The quest for quality in public housing projects: a behaviour-to-outcome paradigm

This paper investigates the pursuit of quality in public housing projects through the implementation of ISO 9000 in the last decade in Hong Kong. A behaviour-to-performance-to-outcome paradigm is adopted to examine the process of this quality pursuit. The research was carried out in three stages to examine (1) the 'outcome' of the building product as assessed by the occupants by means of post-occupancy evaluation, (2) the 'performance' of the building product by analysing the buildings' defects lists and housing managers' perceptions of residents' feedback, and (3) the 'behaviour' of the contractors by investigating their awareness and adoption of total quality management.