Overview

Ask any two managers for a definition of quality, and you'll get two different answers. This isn't surprising: no two dictionaries will give you quite the same definition either. Quality is an abstract concept, albeit one capable of having concrete effects on the goods and services an individual or company produces. Definitions alone cannot express abstract concepts. Quality must be explained and experienced to be fully comprehended, and managers require both instinct and insight to fully develop quality as a profitable result. In /The Metaphysical Constructs of Quality/, quality-assurance expert Patrick Lou Kelly explores the nature of quality and how it applies to management. He argues that the need for quality is a basic human instinct that evolves with new insight. Management evolution is a gradual process in which a manager passes by degrees to a more complex, advanced, and mature stage defined as a profound change in concept awareness in a pool of constructs. Instinct alone is not sufficient to manifest quality, however. Managers also need insight into the nature of quality-a learned response that, when combined with instinct, creates a synergy capable of driving management to ever more advanced stages of concept awareness. Weaving metaphysical concepts together with management science, Kelly offers a new way to explore and refine humanity's need for quality while also offering managers the information they need to evolve by tapping into their instincts and insight.