Implementing quality in a small firm : An action research approach

The issue of quality remains an integral feature of the discourse on small firm development. Unfortunately, two potentially conflicting approaches to this issue are evident. There is the essentially prescriptive “consultancy” school which often provides technical solutions uninformed by social processes inherent in the operationalisation of quality. In virtual opposition are more academic and abstract accounts that illuminate the ideological context of quality. Though not without use to practitioners, the implications for entrepreneurs seeking improved ways of working are rarely developed in this approach. The paper weaves a path through these ostensibly oppositional tendencies by explicating the processes involved in implementing a quality management system in the first author’s own organisation, Air Technology Systems (ATS). This case study is based on a collaboration between a small firm owner intent on continuous improvement and an academic institution (the base of the second author) aiming to assist in organisational development. Following an action research approach, the cross‐over between the domains of the “practitioner” and “academic” are illustrated and their contribution to enterprise development demonstrated. What becomes clear is that a systematic approach to the implementation of quality is possible. This involves developing quality recipes organically rather than imposing them from “expert” interventions. Insights from critical treatments of the subject can be drawn on to reinforce the human and social processes central to the implementation of quality systems. However, the nature of work relations is ultimately key to the operationalisation of quality.