Quality management practices: a comparative study between East and West

Abstract

This paper compares quality management practices in manufacturing companies in the East and the West. It uses data collected from three countries in the East, namely Japan, Korea and Taiwan and compares these with data collected from four countries in the West, namely Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Australia. Twenty‐five Japanese companies, 105 Korean companies, 48 Taiwanese companies, 65 Danish companies, 88 Swedish companies, 18 Finnish companies and 62 companies from Australia responded to the questionnaire. Comparison between the East and the West is carried out on the following: formulation and communication of a quality policy; education and training of employees in quality management; top management participation in quality activities, quality motivation and suggestions; and the use of quality tools and methods. The comparison shows that quality management practices are relatively more widespread in the Eastern companies than in the Western companies. The key differences between the East and the West are identified and suggestions made to close the gap.