We begin with “A Year in the Life of a Consumer Product:
As Heard in Cyberspace.” This article by Byron Finch
of Miami University, deals with the use of monitored chat
room conversations for determining customer satisfaction with
the quality of products and services. His innovative approach
provides a model for the structured analysis of chat room
comments, leading to analysis based on nonsolicited feedback
from customers. It is interesting to speculate about the research
potential of the Internet, and this paper provides an example
of a new, Net-based methodology.
The question of who is the customer of education has long
been a topic of debate among students and educators alike.
Richard Biehl of Walden University attacks this question in
“Customer-Supplier Analysis in Educational Change.”
Using a Delphi analysis of both education and business professionals,
he found that business professionals followed a systems model,
where stakeholders served in either customer or supplier roles.
In contrast, education professionals viewed all stakeholders
as both customer and supplier. This interesting finding is
translated into a systems model for analyzing educational
stakeholders, useful in identifying expected relationships
for a particular educational change initiative.
What makes quality managers successful? Although much research
has been directed toward the importance of the quality manager
in an organization, little research has focused directly on
the critical success factors for quality managers. Injazz
Chen, Ronald Coccari, Antony Paulraj, all of Cleveland State
University, and Ken Paetsch of the Department of Defense used
data from 193 firms to isolate the most important determinants
of quality manager success, in “Quality Managers and
the Successful Management of Quality: An Insight.” They
identify and discuss seven factors that provide insight into
paths to success for quality managers.
In Focus on the Classroom, Joseph Van Matre and Donna Slovensky,
both of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, provide a
new classroom game for demonstrating the value of team decision
making. Following a model similar to the “Lost at Sea”
type games, the authors ask students to identify taped excerpts
of musical selection, both as individuals and as groups. Van
Matre and Slovensky find this approach to be fun and enlightening
for students, as well as providing cleaner scoring and easier
adaptation to different audiences than “Lost at Sea.”
Many have asked whether quality management is simply a fad
or whether it is an enduring paradigm. In “Total Quality
Management: Is it a Fad, Fashion, or Fit?” this question
is further probed by Ton Van der Wiele and Roger Williams
of Erasmus University and B. G. Dale of the Manchester School
of Management. They trace the evolution of quality management
from fad, when it was clearly defined and measurable; to fashion,
when there were widespread pressures for adoption of quality
management principles; to fit with normal management practice.
In the fit stage, the original fad has affected the normal
way of working of the entire organization. In addition to
identifying the stages, this research highlights the factors
contributing to movement between the stages.
Barbara B. Flynn
Editor
Quality Management Journal
EDITORIAL
EDITOR
Barbara B. Flynn
Wake Forest University
PAST EDITOR
George S. Easton
Emory University
FOUNDING EDITOR
William A. Golomski
University of Chicago
BOOK REVIEW EDITOR
James B. Kohnen
St. Mary’s College of California
DISSERTATIONS EDITOR
William O. Winchell
Lawrence Technological University
ADMINISTRATION/PRODUCTION
PUBLISHER
William Tony
MANUSCRIPT COORDINATOR
Tania Kuropas
COPY EDITORS
Jane Crouse
Kris McEachern
PRODUCTION
Cathy Schnackenberg
DIGITAL PRODUCTION SPECIALISTS
Michael Andes
Jill Zimmerman
HTML CODING
Michael Andes
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
John Anderson
University of Minnesota
Selwyn Becker
University of Chicago
Robert E. Cole
University of California
James W. Dean, Jr.
University of North Carolina
James R. Evans
University of Cincinnati
John P. Evans
University of North Carolina
Frank M. Gryna
University of Tampa
John Hamburg
APEX, Inc.
David Luther
Luther Quality Associates
Ram Narasimhan
Michigan State University
Roger G. Schroeder
University of Minnesota
Kalyan Singhal
University of Baltimore
Michael J. Stahl
University of Tennessee
EDITORIAL REVIEW BOARD
Sanjay Ahire
Indiana University South Bend
Susan D. Amundson
Arizona State University
Ron Anjard
Anjard International Consultants
Asbjorn Aune*
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Kimberly A. Bates*
University of Toronto
Marcos E. J. Bertin*
Gaspar Campos
Michael Beyerlein
University of North Texas
Paul M. Bobrowski
Syracuse University
Kenneth Boyer
DePaul University
Kenneth E. Case
Oklahoma State University
Injazz Chen
Cleveland State University
Thomas Choi
Arizona State University
Barrie Dale*
University of Manchester
Richard Deane
Georgia State University
John Delery
University of Arkansas
Linda Doherty
Department of the Navy
Kevin Dooley
Arizona State University
Edward Duplaga
Bowling Green State University
Maling Ebrahimpour
University of Rhode Island
Susan West Engelkemeyer
Babson College
Michael Faigen
Dispensing Technologies International Corp.
Byron Finch
Miami University
Mark D. Finster
University of Wisconsin
Laura Forker
Boston University
Miflora Minoza Gatchalian*
Quality Consultants International Inc.
Soumen Ghosh
Georgia Institute of Technology
Glenn H. Gilbreath
Virginia Commonwealth University
John M. Groocock*
TRW (Retired)
Robert Handfield
Michigan State University
H. James Harrington
Ernst and Young
Sandra J. Hartman
University of New Orleans
Marilyn Helms
University of Tennessee
Mary Collins Holcomb
University of Tennessee
Ann Jordan
University of North Texas
Deborah Kellogg
University of Colorado
Gary Kern
Indiana University
Jill Phelps Kern
Digital Semiconductor
David Kerridge*
Aberdeen University
Harvey Klein
Global Strategies Group L.C.
Ray A. Klotz
Qualcomm Inc.
Franklin Knight
DeVilbiss Company
Peter Kolesar
Columbia University
Thomas M. Kubiak
Honeywell, Inc.
Ronald D. Kurtzmann
Brewer and Associates
Keong Leong
Ohio State University
A. Magid Mazen
Suffolk University
Satish Mehra
University of Memphis
Kim I. Melton
North Georgia College and State University
Henry R. Neave*
British Deming Association
Yoram Neumann
California State University
William Newman
Miami University
Geoffrey O. Okogbaa
University of South Florida
Thomas Pyzdek
Quality Publishing Inc.
Gary Ragatz
Michigan State University
John Ramberg
University of Arizona
Gipsie B. Ranney
Belmont University
James J. Rooney
JBF Associates Inc.
Richard N. Rosett
Rochester Institute of Technology
Manus Rungtusanatham
Arizona State University
Brooke Saladin
Wake Forest University
Mark V. Schimelonis
Xerox Business Services
Helmut Schneider
Louisiana State University
Nirmal Sethia
California State Polytechnic University
Christine Shea
University of New Hampshire
Sue Siferd
Arizona State University
Vinod Singhal
Georgia Institute of Technology
Madhav N. Sinha*
Government of Manitoba
John G. Surak
Clemson University
William Tallon
Northern Illinois University
Michael D. Tveite
The Tetrad Group
F. Leroy Walser
University of Oklahoma
Peter Ward
Ohio State University
L. David Weller
University of Georgia
Ted Weston
Colorado State University
Carolyn Woo
Notre Dame University
*International reviewer
