Sustained quality management: how to receive the Swedish quality award twice

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe how Agria Animal Insurance Sweden (Agria) has organised its quality‐related work through a sustained and systematic focus on basic elements of quality management such as value focused leadership, employee involvement, process management and control, customer focus, and continuous improvement.

Design/methodology/approach

The study has been based on interviews, document studies and action research. It is a single case study design with limited intentions of generalisation.

Findings

The analysis shows that the top management at Agria has been a strong driving force that has effectively united leaders at all levels as agents of change. Additional success factors have been the deployment of basic values, the “five always”, and the value focused leadership. Further on the company has succeeded in creating a cultural basis and structures for systematic work with improvements.

Practical implications

A way to address corporate culture in order to open up for a climate of micro improvements of practice within present routines is illustrated in this paper.

Originality/value

Agria could be considered an example for others to study and get inspired by when working with quality‐related issues.

Citation

Palmberg, K. and Garvare, R. (2006), "Sustained quality management: how to receive the Swedish quality award twice", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 23 No. 1, pp. 42-59. https://doi.org/10.1108/02656710610637541