Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss/reflect on some well‐known excellence frameworks or models in order to understand the development in the contents of excellence during the last 25 years and to understand the problems or limitations which such kind of models still...

Purpose – An overall aim with a new human‐oriented TQM metrology is to help managers in giving answers to the questions of what to measure, how to measure and why? It is the purpose of this paper to give input to answering these questions. In doing so the measurement problems are to be...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review and identify the dominating paradigms within management control theories in order to investigate adoptability of the European excellence model (EEM) as an alternative management control model or a framework. Design/methodology/approach – The...

Purpose – Recently, the operations management academic literature has seen articles focusing on the transfer of “lean” thinking or kaizen concept from the private to the public sector. In Spain, during the last 15 years, some local councils have also followed similar improvement...

Purpose – The authors analyze the principles and results of lean production and compare the lean production philosophy with the six sigma quality process and the principles of total quality management (TQM). At the end of the paper, it is discussed how to build the necessary company culture...

Purpose – The paper aims to present and interpret excellence through the parchments of the ancient Hellenic philosophy and the different schools of management thought and its application in the university context. Design/methodology/approach – The approach taken in the paper is theoretical...

Purpose – Technology is fast transforming how we supply both services and products. With virtual reality technology rapidly becoming available and much user friendlier and affordable than before, the next challenge is to supply not just products but also dreams. The purpose here is to explore...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to trace the development of economic theory to the point where “economic rationalism” is a commonly used term. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on earlier research and published works examining: the history of economics; economic...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the historical development of quality assessment methods in manufacturing industry and healthcare. It examines the gap between methods across the two sectors, as well as the extent to which industrial techniques have been successfully adopted in...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the development of total quality management (TQM) from the very beginning to the present and to give a proposal for a redefinition for the future. Design/methodology/approach – To reach this purpose, experiences and problems from the past are...