Do quality systems really make a difference?
(2001) In Building Research and Information 29(1). p.12-20- Abstract
- The purposes of this study were to ascertain whether Swedish construction companies measure the impact of their quality systems (such as ISO 9000) and, if so, whether the ‘balanced scorecard’ approach is a useful technique as a measure of performance. The balanced scorecard approach requires each organization to look at itself from four different perspectives to provide a more comprehensive view of organizational performance: the ?nancial perspective, the customer perspective, the process perspective, the innovation and learning perspective. Twelve Swedish construction sector companies (clients, architectural-engineering consultants, contractors) with well-established quality systems were studied. The results indicate two important points.... (More)
- The purposes of this study were to ascertain whether Swedish construction companies measure the impact of their quality systems (such as ISO 9000) and, if so, whether the ‘balanced scorecard’ approach is a useful technique as a measure of performance. The balanced scorecard approach requires each organization to look at itself from four different perspectives to provide a more comprehensive view of organizational performance: the ?nancial perspective, the customer perspective, the process perspective, the innovation and learning perspective. Twelve Swedish construction sector companies (clients, architectural-engineering consultants, contractors) with well-established quality systems were studied. The results indicate two important points. First, the balanced scorecard can be successfully used to measure the performance of quality systems in the construction process. Second, the organization and learning perspective is neglected in the Swedish construction process. The use of the balanced scorecard highlighted the fact that a lack of balance often exists between the four perspectives. While it is tempting to conclude that investments in quality systems increase organizational performance, there is little (if any) evidence that this is the case. Many investments in quality systems appear to be based more on blind faith than on facts. Tools are only valuable if they improve results, there is a need for further understanding the costs and bene?ts of quality systems in engineering and construction organizations. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1469105
- author
- Landin, Anne LU and Nilsson, Carl-Henric LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2001
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- management systems, ISO 9000, organizational performance, quality assessment, balanced scorecard
- in
- Building Research and Information
- volume
- 29
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 12 - 20
- publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:0035062875
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 50870525-b776-4a17-b55e-253bdd5be455 (old id 1469105)
- alternative location
- http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/rbri/2001/00000029/00000001/art00002
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 12:22:47
- date last changed
- 2022-04-16 05:03:13
@article{50870525-b776-4a17-b55e-253bdd5be455,
abstract = {{The purposes of this study were to ascertain whether Swedish construction companies measure the impact of their quality systems (such as ISO 9000) and, if so, whether the ‘balanced scorecard’ approach is a useful technique as a measure of performance. The balanced scorecard approach requires each organization to look at itself from four different perspectives to provide a more comprehensive view of organizational performance: the ?nancial perspective, the customer perspective, the process perspective, the innovation and learning perspective. Twelve Swedish construction sector companies (clients, architectural-engineering consultants, contractors) with well-established quality systems were studied. The results indicate two important points. First, the balanced scorecard can be successfully used to measure the performance of quality systems in the construction process. Second, the organization and learning perspective is neglected in the Swedish construction process. The use of the balanced scorecard highlighted the fact that a lack of balance often exists between the four perspectives. While it is tempting to conclude that investments in quality systems increase organizational performance, there is little (if any) evidence that this is the case. Many investments in quality systems appear to be based more on blind faith than on facts. Tools are only valuable if they improve results, there is a need for further understanding the costs and bene?ts of quality systems in engineering and construction organizations.}},
author = {{Landin, Anne and Nilsson, Carl-Henric}},
keywords = {{management systems; ISO 9000; organizational performance; quality assessment; balanced scorecard}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{12--20}},
publisher = {{Taylor & Francis}},
series = {{Building Research and Information}},
title = {{Do quality systems really make a difference?}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/10870777/2001_Landin_Nilsson_QSD.pdf}},
volume = {{29}},
year = {{2001}},
}