Building an infrastructure for quality management in Russia
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09684880010325510 |
| Published date | 01 June 2000 |
| Pages | 70-75 |
| Date | 01 June 2000 |
| Author | R.P. Dickenson,J.H. Rogerson,V.N. Azarov |
| Subject Matter | Education |
Building an
infrastructure for
quality management in
Russia
R.P. Dickenson
J.H. Rogerson and
V.N. Azarov
Introduction
In the Soviet period there was a well-
developed institutional infrastructure for
quality control with a large cadre of quality
professionals employed in industry,
educational institutions and other
government organisations. The state
standards body Rosstandart issued
comprehensive technical documentation (Hill
and McKay, 1986). The general picture was
of a traditional approach to quality based on
batch inspection of the end product and often
100 per cent inspection of incoming goods
and materials. This reflected the very marked
lack of confidence in the ability of local
suppliers from the former Soviet republics to
provide goods fit for purpose.
In the 1980s a debate took place about
replacing the traditional approach to quality
control with a quality system similar to the
International Standardisation Organisation
(ISO 9000). The result was the introduction
in the late 1980s of the ``Complex System for
the Management of Quality'' that had many
similarities to the ISO approach. The
prolonged economic crisis after the collapse of
the Soviet Union meant that the start made in
the 1980s to develop an infrastructure to
support a modern approach to quality, based
on management rather than control, was
curtailed.
This paper describes the work done,
supported by the EU Tacis programme, to
research Russian needs in quality
management education and to begin the
process of creating an infrastructure to meet
them.
While increasing attention is being given to
the learning needs of Russian managers
(Child and Czegledy, 1996), and in particular
the learning issues involved in establishing
joint ventures between Western companies
and Russian businesses (Cyr and Schneider,
1996), little has been written specifically
related to quality management in Russia from
Western or local authors.
The evidence of the success of transferring
Western management competencies in the
field of quality in Eastern Europe is not large.
The reported successes have been confined to
greenfield sites mainly in the car industry (Lee
et al., 1992), whereas significant problems
were noted in existing industries (Harwitt,
1993), and the general applicability of
Western quality management methods in
The authors
R.P. Dickenson is a Senior Lecturer in Quality
Management and J.H. Rogerson is Professor of Quality
Systems, both at Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK.
V.N. Azarov is Director at the European Quality Centre,
Moscow, Russia.
Keywords
Quality, Management
Abstract
Describes work done to research Russian needs in quality
management education and to begin the process of
creating an infrastructure to meet them. Needs were
determined through a questionnaire, interviews and
feedback from key actors at specially organised seminars.
Knowledge of quality management ideas and the
provision of education and training in the quality field
were found to be low. Syllabuses and course structures
for quality management were devised consistent with EU
norms but harmonised as far as possible with existing
practice and traditions. A Centre of Excellence to deliver
quality management education was founded called the
European Quality Centre. It received its first students in
September 1998 and it will be the first node in a regional
network of such institutions. The creation of an
educational infrastructure will facilitate the building of a
cadre of trained quality professionals, ultimately enabling
Russian quality management practice to rise to world
levels.
Electronic access
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
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70
Quality Assurance in Education
Volume 8 .Number 2 .2000 .pp. 70±75
#MCB University Press .ISSN 0968-4883
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