Problem
Lack of quality
Experimental visualization of narrower problems
Other Names:
Inadequate qualityPoor quality
Reduced quality
Declining standards of quality
Nature:
Quality is a slippery concept which carries a variety of meanings and serves variety of purposes. One person's "high quality" may be an old-fashioned conceit, and their "poor quality" or another's sufficiency. Background:
It is a notion with both absolute and relative measures, and varies according to the age and environment. The traditional approach to quality speaks of high standards of production, delivery and presentation. This suggests the kind of perfection that goes with no expense being spared, or the best that money can buy. It confers exclusiveness and status on the customer. It has class connotations: "the Quality" was once a phrase used by working-class people to describe the upper classes. The scientific approach to quality is based on the idea not of perfection but of "fitness for purpose". It involves the specification of standards to which goods or services must conform and is driven by experts ("scientific managers"), who set standards and monitoring outcomes. It grew out of the era of mass production and assembly-line working, and uses techniques such as such as performance measurement and auditing. Its limitation is that it is a closed system which finds it difficult to reconcile often radically different perceptions of providers and the public. Its opposite in this sense is the excellence approach to quality, which is a measure not of fitness for purpose but of customer satisfaction. Narrower Problems:
Inadequate teachingUnhygienic conditionsMeretricious standardsPolluted drinking waterDeteriorating quality of lifeLack of qualitative excellenceScarcity of high-quality seedsDecline in educational standardsDeterioration of human environmentUnavailability of quality medicinePoor quality of domestic livestockManufacture of substandard productsPlanned degradation in product qualityDecline in nutritional quality of foodCompetitive distortion of musical pitchErosion of quality of scientific researchInferior meat quality from intensive animal farming unitsSocial service quality negated by oligarchic control of decision-making Strategies:
Protecting qualityRaising qualityProducing poor qualityResearching qualityIncreasing standards of qualityMonitoring quality standardsReducing product qualityProviding qualityProviding qualityProviding quality Subject(s):
Societal Problems → InadequacySocietal Problems → Scarcity
Research, Standards → Quality unification
Research, Standards → Standards
Related UN Sustainable Development Goals:
Problem Type:
F: Fuzzy exceptional problems Date of last update
18.02.1997 – 00:00 CET