an overview of the development of quality management in library and information services (LIS) on the basis of its evolution from quality control, through quality assurance (QA), to total quality management (TQM). This development is exemplified by case studies of UK and North American LIS which have been required to comply with quality strategies of their parent organizations, and those which have adopted unilateral strategies.

The most important issue facing manufacturers is maintaining the improving product quality, since quality is related to long‐term competitiveness as measured by market share and profitability. Firms are implementing many different quality programmes to improve quality. Many times these programmes are not focused on what can be accomplished, since each company is at different stages in its quality development. Examines these development stages of quality management, so that manufacturers can estimate the quality development stage. After evaluating their quality stage manufacturing firms can improve quality systematically, by concentrating on those programmes that best suit their development.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the development of the excellence awards of the Dubai Government Excellence Program (DGEP). The programme reports directly to the Dubai government cabinet. The paper traces how changing priorities have over time been reflected in an evolving portfolio of excellence award categories.

The study followed a qualitative research approach, relying on interviewing within the DGEP, analysis of DGEP presentations and publicly available documents, informal conversations with senior UAE public sector managers, and ad hoc observations of the nature of public sector management and government in the UAE and Dubai.

The DGEP exhibited three key rationales since its inception in 1997. They were rationalisations of excellence, measured effectiveness, and efficiency. They overlapped with one another and were also overlain with additional rationales, such as e-government and teamwork. This evolution of rationales has been reflecting political priorities and global trends in public sector management.

The paper adds to the knowledge of successive rationales for the evolution of the excellence awards scheme of the world's first integrated, whole-government excellence initiative.

The foundations of quality management have been laid throughout the history of civilization. Since the dawn of industrialization, as a consequence of an increasing division of labor, the approach has evolved dramatically in terms of analytical tools and organizational practices. This evolution is outlined in this chapter. Starting from an overview of the different possible meanings of quality, the phases characterizing modern quality management (e.g., quality control, quality assurance, etc.) are described. Geopolitical and macroeconomic considerations are factored in to account for an uneven development across countries (e.g., Japan vs US). A general trajectory is traced as the scope of quality has constantly broadened to encompass not only the product, but also interorganizational processes and the impact on the environment and the society of the company activities. Against this backdrop, the current phase is seen as a polarization between a “classic” engineering approach and a more holistic view, questioning the same boundaries of the discipline.

The assessment of managerial action can be viewed as an information tool for the improvement of management decision‐making processes. Such an assessment might serve to improve both the managerial actions directly assessed and other related organizational aspects. This research focuses on what we can call a “specific assessment”, as opposed to a more permanent assessment which is normally facilitated by traditional information systems. From a learning perspective, it is the generation of second‐order learning on management systems that is being considered here. In terms of information flows, we are talking about the creation of information in order to improve management action, and eventually contribute to the excellence of management. The accounting system has been the privileged source of information but how well does this tool address managerial action? How well does this tool address innovation and learning dimensions? A review of the literature shows that the answers to those questions can be disappointing. What is more, the advances brought about by the quality initiatives do not seem yet to greatly improve those aspects. During the last eight years we have been engaged in a broad action‐research program in a large pharmaceutical multinational company. From this rich experience we pick one of the main axes of transformation: a case of multiple process reengineering. An assessment of this organizational innovation allows us to study the questions stated above. We start with a presentation of the particular context of the company. We identify then descriptive and explicative contextual variables concerning success factors and limits of the managerial actions studied. Finally, we present expected results, and other parallel impacts not initially expected.

Business process change (BPC) is an organizational initiative to achieve significant improvement in performance and has been extensively reported in the information systems literature. Total quality management (TQM) has been employed to improve the quality of processes within a business unit. In this research an attempt is made to link BPC with TQM.

Using case‐study methodology, an attempt is made to connect the two fields. Specifically, examines how quality management falls within the various BPC constructs.

Results of this study indicate that the BPC concept is generalizable to accommodate TQM.

This has important ramifications for both practitioners and researchers. Practitioners will now have a methodology that is flexible to adjust as the demands of the business evolve from quality objectives into other needs such as mass customization and shortened lead times. The results of this study provide a theoretical model to the evolution of quality management.

The aim of this paper is to identify reasons for current quality problems in tourism and possible ways of enhancing tourism quality. To attain this goal, recent initiatives directed at quality improvement in tourism are first presented. Primary and secondary data have been utilised to achieve this. Systems theory is utilised in order to recognise the reasons for current quality problems. Evaluation of quality management processes is based on Dale and Plunkett’s model of levels in the evolution of quality management. The SERVQUAL model and the benchmarking technique are critically evaluated. The existence and inability of closing the tourism quality perception gap and the tourism quality control gap have been identified as chief causes of private sector tourism quality systems ineffectiveness. Three conditions of tourism quality enhancement have been formulated and a new tourism quality system that complies with these requirements has been proposed. A need for establishing a Total Quality Tourism Consortium as a formal body is emphasised.