Corporate Culture and the Quality Organization by James W. Fairfield-Sonn (2000,

Most quality management programs focus on the tools that can be employed to improve quality, but the long-term results of these efforts have been mixed. The only way to ensure that quality improvement will have lasting consequences for a firm is to change the corporate culture. Having the appropriate level of technical knowledge to address quality problems is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for realizing the hoped-for improvement. Only when the entire culture of the corporation, starting with a visionary leader and senior management, is receptive to the adoption of new tools will any substantial progress be made.
Fairfield-Sonn, a management consultant and professor of management, argues that success in this endeavor depends not only on mastering the components of a quality corporate culture but on understanding how to put those components together. He describes not only what must be done to establish a quality culture but how to stage a rollout of a quality program to enhan