Understanding quality in engineering service organizations

The authors report on the results of an exploratory study of views of quality by employees of engineering service organizations and discuss the implications of the results for the management of quality and productivity. They focus on engineers´ definitions of quality and productivity and their views of management procedures which affect engineering projects. The study setting was four different organizations and an engineering service department of a government laboratory. Each is an example of an engineering of buildings, equipment, and systems for others. The results indicate that engineers´ concepts vary in important ways from the basic principles espoused by the writers on quality. Within organizations, the authors found important variance among engineers´ and managers definitions of quality and the frames of reference they use in discussing quality and productivity. It is concluded that improving quality in such organizations should begin with a shared framework that enables individuals to communicate effectively about quality concepts and management systems which implement the concepts embedded in the framework