You must first understand how the term is described in order to understand the roles that quality plays in an organization and this is much simpler and easier said than done. Quality can be defined from numerous perspectives and in both objective and subjective terms. According to Garvin's five approaches to defining quality; Transcendent is synonymous with “innate excellence”; The quality traits are absolute and known globally. The first examination of this view is that it does not provide a means of measuring quality and therefore for managers to make decisions. Product-based displays the quality of a product as represented by some measurable attribute. For example, the quality of a car might be reflected in its horsepower and/or mileage. Although this approach to defining quality is quantitative, it is clear that the value of specific attributes for individual customers will be highly variable. User-based is essentially the “customer is always right” view of quality. This is a highly subjective view as each customer determines how quality is defined. Another...