In Search of a Quality Culture: The Awkward Truths of an Indeterminate Maxim

The paper explores the evolutions and realities of institutional “Quality Culture” (QC) and unpicks blurred definitions of QC that are to determine whether it has a valid voice in the modern quality assurance vernacular. The authors question whether QC is a practical and achievable goal, or if it is little less than a theoretical conceptual buzz-term that ignores the realities of existing impregnable structures or individual malaise barring real progress towards a process of quality enhancement. It queries whether a QC is equally achievable in the private sector and public sectors. Taking a tertiary educational institution and a cultural institution (opera company) as examples, the authors demonstrate how a culture of quality can be bread via a process that is at once both systematic and organic, individual and inclusive, guided yet self-monitored.