Quality Meta-Standards – 2002

In the late 80’s manufacturing companies  around the world faced demands to adopt a manufacturing quality standard: ISO-9001 … then endure audits to certify they conformed.

I was fascinated because academic theory said that management practice cannot be standardized. Yet thousands and eventually millions of companies complied. Either management theorists were wrong or the standards writers were using smoke and mirrors.

I spent 7 or 8 years digging into the phenomenon to try to resolve the contradiction. I think I succeeded because I wrote 4 or 5 journal articles that were accepted at good publications.