Quality Management

Jack was confused. He had been as enthusiastic about the new quality-improvement program that his company was beginning as anybody. He had contributed to the project that his team selected during the training session, and had even made working on it a priority. He could see many applications in the department he supervised for the problem-solving and statistical techniques he learned in the training and said so during the evaluation session. But that was a couple of months ago. Since then his boss, the section vice president, had never asked him one word about quality improvement in the department. When Jack tried to tell the boss about the three department project teams he had established, be got a polite smile, a nod, and a mumbled, “Keep up the good work, Jack”… then a quick change of subject. The project teams were making headway on their improvement opportunities, all right, but it was difficult to schedule their project work around all their other responsibilities. Like other department managers, Jack had seen his staff reduced over the last year. It seemed he was always asked to do more with less these days. “If the company isn't serious about this quality improvement stuff,” Jack thought, “I've got plenty of other ideas about how I can use my staff. Looks like quality doesn't mean much to my boss, anyway. I sure wonder why this company spent the time and money to get everybody excited and trained if we're not supposed to do anything!”

"New Public Management: The Transformation of the Public Sector, explains the philo¬sophy, methods, and structures of NPM and presents its structural similarities to the organization of state communism (such as planned economy and quantitative objectives). The examples are taken from the educational sector, the police, local administration and the public medical care system in Scandinavia, Germany and Switzerland.
Language: Danish.


Vol. 1 in the book series "New Public Management".
This book series deals with basic values and fundamental rights that every citizen in a democratic state has: the right to a well-founded education, the right to efficient medical care, the right to sound municipal counsel – and the right to the protection of all these rights, provided by an efficient police force and a reliable system of justice. If a society guards these rights, the citizens have a chance to experience the joy of one of the most important fundamental rights of man: the right to pursuit of happiness, that is, the chance to develop our personal talents and lead a good life.
This book series shows in form of 7 concise volumes (each about 120 pages) how New Public Management has transformed the public sector and potentially endangers these fundamental rights. The individual volumes offer suggestions how authorities – and even the individual reader – can take steps to avoid the negative effects of this management philosophy and strengthen its original aims of increased effectiveness and quality.
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