Theoretical and historical framework underlying the QualStrategy model

Abstract

The authors have been studying the relationships between Quality and Strategic Management since the early 1990s. Their recent development of an integrated model, QualStrategy, was preceded by the analysis of both areas’ roots, in order to accomplish a sound solution resistant to erosion agents created by the continued evolution of environmental complexity and management thought. Beyond the presentation of QualStrategy itself the authors consider useful to share the results of this preparatory analysis which puts into perspective the relationships between quality management and strategic thought, as a form to devise a theoretically sound way to build a strategic framework within quality management playing the role of a management paradigm. The authors found that the paradigmatic perspective is widely accepted and is an adequate tool to support this type of analysis and that the mainstream linking these two subjects is the concept of learning organization, a common root derived from the pragmatic philosophical current, although, in each case, the direct influence comes from different authors, Clarence Lewis in the case of quality management and John Dewey in the case of strategy.