A co-worker presented a question here at work to all departments. (Student research question for his class.) The instructor said to pose the question to various departments. I thought I'd pose that question here to see how we answer.

Anyhow, here goes:

Identify 3 "qualities" or "things" of a:
1. positive quality culture
2. negative quality culture


My answer:
Positive things:
1. Upper Management Commitment / Support / Leadership
2. Teamwork & Open/Shared Communication
3. Meeting Realistic Objectives & Continuous Improvement

Negative would be opposite of the above.

Thanks for participating! :thanks:
Lee

Positives:
1-Customer and employee satisfaction
2-New and repeat business
3-Sustained profitability

Negatives:
Opposite of above :)

Positive
1. Open communication with customers.
2. Open communication with suppliers.
3. Open internal communication, with willingness and ability to act upon shared goals/vision.

Negative
1. Not invented here.
2. Stay out of my silo.
3. Wanna supply me? Take me to the ballgame.

POSITIVE

1. Earn Trust from Customers
2. Walk the Talk
3. Adaptability to New things

NEGATIVE

1. Working in silos
2. Preferring to stay in comfort zones
3. Very poor Internal Quality Audits

Positive quality culture :yes:
1) Always seeking continuous improvement
2) Highlight problems instead of hiding them
3) Values integrity of people and systems above all else

Negative quality culture :nope:
1) Inspect quality in
2) apply rules and policies only when convenient
3) Treat symptoms not root causes

Positive:
1) Open mindedness of all employees, especially management
2) Particaptory culture (employees at all levels encourage to particpate in improvement)
3) Committment to improvement from all management

Negative:
1) Bandage symptoms because there is "no time" to find root causes
2) Management disinterest in the processes of the business, only looking at the bottom line
3) Frequent punishment for poor quality and no rewards for improvement efforts.

"Identify 3 "qualities" or "things" of a:
1. positive quality culture
2. negative quality culture"


1A. The ability to look outside the box
1B. The willingness to change things-remove the block walls (paradigms)
1C. The ability to be open minded

2A, 2B and 2C: Opposites

I just love the questions students ask; they're so often simple yet insightful.

FWIW here's my 2 pennies worth:

Positive culture

1. Leadership
2. Accountability
3. Stunningly open communications up, down, sideways that fosters rapid sharing of knowledge and learning.

I started with customer focus. Then I realised that true leadership and accountability will bring customer focus, whereas customer focus will not bring leadership and accountability.

I've made leadership and accountability separate because although they ought to go together, they often don't and I'm totally mystified why people who are otherwise good leaders don't instill accountability in their organisations. Some would say they're therefore bad leaders, but their followers would argue passionately otherwise.

Negative culture

1. Leadership that values self-interest above customers and staff.
2. Blame games. ("Mutually dependent sado-masochism" as one industrial shrink once described it to me)
3. Decisions based on politics and personalities instead of facts and measurements.

Just my 2c,
Patrick

A co-worker presented a question here at work to all departments. (Student research question for his class.) The instructor said to pose the question to various departments. I thought I'd pose that question here to see how we answer.

Anyhow, here goes:

Identify 3 "qualities" or "things" of a:
1. positive quality culture
2. negative quality culture


My answer:
Positive things:
1. Upper Management Commitment / Support / Leadership
2. Teamwork & Open/Shared Communication
3. Meeting Realistic Objectives & Continuous Improvement

Negative would be opposite of the above.

Thanks for participating! :thanks:
LeeIt appears the instructor is trying to back into something Phil Crosby and others explored when they developed various "capability maturity models" which often used a grid to determine where on the spectrum from clueless to super competent an organization (BY IMPLICATION - its culture and management attitude) would fit and, by interpolation and interpretation, where it had to concentrate its efforts to reach or maintain "super competent."

Here's a copy of an adaptation of Crosby's grid - he's not the only one with a grid, just the one I spotted first when looking through my hard drive. I clipped this from a more involved document to limit it strictly to Crosby's grid.

positive culture:
1. Customer Focus
2. Employee involvement
3. Continuous improvement

Negative culture:
1. the "what we have is good enough" attitude
2. "that's not our problem"
3. "We're too small/bigf for that"

Positive:
Top management support
Stakeholder involvment
Knowing the requirements

Negative:
Mouth support only
Git-r-Done attitude
Lack of leadership

positive things (by J. Kelada)

in no specific order

1. customer satisfaction
2. employee satisfaction
3. stakeholder/shareholder satisfaction...too often we forget about this!!!!

negative things

when all three factors are not balanced equally

I hardly think that one can be more explicit then Deming’s 14 points, I think they are quite universally known. I chose the following 3 and copied them as they are,

Positive,
1.Create constancy of purpose and continual improvement – long term planning must replace short term reaction
3.Do not depend on (quality) inspection – build quality into the product and process
13.Encourage self improvement and education for all.

Negative - Whatever is their opposite.

A co-worker presented a question here at work to all departments. (Student research question for his class.) The instructor said to pose the question to various departments. I thought I'd pose that question here to see how we answer.

Anyhow, here goes:

Identify 3 "qualities" or "things" of a:
1. positive quality culture
2. negative quality culture

Okay, this may sound a tad silly, but I'm reading the question a little differently than most others that have already posted (I think). I read it as such:

"If your organization has a quality culture, cite 3 posititve traits and 3 negative traits of that quality culture."

Many of the 3 positive traits listed seem to address my interpretation, but the negatives seem to be more along the lines of what it takes to instill a negative or non-quality culture.

So, here's my take based on my organization's business management system:

3 Positive Traits of Having a Quality Culture

Establishment of Routine Management at all levels (i.e., standardization, training, results, failure analysis, standard audits)
Involvement and professional development of operators (e.g., equipment reliability program)
Improvement of PDCA application to improvement initiatives and linkage to Routine Management

3 Negative Traits of Having a Quality Culture

Occasional inability to think outside of the box due to strong emphasis on routine and consistency
Routine becomes mundane and starts to slip as focus shifts towards Improvement Management
Overwhelming to some as tools evolve - Inability to keep up with change - Strong desire for stability in the application of methodologies

[QUOTE=RCBeyette] I read it as such:

"If your organization has a quality culture, cite 3 posititve traits and 3 negative traits of that quality culture."

RC, I am sorry but I didn't read (which I could be wrong) the question as you have read it. I interpret it as:

What are the Positive Traits/Negative Traits of a Quality Culture in Business?

Maybe Lee, can find out what the actual question is and its meaning, in her spare time during her audit.